Players:
Summary: Robyn, Chloe, and James have some post-class small talk.
Date: February 25, 2010
Log Title Small Talk
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Living Room
Cream colored couches and chairs are placed among end tables and a coffee table. A large entertainment center covers one of the blue walls. The windows are set back a bit creating comfortable window seats for those who want to read.
It's a snowy day outside but with living at bording school type place, that doesn't mean it's a snow day and school is still in session. Lucky for Robyn though, he's done with his classes today, just having finished up math fifteen minutes ago. He's now in the living room, curled up on a window seat while watching the television. He's half paying attention to How It's Made, as they're showing how they make frozen pizzas.
In the hopes of forgetting the evenings impending squad training session Chloe slips into the Living Room, barely reaching the twenty mile an hour mark. Scowling she heads couchward and virtually leaps onto one of the more prized places to sprawl. As an afterthought she reaches up and waves vaguely in Robyns direction. "Hey."
James walks past the living room, stops, peers in from the doorframe and enters. Barefooted and befitted with his backpack, the beasty boy ambles over towards the familiar face. "Robynnnn…" he says with a certain amount of humor, teeth displayed in a friendly grin, "How's stuff?" He stops short of the table, hulking slightly over the other boy. He turns his head and nods towards Chloe, ears doing their radar thing.
Robyn waves to Chloe and offers a friendly enough smile. "Hey, you can change the channel if you want, I wasn't really watching anything." Then his voice is called and he looks over at James, and eventually up at the Hyena-teen. "Hey James, I guess stuff is okay." He says with a bit of a shrug. "School works boring, you know, same stuff."
Chloe pokes her head up when the newcomer is named. "You're James?" she wonders. "As the /The James/. I guess it was some kinda metaphor when they said you had the tongue of a viper. I'd been hoping for an actual snake tongue."
James continues to grin at Robyn after turning his head back towards his 'friend,' "Yah…I hear ya. So…I…" And then hyena goes a little quiet as the question from Chloe reaches him. With his ears pinning back briefly, he looks over at the girl, "No…only when I got possessed a few weeks back. I'm back to normal now."
"Wow, I didn't realize you were so infamous James." Robyn says with a grin before it fades at the mention of being possessed. "Yeah, well, it's over, there's no worries about that anymore." The less about the demon stuff to Robyn, the better. He wasn't possessed but he has a rough time with all of it. "So is Rashmi still trying to place peace keeper?"
"Possessed? I guess they picked a lousey metaphor then.. It was during a conversation warning me you'd been picking on my roomie and that I might be next," Chloe explains, tilting her head curiously. "There was more but I stopped tuning in. Seemed like typical scare the new girl stuff."
With a sniff James responds with, "She's trying. I've been distracted, so she's had an easier time than usual." That smile returns, "But, after scouring the area with metal detectors I've given up on finding giant battle robots…so it's back to business as usual." The hyena regards the girl on the couch,
"What's your name again?" He sets down his book bag and pulls out a notebook, "Jade's roommate…Oh…Chloe. No. You're down for next Tuesday." Yeah, the notebook really HAS names on it. But, unless someone's close enough to see it, no one sees that it's listing the U.S. Presidents.
"Wow, I'm impressed, organazied about scaring the new kids. I guess it's good I've been here a while." Robyn says with a chuckle. He swings himself so that he's sitting now with his back to the window. "You actually went looking…and I'm actually surprised with the way you were looking at me when I said it." He's just glad James found nothing. "I think I could live happily without seeing an active Sentinel."
Chloe blinks, her lashes fluttering almost too fast to notice. "Next Tuesday you say? I suppose I can make room in my schedule around lunch," she offers with a grin. "Hmm and given how famous Magneto is wouldn't anyone who made giant robots use stuff which wasn't magnetic?"
"EH!" James says sounding cheerful, "Your on the schedule too, Robyn. That's why I'm here." He gives the boy a wink with a big, black alien eye, "As the the robots…I dunno. I think anything can be used for good. If you can override the programming." That last part is filled with youthful naivety. Too distracted by the thought of rebuilding a 4-story monster, he misses Chloe's response, "Bet I could get extra credit for turning in a theoretical program."
"Really, wow, I guess I'm honored that I made your list." Robyn says in a teasing manner. He's just going with things right now, especially since he's feeling a lot better than he did yesterday. "James, I have a really weird question to ask you." He says, sounding a bit nervous about it.
With a rapid motion Chloe scoops up a tv magazine from the floor near her sprawling. "Boring, boring, boring," she mutters while flicking through the pages. "So many channels and so little to watch."
There's a devious chuckle as the miscreant looks over at Robyn, "I bet I have an even weirder answer." Sounds like a challenge to him. "So, sure," James says with a shrug, "Ask." A single eye focuses in on Chloe, "Tuessssday!" He still joking. Though, sometimes it's hard to tell. He tilts his head to Robyn, waiting.
