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Summary: Theo gets in the Christmas spirit. Xorn gives Connor feedback. Chloe and Robyn discuss romantic doom. But lots of presents get passed around, too.
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010. 2:15pm.
Log Title: Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Rating: G
Xavier Mansion - Rec Room
What was once the Parlor has been turned into a Recreation Room for the students. A nice plush carpet meets the light blue walls giving it a homey feel. A pool table at one end, a foos ball table at the other, and entertainment center with video game systems, movies, and of course, cable TV. Big comfy chairs and couches surround a coffee table for comfortable loafing. Long glass windows with a pair of French doors line one side of the room bringing in plenty of light during the day. The main rule in here is to clean up after yourself.
There are some movies that people think they -have- to watch every Christmas and one of them for Robyn is 'Muppets Christmas Carol'. (A Christmas Story is reserved for Christmas Eve) He sitting on the couch with a plate of cookies in his lap, a nice assortment, and a cup of hot chocolate. Since he doesn't have any class today with the holidays, Robyn is just relaxing. He's dressed in his usual skinny jeans, a zipped up black hoodie with a skeleton cat and a black and white Christmas Hat on his head with Jack Skellinton's face on it.
The only outfits that Heather wears that seem well-considered are either picked out by her roommate or assigned by the school. Today, she's wearing her squad outfit, even though her squad training is not today. She walks through the door of the rec room and looks towards Robyn with her begoggled eyes. A few blinks and she notes, "There's a dead cat on your shirt."
Something's snapped. It really must have. Either that or the Apocalypse is coming. Whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, Theo has finished hating the Whos. Into the Rec Room he comes. He's parked in front of the gates, and he'll probably get griped at for it, but he doesn't care. He just went shopping! As of yesterday, something has changed for Theo's perspective on Christmas.
He's wearing a santa hat as well. In fact, he's wearing an entire Santa outfit. But it's no red bag over his shoulder, it's a hand truck that he found in the janitor's closet. The squeaky wheel announces his arrival as he comes down the hall to the Rec Room. The hand truck is piled with all sorts of gifts. On to the Christmas tree. "Ho ho ho!" he announces as he enters. "Merry Christmas everyone!" The cart is stopped by the tree, and he begins unloading the packages carelessly under the tree. He knocks a few ornaments off. Whoops, there goes a reindeer, buried under silver and gold wrapping.
Chloe walks into the room (and so sprinting compared with any right thinking person) and immediately turns around and walks back out. Then a few moments later she returns, rubs her eyes and then sighs. "And the award for least convincing shapeshifter goes to that guy pretending to be Theo! What next you'll do a straight Robyn or an untidy Connor?"
Most people have come to expect Connor to simply appear in a room, as he's often want to do… teleportation is a much easier means of travel compared to walking. But today seems like it might be an exception to this rule as he comes in from the kitchen with a grin and a tray full of mugs. Looking around for a moment at Theo Claus, Heather, Chloe, and Robyn, there's a self-nod of affirmation over the need for extra, "Cut him a break, Chloe… if Theo's in a good mood, let him BE in a good mood. I brought SBC peppermint mochas for everyone. And -NO- I didn't bring them all the way from Seattle… well… maybe the coffee beans, but hey… what can you do." Settling the tray to one side, he brings over a mug for Robyn, "After this, want to put in Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas?"
Robyn looks up at Heather enters and shifts the way he's sitting so he's not hogging the couch. "Hey Heather, coming from or going to practice?" Since why else would one were the uniform? He goes to eat another cookie as Theo comes in and promptly chokes on inhaled crumbs. It takes him some time to recover before he looks up at Santa. "Theo?! Are you Theo or does he have a twin we don't know about?" Hey it happened it him. "Hey Connor…SBC?" He says as he takes a mug from Connor and offers everyone in the room cookies from his plate. "And sure. I like Emmett and Otters."
Heather blinks a few times at Theo. What she knows about the holiday is exclusively limited to things that she's been exposed to by others at the school, and so seeing the unusual outfit on Theo does cause her to bat an eye. She answers Robyn first, playing for him, "I was trying to practice some things in the gym, but my squad practice is more than five sleep cycles away." She then looks at the mocha and tilts her head, waiting until they are down before grabbing. While she's very careful, even slight nudges at her speed can be off-balancing. To Theo, she asks, "Have you had a sexual experience? Is that what brought the good mood?"
