Players:
Summary: While discussing the fate of those in the grave yard, Mike and Theo get into an argument, Kael tries to intercede.
Date: March 29, 2010
Log Title Rest In Peace
Rating: R for language.
Xavier Mansion - Graveyard
The path from the Japanese Gardens leads to a clearing among the trees. The wildness of the woods has been removed from this area, leaving a section of low, nearly always fresh-cut grass. Spaced out among the grass are several memorials and headstones, marking the plots for those who've died among the makeshift Xavier family. Or rather, extended family. The area is mostly covered by trees, cutting out all direct sunlight.
Mike Drakos, Teen Robot, eyes a bright and darkness-piercing yellow, is walking down the twilight-shadowed once-forgotten path, which has been cleaned up some and made less messy but is still rather easily overlooked. He comes to the edge of the graveyard and steps from behind the rock that hides the actual head of the path.
Theo stares at the names on the tombstones, none of which are familiar. Save for one. Little does he know that the Sophie here is not the same Sophie that he met a few weeks ago. Still, he doesn't look terribly disturbed by the sight of the name. He didn't really know her.
His hands in his pockets, he takes a deep breath. Or at least he tries to. His nose is obviously stopped up, and it lets out a terrible sound as he tries to breath in through it. He turns around and blankly looks at Mike. "Hey," he says through his plugged nasal cavity.
"Oh, hi, Theo," Mike says. "Good grief you sound terrible… What do you think of our graveyard?"
Theo arches his brow, looks down, looks at the headstones. "Looks kinda dead," he says, giving a slight smile. Not the most respectful of comments, but he seems to think it's amusing. "I just came out here to get away from all the computers and jazz inside, didn't really expect to find it, was just walking around."
Mike makes a simulated snorting noise. That is, he plays a sample and it's kind of weird. But whatever. "First time I came here it kinda freaked me out. No graves under three years old. Coyote isn't buried here. I guess her parents scattered her at Burning Man or something. Or maybe that was just a rumor."
note: Coyote may have been buried in the school graveyard or not, if so no marker was in place when this scene happened.
Theo's smile drops a little. "What happened to them?" he asks. "Are they all students and teachers?" He lets another sniff, and then wipes his nose to check for snot. You might want to not shake his hand.
"Yeah, they are, I guess. Dude, that's gross. Wipe off on a tree or something. There's some poison oak over there."
Mike would grin… that was deliberately ambiguous.
"I hate colds," he manages to get out. "What do you care, you're like a robot, you don't get colds anyway," he says. "But really, what happened to them, they have AIDs or cancer or something? Or was there some psycho shooting by those Friends of Humanity bastards?"
Mike pauses. "Gee, I dunno, Theo, I don't get colds any MORE but my friends do and you're wiping your contagion everywhere, And why don't you, I dunno, ask one of the teachers, or look it up." mutter. AIDS or cancer or something. GAH.
"Please," Theo responds with a labored and stuffy sigh. "I wiped my nose, we're in the middle of the woods. I'll wash my hands when I get back." Sniff. He walks back to the edge of the small graveyard, looking at the graves, and then back up to Mike. "What brings you out here, anyway?" he asks. "You know some of these folks?"
Mike says, "Nah. Just came out for a little quiet reflection. Here closer to God and all. Don't know anyone here, but know OF some." Mike points to the Jean Gray headstone."
Theo follows the point over to Jean Gray's headstone. "Who's she?" he asks.
Mike looks across at Theo. "The woman whose statue is in the courtyard. Jean Grey. Phoenix. Saved the universe."
Theo stifles a laugh. "Saved the universe?" he echoes. "That's a little…embelishing, don't you think?" He strolls back to the headstone. "What could possibly be so wrong that she saved the universe from?" He folds his arms across his chest, reading the inscription.
Mike says, "You got me," Mike shrugs. "Something about a giant event horizon ripping the universe down the center.""
Kael has arrived.
Theo laughs, "Mike, you're so gullible. That is so made up. I'm sure this lady didn't die because he was keeping the universe from being ripped in two. You can't even rip the universe in two. It's empty space. You're a nice guy, but you gotta gauge what you hear people say, you can't just believe whatever somebody tells you." He shakes his head with a smile, and gives another strong sniff of his nose.
There's a light waver to the air around the two students, then a swirling gust that tells them of Kael's entrance before he even gets there. The aerokinetic lands near them, just looking around the graveyard for a second before he lets out a hmph. "Coulda sworn I left it here…" He doesn't notice the other two at the moment.
Mike taps his chest. "Yeah, it's totally impossible. Giant man in pink helmet and purple armor didn't try to eat the planet either, and that whole thing about mutants is just made up. And that Phoenix thing didn't FLY thru MY mind while it was on it's way to nest in ADDISON."