"Well, it's just I like to sculpt, and sometimes when people have…obvious mutations, I find it neat inspiration, so…would you mind…if I used you as the basis for something sometime?" Robyn wants to ask Six the same thing, it's just something that he finds neat. He loves the abnormbal, the macabre things, anything that steps outside of the lines of normalicy. "Why not go for a movie or play a video game or something then?" He's not really into video games but hey, several people here are.
"Because they're just too slow," Chloe laments, giving James a mock yawn. "By the time the dvd player has finished with the warnings about piracy I've lost any interest in seeing the film." She pauses a second, then adds "Perhaps you could do full on life modelling for it."
James hmms, and shrugs again, "Sure." So much for the weird answer. He deflates a little, "Don't see why not." The whole art scene thing is a little above someone whose idea if a good time is hunting for robots in the mud, but he agrees anyways—even if he has now idea what a life model and stuff means. "Can you watch it in fast forward or anything?" he asks the speedster.
Robyn smiles. "Thanks! I'll let you know when I come up with something and actually start working on it." It could be months from now but eventually he'll come up with some hyena man inspired creature. "What do you do that doesn't bore you then?" Robyn asks since it's kind of obvious that she has super speed from the way she acts, and he cant' remember if she told him the other day or not.
Chloe shakes her head. "The audio sounds wrong and the picture has lines across it," she explains. "I've asked about getting stuff made to solve the problem, but I guess it takes time." She shifts around until she can see Robyn from the couch. "Learning a little free running and trying to get back in Savate. Reading isn't too bad providing I'm careful with the pages or can have two copies of the same book out."
James shrugs to Robyn, "Sure!" Permission seemed like no big thing to him. He puts away his notebook and zips it back up in the backpack. He flops down onto the chair at the same table as the other boy, "Have you tried an electronic book? Or would you burn out the laptop, or whatever it was on?"
"Savat?" Sure Robyn knows what free running is, just running with out a track, right? Ah the poor kid has no knowledge of those types of things. "Thanks." He says to James again. "You know, I really don't get why my roommate has such a problem with you, you seem like a cool guy." Actually Robyn thinks James seems kind of like a fun guy to hang around with. "Zack's usually quiet so when he was huffy about you I figured you were like Lu- just some bully or something."
Chloe raises an eyebrow at Robyns cut short comment, although her expression shifts back as quickly as it first changed. "Savate is French kickboxing, evolved from a kind of street fighting. Computers don't like me much…. I mean you ever type so fast it doesn't log the keystrokes? Imagine that but five times as bad."
James' ears go back at the mention of Zack, eyes narrowing. "There's no accounting for taste. Maybe he's the one with the problem." He skips the whole thing about Robyn's roommate being his personal target since the guy was placed with the Paragons, instead quoting Cool Hand Like, "Some men, you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it…well, he gets it." He smiles at Chloe, "Savate sounds cool."
Robyn shrugs and has no clue. Him and Zack are roommates, they aren't really friends. "Oh, you do kickboxing, wow. I don't do anything like that." He's the skinny artist type, and it shows. "You know, one thing I miss about my old public school, and probably the only thing, when it snowed like this, you got the day off."
"I don't think I've ever liked snow days," Chloe decides with a shrug. "Being stuck indoors is really not my thing. Hopefully things will warm up soon and then I can finally make an attempt at climbing to the roof. Perhaps I'll try jump off afterwards too."
That last part gets Chloe a look from James, "I hope you can fly…!" He shrugs about the snow days, "Indiana. They came prepared for days like this. I always felt shafted on snow days."
"I'm from Brooklyn, they didn't happen often cause we all either walked or took a subway to school, but at least the few were nice." And of course Robyn would stay inside and play with clay all day. "I never even realized how much a car was needed until I came to this school."
Chloe grins. "Nope! But I'm tougher than I look," she explains. "And it's not exactly a tall building. I'm sure I'll be fine." Having read the entire tv guide twice she drops it back where she found it. "I'm guessing you've both been here a while? Do the squad training sessions start to feel worthwhile after more than a few trips?"
James hasn't but he's not going to let it on that he's been here only a few months. He shrugs, "Ehhh…I think so. I'm honestly regaining some of the dexterity I lost when 'this' became permanent." He holds up his oversized paws as if that alone should qualify as reason enough, "If nothing else it's a great reason to blow off some excess energy." He crosses his arms and sticks out his lower jaw, "Though convincing Northstar to run a program with giant robots is an exercise in futility." He phhts, sticking his nose in the air, "I only bit him the once…and I was possessed."
"Yeah, they are. I mean, I'm not longer accidentally jumping into people's heads and possessing them by accident and I can keep up with my astral projection longer now. And I also found out I can make psychic weapondry." Robyn says as all his powers are mental based and the danger room and private sessions with Addison have really helped. "I used to have Mr. Weyrin as my team leader now it's this other guy…Mr. Walker."