"It's Christmas!" Theo announces to Robyn and Chloe. "We should be enjoying family and friends, remember?" he asks. After all, Robyn was the one trying to convince him of this the other day. "Of course I'm Theo. Man, I could go for one of those, it's cold out there." He sifts through the presents. "Heather!" he pulls up a first package. "Here, I thought you'd like this. And no, sadly, I have not, but I am going home for Christmas, which is the next best thing." He bounds over toward the first Speedster, nearly tripping over one of the other packages, and hands it to her. Looks like he had these professionally wrapped. "And… He twists at the waist to look around. "Um…Robyn! Here it is." He turns around, and grabs a another package, slightly smaller. It was buried under a few others, but he manages to free it, and hand it to the emo boy.
Sensing a wide arrange of emotions ranging from happiness to confusion, the latest X-Man to return to the fold enters, or more like glidingly hovers into the room. Hovering in the air sitting indian style like a djinn in a bottle. The masked mutant known as Xorn looks about the room. Of the students gathered he has only met Theo, whose clothing would make this mutant blink if he had eyelids and he knows Robyn from reading the files on the Alpha Squadron. A disembodied voice greets the students, "Hello."
Maybe Chloe is on fire. Because that's one of the main reasons someone would drop and roll. Not that she's laughing at fast world speed so hard she couldn't stand up anymore. Honest! After a few moments her giggling slows to something close enough to normal speed that it no longer sounds like random dolphin sounds and, still sprawling on the floor, says "I really should have mention to Heather that you just don't ask a guy that sort of thing. Oh and I'll totally steal a cookie if you're offering Robyn, just give me a minute to catch my breath."
Anything Connor might have said is forestalled by the entrance of Xorn. He turns quiet… oddly quiet… but with the appearance of the other, his eyes begin to cast a much brighter light, enough to be noticed even in the brightness of the room. This all happens during Chloe's little breakdown and might not be noticed by the less attentive, but the potentially oldest student in the room closes his eyes for a moment, and then seems to almost have a headache that makes his forehead veins present themselves for a moment. Mumbling almost to himself, "What the hell… ow… seriously… whatever… OW…" The resonance of contact between two stellar bodies… Xorn's singularity meeting Connor's for the first time.
Robyn laughs at Heather's comment as looks at the package in his hands then looks up at Theo before giving him a smile. It's awkward at first but it quickly becomes genuine. "Theo, I'm glad to see you happy. So where does your family live?" He asks as he looks at the gift, but before he can open it Connor starts saying 'ow'. He looks over at his friend with a bit of panic before he can say hi to the teacher. "Connor! Are you okay?" He says as he hands the plate of cookies to Chloe and walks over to him.
"Me neither," confesses Heather in response to Theo before taking the package, playing a second message to him, "Your gift is not yet complete. I can't offer it right now." The gift is placed on the floor next to her, since she's unsure when one is supposed to open these things. As usual when evaluating social norms, she'll have to ask Chloe. But it seems her roommate is preoccupied, but Heather's attention is drawn more towards Connor answers. As he seems to react negatively, she looks towards Xorn and plays on her tape recorder, "What did you do?"
"Geez, Chloe, maybe I should've gotten you a calendar of jokes," he remarks to her extreme reaction with Heather's comment. "That's okay, Heather, I — " He was just picking up Connor's gift when the teleporter is hit by the headache. Setting the large box back down, Theo joins the others as they go to Connor's side. He takes the tray of mugs from Connor so that he doesn't have to worry about dumping it. After setting the tray down on the billiards table, he turns back around. "Need some advil or something?" he asks.
Underneath the metallic containment mask, Xorn's head flares a bit as black light flashes out from the eye sockets, nose and mouthpieces of his mask. He seems to drop to the ground, somewhat gracefully and then seems to regain composure. "You must be Connor." The voice speaks out, "I was afraid something like this might happen when we met. "His powers and mine are basically giving off a negative feedback." He answers to the questions. Then mentally speaking to Connor, Xorns offers some quick mental meditative tricks to offer mild comfort to his immense discomfort. After a quick run down of a mental visualization and breathing meditation trick, "You will still feel the a a headache, migraine, but for the moment, it should allow some mild relief." The mutant teacher stands up already adjusting but still experiencing some of the feedback.