Theo's head doesn't turn, but his eyes shift toward Kael as he lands. "Hey Kael," he says, before answering Mike. "See? The planet's not eaten, and the universe isn't split in two. Besides, you say you believe in God, if He's in charge, then nobody's gonna do any of that without his permission, right?" He notices that Kael seems to be searching for something. "Missing something?" he asks.
Kael glances over at Mike and Theo, blinking just a bit. "Yeah, trying to find my DSi." He hms a bit. "I had it when I went to Coyote's grave. But, I didn't have it when I was at the school…" He hms a bit more. "Maybe I dropped it in the forest…" He shrugs lightly, sighing a bit. "What're you guys talkin' about?"
Mike shakes his head. "In addition to carrying germs on his hands, this fellow is scoffing at the idea that Jean Grey might have saved the universe, or at least, our third of it."
Theo points without looking. "It's right there," he says. Of course, it's not visible where he's pointing, so his help might be limited. "Mike thinks that she kept our universe, wait, a third of the universe, from being ripped in half." He leans against a tree and takes a deep breath, seems that his nose has cleared, at least for the moment.
Kael looks where Theo pointed, a gust of wind welling up under him before he gusted himself over there. Landing with a thud before he crouched down and lets out an ah ha a few moments later! "Must've fallen out when I took off back to school." He checks over it for a moment as he walks back over. "Still works!" He grins and then tilts his head a bit. "I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't have a statue of her if she didn't."
Theo rolls his eyes, but decides not to pursue the subject further. "We were kinda wondering, why are all these graves so fresh? I mean, they're all from the last three years or so. What happened to them all?"
Kael holds up his DSi as he gets closer to the two and he says, "I don't know really. The only one I know of them is Coyote." He's only been here a year or so. He looks back at Theo, "Thanks for pointin' me towards it."
"They must not have gotten the headstone for Coyote yet then, I remember hearing a rumor her folks had scattered her ashes at Burning Man." Mike shrugs… who knows, maybe both. "Wait, you left your DSi here? in the wet?"
Theo shrugs, "All the trees, guess it was fine. Who was Coyote anyway? Another student?" He looks like he's about to sneeze, his head rears back, but then he doesn't. He sniffs once more, and pinches the bridge of his nose.
Kael scoffs. "It fell out of my pocket not even two hours ago. And it's in a protective case. See?" He holds it up once more, with a kind of a 'duh' look on his face. He slips it back into his pocket before he nods softly. "Yeah… One of the casualties of the demon mess we had."
Mike nods, "Heard she had one of the odder powers. Could die, temporarily." Until it stuck.
Achoo! Theo turns his head away from the other too, his sneeze comes out like a shot from a cannon. "Ugh," he mutters, "That is a pretty weird power. Wait, demons? Like from The Excorcist and that kind of demons? Like the ones from hell?" Theo went to a private school for a few years, and heard some Bible stories about demons, scared the fire out of him.
Kael nods softly. "Yeah. Like those. A few of my friends here were turned into demons." He looks up at the sky, letting a soft sigh out before he says, "Then this Sinister shit came. Right when we were in the calm of madness that had just left us."
"Technically from one of the seventy-three interim places called Limbo, according to the Catholic Radio," Mike comments, "and they weren't so much turned into as possessed by, really. The things they did weren't voluntary. I'm kinda wondering though. We've had a spiritual possession with the demons, and just lately a mental possession with Sinister mind-raping our friends, are we gonna go through a physical equivalent? Or is it just over with for now."
He sighs and says, "… I really really hope it's over with. I am getting to the end of my tolerance."
The young technopath seems to close his stance, and look back at the graves. "I think I know what happened to these people," he says in a rather grave tone. "Weird garbage happens here. That stuff never happened in Manassas," he says. "I mean, stuff happened there, but nothing crazy like demons and supervillain attacks." He frowns as he answers Mike. "I don't got tolerance to start with," he adds. "If you're around me and someone comes after us, we'll find a way to put them down for good." He doesn't say that in a flippant manner, rather seriously.
Kael lets out a laugh and looks over at a tree nearby, a hand lashing out towards it as his hair flares white. A second or two later; three cracks echo out and there're three baseball sized dents in a tree. "Believe me, Theo. I'm not letting anything take my friends again." The tone of voice serious as he looks back at the technokinetic. Then over at Mike. "I've come a long way from not being able to help. And I'm not going to sit back next time and let the teachers wait to tell us what to do."
"What is it with you guys here killing the trees," Mike complains, "First it was Chloe kicking them at superspeed and now you're doing that? You're gonna make the trees hate us."
He mutters to himself for a moment or so with his lamps focused on the dents, in the gathering dusk. He says nothing about Kael's decision to become an air-powered menace to go along with the icy menace.