"It's not the solo stuff I find pointless. More like the group work," Chloe points out with a sigh. "I still can't see myself ever needing to know stuff like squad tactics. Especially not if the squad in question will change every year."
James nods, listening to Robyn as he looks over at Chloe, "Exactly. Practice makes perfect and all that." His eyes fall on Chloe, "Well, you never know what’s going to happen in the future. I consider it practically self-defense classes at this point. I mean, who knows might come knocking on the door next week. It's sorta nice to know that I have a couple people I can trust to back me up if Magneto blows a gasket or something."
"Well the group stuff does come in handy, we're mutants, if we like it or not there's a target on us." There's a hint of bitterness in Robyn's tone as he says that. "You never know when the shit is gonna hit the fan and you and some of your firends are here and need to employ group tactics to save the fucking day." He takes a deep breath as he doesn't mean for it to come out like that, but it just does. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, but James is right. Anyway, I gotta get going, gotta meet up with Jordan. I'll see you guys later." He says giving a wave as he heads out.
Chloe waves. "Cya laters," she offers. "I'm still not convinced, probably because when I'm going flat out there's maybe three people who can actually communicate with me. Which doesn't really inspire a lot of hope when it comes to teamwork."
James pulls his feet out of the way to give Robyn some room, "See ya later!" He looks over at Chloe, "He's right." Ears droop a little, "But regardless, who says you'll be that fast forever, or that I'll be this pretty! At some point we'll all have better control. And that's when the teamwork stuff will come on handy. But, otherwise, I hear you. I'd prefer to work alone."
"Is the ear thing intentional?" Chloe wonders, tilting her head. "I know it's off topic, but my mind wanders pretty quickly." She grins. "If not then I wonder if it's a tell of some sort. Which wouldn't be useful knowledge unless I knew how to play poker… Say do you know web design?"
James tilts his head over at Chloe, ears twisting sideways, "What ear thing?" He considers the question for a moment and responds to the final one with, "No, sorry. Never been too much into spiders. Though, those gigantic bird-eating ones are kinda neat." There's a shrug…and it's left unknown if he's being 'funny' or if he's serious. Which is, honestly, exactly what he wants.
Chloe holds her hands up by her face, then droops them to mimic James's ears. "They shift positions, but not always in relation to sounds. Although I guess you can hear outside of baseline range or something."
James nodnods, "Yeah…I can hear things going on well past the next room over. Heck, I can hear the girls room above me. Wanna know who likes who?" He smirks at the idea of knowing that bit of information even if it's not true. "There's other noises too that no one gets, and smells." He makes a face, "Smells are the worst. People stink even when they think they don't."
"I'd have thought perfume and chemical smells would be even worse than 'natural' ones?" Chloe wonders, sitting up properly for a change. "From what I'm told you're more likely to her speculation about which guys like each other than any girls seriously considering boyfriends. Which was why I asked about web design, me and Heather had a random pet project for a fast world dating site. If nothing else reading the submissions will be hilarious."
James shrugs, "Naaa, I'm not interested in the whole dating thing. And I don't know anything about the internet. I'm from Indiana." That latter part added as if it was a qualifier for not knowing much, "So, I'm afraid I wouldn't be of any help." He nods about the boy on boy thing, "I dunno. People like what they like. I won't pretend to know why or how—in any type of relationship. I'm a bit 'outside' that sorta stuff."
Chloe nods. "Same here, although for different reasons. I mean what's the point of dating unless you're on the same wavelength as someone?" She waves her hands in a what can you do gesture. "For the record second hand gossip is fairly dull anyway. If I really wanted to know which girl liked who I'd just ask them, although the trick is asking with the right kinda cakes or snacks. The good stuff here seems to vanish pretty quickly, even by superspeed standards."
James nods as id he understands, but that look in his eyes says different, "Yeah." He stands scooting back his chair, "It's…different for me. I have instincts. And history tells us that hyenas have been interacting with humans for many thousands of years before even the first wolf showed up. Yet, humans domesticated the wolf and not the hyena." The creature smiles tooooooooothfully, "Ever wonder why that is? I know." he shrugs and slings his backpack, "Everyone at the school likes bones. I just like to digest them." The 7' tall Gnoll grins out on a limb trying to come off as more than a little creepy, "Anyways, I hate to chew the fat and run…but I got a lab tonight. So, back to class." He sighs…."Tuesday!"
"Oh! Is it because you're prepared?" Chloe asks with a grin. "Tuesday, got it. We can do brunch, I'll attempt to cook steak sandwiches. Might even have improved my cooking enough that they're something other than stupidly rare."
James only smiles, and pads out of the room, leaving it at a simple, "See ya!"