Chloe sits up, helps herself to a few cookies and heads over to grab one of the mugs from the tray. Leaving the plate of cookies next to it. "Sorry. It's just the unexpected mental image of you getting it on and then leaving dressed as Santa," she explains as she gets up and steals a comfortable couch position. "With the line 'I'll jingle your bells again later sugar' and a sleazy wink."
"Okay… my head… out… NOW." And all of that work in Addison's class seems to pay off some as Connor uses instead of the techniques for shielding, the techniques taught for mental 'camouflage'. On his end, things seem to stabilize, but there is an odd resonance effect when Xorn talks, almost all of his external speech echoing in a distorted manner off of Connor like a speaker. There's a smile of relief to the others as he says, "Totally unexpected… but thanks for the support guys." Standing up and getting his legs under him, he adds, "Theo might get it… it's like having speaker feedback… only it's in your whole body." Giving a bit of a greeting wave to the older gravity manipulator, he then turns to Theo, "So… what's with the infusion of cheer?"
Robyn keeps looking at his friend with concern and puts a hand on his arm just to make sure he's okay. "You're okay?" He asks before looking back at Theo and smiling. "Really Theo…it's weird seeing you like this but..I like it." He says honestly. "So where does your family live?" He asks again trying distract from his worry over a friend. He goes back to the couch to his mug of pepperminty goodness and cookies. "I think we're gonna need more cookies." He comments before looking over at Xorn. "You're the new Alpha Squadron leader, right?"
At the explanation, and Connor seeming to recover, Heather just nods her head once and dashes back to the mochas to take one and returns to stand next to her gift, eying it curiously. There is something in there and she doesn't know what it is. She takes a sip of the warm beverage and then plays on her machine, "That tastes good."
Theo's face turns bright red when Chloe mentions her mental image. It wasn't that embarrassing to him until she said that. "I hope you liked what you saw," he offers as an awkward response. It's clear he's not certain what a good response would be. He coughs, and quickly answers Connor. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about, Connor. I'm going to get to go home to my family." Behold, the kid does have a family somewhere after all, that ever elusive topic that he always avoids. "Tony's going to come with me, too. Hopefully they don't try to do something stupid while I'm there. Like keep me home." He returns to the large box which is Connor's gift, and hands it to him when he's done preparing himself mentally to stave off the feedback. "My older and younger sister live in Virginia, where I grew up. They'll probably flip when they find out I work for Tony Stark."
Telepathically to Connor, "Sorry, son. I see Addison's class has paid off. That is good. I will have to speak to the Grey King and the White Queen concerning a more effective, less painful way for both of us to be in the same room" To everyone in the room. "I see you all are getting an early start on the Christmas holiday. That is nice and for those of you who do not know me. I am Shen Xorn. And yes, Robyn, I am your new Alpha Squadron leader. When you get the chance inform me of a good time to meet for a one-on-one." Xorn then looks at Theo and tilts his head, "St. Theodore? I am not certain of what has lightened your mood, but I am happy to see you in good cheer." Hearing about Theo's family seems to elicit a positive nod from Xorn.
Chloe gives Robyn a sheepish look. "Sorry! You always buy really nice snacks," she explains solemnly between mouthfuls of cookie. "I promise to get you some more when I do my gift shopping. Plus for the record I bet I get it too. You want a fast track to migraineville you should try slowing parts of your brain chemistry down with willpower alone. It's really not a very fun experience."
Connor winces once more as Xorn sends his speech telepathically… more like a radio wave coming through with heavy distortion that makes him have to stabilize himself. Looking up at the skull-mask, he replies, "Sir… with all due respect… please stop doing that. It's rattling my cage something fierce." And with that he straightens again, and mumbles, "That's gonna take some getting used to…" Resuming as much of his cheer as he can muster, he then reaches over and takes the gift, giving Theo a pat on the shoulder, "You've got my phone number and a smart phone… if you need a quick escape just give me an image and I'll get you your own Christmas portal out of there."
"I didn't buy these Chloe, I got them from the kitchen. Mr. Parker-Mayfair has been making a lot of cookies." Robyn says before biting into a peanut butter chocolate kiss cookie. He finally opens up his present to reveal a set of new sculpting tools and grins. "This is great Theo…thank you." He says as he doesn't really know what else to say, he's touched. "I'm pretty much free most the time sir, you can usually find me in the art room." He says before looking to Connor. "Oh, my Mom is okay with me going over for Christmas Eve as long as she can say hi to you when you port me home."