"I need to come up with something to kill trees I guess," Theo laughs. "I guess there's our physical threat. The trees are going to come after us." He sticks his hands back into his pockets, and sniffles again. "I'm with you Kael, we don't need the teachers to tell us whether we can defend ourselves. If it comes down to our lives on the line, I don't wanna end up on a gravestone, or have anybody here be on the gravestone, I'll let it be the other guy instead."
Kael blinks a bit as he looks over at Theo. "Please tell me by 'the other guy' you mean the one we're fighting." He looks over at Mike and rubs the back of his head as he lets out a laugh. "Sorry, Mike. It was either that or the gravestones. And… I don't want detention."
"I think you're both gonna die young," Mike says, flatly. "You aren't anywhere NEAR good enough yet, and you're getting all puffed up on the idea that your powers are gonna give you some kind of edge. Against someone like Sinister who could just turn them OFF, or someone else… Kael, you just better work hard in the combat elective class."
Mike touches the tree, and mutters, "Sorry," and begins moving toward the path back to the Japanese Garden. "Oh… Theo? You might do a little less James Randi and a little more Mythbusters, just sayin'."
Theo smiles. "Or you, if you make a good shield," he says jokingly. "I don't need powers to win the fights I pick. I've been winning fights without a punch long before I found out I was a mutant. And I don't have a clue who James Randi is."
Kael watches Mike walk over towards the tree and he lets out a soft laugh. "Just wait till I get my weapon." A soft mutter from the aerokinetic before he looks over at Mike once more. He looks back at Theo and hms a bit. "Honestly, he has a point. We don't know if there's a mutant out there that can just turn those powers off just like Sinister. Or Addison as a matter of fact."
Mike turns around at the joke from Theo. "'Me if I make a good shield.' That had seriously better be a joke based on the idea that I might choose to save you, because if I find any reason to ever think you're using any kind of power to coerce or control me, I will make it so that you are neither a mutant nor capable of reproducing, and if you ever try to use me as a shield without my permission, you will find out just how much dental work it's possible to need."
Hm. Yep. Mike does have his emotions running. That's 2 parts anger and 3 parts something else.
"And James Randi. The skeptic's skeptic. Look it up, Theo. You shouldn't be proud of your ignorance."
Theo's anger is sparked just as quickly as Mike's, it seems. "What, you a mutant hater now, scared of mutant powers? Who was giving me a lecture a few days ago? I think it was you! I hear machines, I don't control them you stupid dolt. You make a pretty serious mistake when you threaten me, go-bot." He starts to walk after Mike, but not to follow him, rather to show his own anger. "Some pacifist you turned out to be!" In this short time, Theo has moved his tone from annoyed to a near shout. He's nearly shaking he's so angry. Clearly, he doesn't have very good control over his own emotions.
Kael lets out a sigh, rubbing at his forehead. "Note to self, take a flight tonight." He starts to walk towards Theo; moving to stand in front of him as a wall of wind just bursts up between them. "Shut the hell up. And calm the fuck down." Even if his voice is steady, the fact he's using his powers shows he's a bit angry. He looks back at Mike. "Mike. I'm sorry if I did anything to upset you. But, maybe it's best if you head back to the school and chill a bit."
Mike shakes his head. "You really are a piece of work, Theo. Boasting about how tough you are and how nasty you think you can be, and full of how this can't be true and that cannot be and … feh. Just stay away from me for a while until I can find something good about you so I can have a reason to apologize. And Kael, you don't have to apologize to me. Just see if you can help that tree recover from having holes punched in it."
Mike turns his lamps off and goes silent, and starts running off through the garden.
Theo's eyes flash angrily, "You don't tell me what to do!" he snaps back at Kael. "You're not the one he went off on because he's afraid of what powers you have." He stubbornly tries to push his way through the wall. It pushes his arm back, and then he tries to leap through rather than go around. Why? Because…well, that's Theo. He manages to get through, but he is flipped in the air and lands flat on his back in the process, his own wind getting knocked out of him.
Kael looks back at Mike, smiling softly before he looks back at Theo to watch him try and leap through it. He blinks a bit, biting his lower lip in order to fight back a laugh and then he just sighs. "Might as well take you back to the medbay…" He moves behind Theo and looks down. "Want some help?"
The response doesn't lighten for Theo. He's in a mood and he's determined to stay in one. "No, I don't want your help," he says with as much steadiness as he can muster, still trying to catch his breath. "Just leave me alone." He pulls himself to his feet without accepting any help, and coughs, then takes a deep breath in through his mouth. He doesn't give Kael anymore eye contact. Instead, he storms off toward the lake, making his way along the edge of the garden.
Kael shrugs a bit with a sigh, watching Theo storm off. "One of these days. I'm just going to windblast you into the lake." Said out of earshot of course before the telltale sounds of winds howling as Kael takes to the air. Just going to fly around to blow off some steam.