"You could get a recorder," offers Heather to Chloe after she complains about migraine-ville and her path to citizenship there, raising her tape recorder up slightly. She watches as Robyn opens the gift and takes that as a cue that it's socially appropriate to do so. She carefully pulls the tape off (which at her speed, still rips the paper), and takes the paper off of her gift, folding it once she's done. She blinks a few times at the gift, a crystal chess set and a book of Sudoku puzzles, and then nods at Theo once. "Thank you." She's not sure how exactly to react, since it's the first time she's opened a Christmas gift, so her expression is both thoughtful and baffled.
Nodding as he hears Connor, "Sorry, Connor." Xorn's voice states at the whisper level. He turns to everyone and whispers, "Happy Holidays" And then walks out of the room.
Theo has one more present to deliver in the room, but first he grabs one of cookies from the tray. "I may need to take you up on that," he answers Connor. "My sister is a little controlling." The boy walks over to Chloe, a rather nervous smile on his face. From inside the suit he produces a small thin box, followed by a Christmas card. Yes, Chloe got a card and nobody else did, you can judge him later. "This one is for the beautiful Chloe," he says, presenting the box and card ceremoniously, complete with bow.
"Oh! Well I'll still get you some cookies anyway," Chloe decides, hers already consumed while everyone else was talking. "And I could try a tape recorder but I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable using it in public. Besides if I don't get used to the discomfort now then if I get any faster it'll only make it harder to learn later on in life." She blinks when Theo presents her with a gift, complete with card. "Now I feel really bad about not having bought anyone /anything/ yet. I figured I'd do all my shopping last minute fast world style." She doesn't open either the card or the box just yet. "Especially as I wasted all my allowance from while we were demonworlding on cakes."
Visibly looking better once Xorn departs, Connor takes a deep breath and exhales, then puts his present to the side for the Day, and nods once more Robyn, "Of course I'll stop by… my mom wanted me to pass on some gluten-free cookies your way anyways… don't ask. I don't know how it works either, but you've heard the horror stories. At least Christmas and Thanksgiving my dad cooks." and with that he goes to the tree and roots around, taking out a present, which he passes to Theo, "Here… I got this for you… it jumped out to me as something you'd appreciate."
"I haven't finished with my Christmas gifts yet, I've been busy with things." Robyn says as he doesn't really buy Christmas gifts for friends, he tends to make them. They're more personal that way and he enjoys doing it. Once and a while he'll buy someone something. "So you get to spend Christmas with Tony Stark? That's kind of cool." He admits as he sips on his peppermint mocha. "Thanks for the mocha Connor, what's SBC by the way?"
"I don't like shopping. I like the part where I get new things, but I don't like the waiting. I spend so much time waiting and then have to go to sleep," admits Heather, frowning slightly at that. With needing to sleep approximately every four hours, things can be tricky. "I'm looking forward to meeting your family," she says to Connor and then Chloe in sequence, though she speaks to Chloe out loud, and plays back the slower message on her tape to Connor. She glances down to the gifts she has received and opens up the Sudoku book.
"That's okay," Theo answers Chloe. "I don't know what to ask people for, anyway." Theo takes the present from Connor. He opens it up, not waiting the way that Connor does. The technopath peels through the wrapping, and examines the book. "That's cool, I'll be able to write my notes faster." He grins, "Thanks Connor, that's really nice of you. His eyes move back to Chloe, checking to see if she will open her present there. If anyone's watching, it clearly has consumed his attention. "Yeah," he says to Robyn. "He was gonna have a lame Christmas like me, so I thought maybe it could make both of our Holidays better." It certainly seems to have done the trick for him.
"I'll open it on the day," Chloe decides, having received a gift and a card throwing her off a little. "When you're dropping Heather off you should stop in for snacks but uhm… not if my Dad figures out you're showing me Systema or else he'll want you to hit the gym and see what you know." She sips at her drink some more, waiting for it to cool down enough to finish off. "And yeah I was wondering what SBC stands for too. I can't match it with anything that spells out the mix of flavors."
Theo looks a little disappointed, but doesn't contest. "Okay," he says, "I hope you like it." The boy looks back at the hand truck with the rest of the presents. "I gotta go move my car," he tells the others. "Before Scott gripes me out for parking on campus." He pulls his keys from the pocket of the Santa costume and twirls them once before rushing back out the door. "Merry Christmas!" comes his voice from down the hall.
Connor looks around the room like you've all sprouted objects from your foreheads at wondering about the acronym. He pauses for a moment, and then says, "Guys… Seattle's Best Coffee? What… you've never heard of them? They're better than Starbucks, been around longer, and even though they got bought out, they still make their own beans and brew…" Waving to Theo as he departs, he then says, "Right… and I'm just reminded I need to go home and check for package arrivals… I'll be back in a bit!" And with that the young man turns and makes towards the exit of the room, vanishing a few steps from it.
Robyn nods to Connor as he's not a coffee connoisseur. "I'll see you later Connor!" Robyn says as he finishes up another cookie. He loves those little sweet treats. "I think most of us like the part where we get new things. I don't really do much shopping, I mostly make gifts. I like giving people something I made it makes it more personal I guess." he says with a shrug. "so you're dad is into that systema stuff too?"
"I'm also crafting. Not just to avoid shopping, but also because I want to place more effort into these and I have plenty of time in which to do that," says Heather, taking one of the cookies and quickly gnawing at it like a squirrel. "I think I'm going to go back to the gym and practice some more before getting back to work on my projects, actually." After she vanishes the cookie, she waves, and vanishes herself in a zip.
Chloe is a terrible liar. For no sooner has Theo gone out the room the box is opened ever so slightly so she can peek. "Nah but if figures out Connor is the one giving me lessons then he'll want proof that what he's teaching is worthwhile and that he can give safe lessons," she replies before pausing and peeking again. "Oh crap. Something in this box is sparkly and expensive looking…. I don't have the money to get Theo a present this nice! And I suck at making things…. I am so doomed."
Robyn gives Heather a wave and relaxes back into the couch. "Well it's not about spending the same amount that someone spent on you. It's about the thought put into the gift. Besides…I think he likes you." Robyn says with a chuckle as Theo is a bit obvious about it at times. "If you need help, I might be able to figure something out."
Chloe peeks a third time. "I think he likes me enough for something with a diamond in," she groans, giving a fast world wave to Heather. "I think I might have an idea… Something rare but not something which says romance. Why wouldn't my fill of romantic doom have been used up by the horrible thought of Heather going on a practice date with Connor to dig up graves?" She pauses then grins. "Don't ask. Girl talk there was running especially thin on the ground after a few days at our speeds."
Robyn smiles at Chloe and shrugs. "Doesn't bother me. Something rare but doesn't say romance…how about a type of stone or mineral or something? He won't have to worry about it making too much mechanical noise then." He doesn't know Theo that well though. "I still have to figure out what to get Jordan…it's harder now that we don't see each other as much. I don't know what my romantic doom…never mind, I think I do."
"Does it involve your boyfriend turning into a girl?" Chloe asks with far more curiosity than is probably justified. Subtle topic change time! "I was thinking of giving him something I brought back from the demonland. A straight edge razor with a horn handle, I found two in this nicer looking house. They're kinda cool and unless he thinks I'm like Angelina Jolie not a very potential girlfriend present."
"That would be a cool gift." Robyn says as it might come in handy when Theo can grow a full beard. "I dunno Chloe, I mean, you're not exactly the most girly of woman but you're not really Angelina Jolie either. I mean you're tough and not that girly but you don't try to be sexy like she does. I'm not saying that is bad, I think it's good cause it means you're true to who you are. And as for Jordan turning into a girl…no."
Chloe grins. "I was meaning the stories about her and knives," she explains with a shrug. "And I don't try and be sexy because I haven't met anyone I like that way. Besides you're hardly a fair judge on that count. So what /is/ your romantic doom then? It's only fair you tell me know you've heard about mine." As she talks she opens the card too and takes a more open look. "Oooooooooo. Okay this is pretty cool. Six months of Bushido sword training lessons. I think I could almost get used to having boys lavishing expensive gifts on me if they involved sword fighting."
"I happened when people were turning into demons, it's really something I don't want to talk about." Robyn says as he doesn't think about it most days and tries not to. "Hey at least Theo knows you and knows what you like." He says with a smile. "I'm glad Theo seems happy though, I don't think he's a bad guy so..it's nice to see him finally letting himself smile."
"I've never thought he was a bad guy…" Chloe admits, frowning and sipping the last of her drink. "Ah. School related disaster? Then forget I asked. I was a bit too distracted by all this to consider how badly this place could strain peoples relationships." And at that she springs to her feet. "I better head up to my room and put this somewhere safe. Cya laters!"
