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Summary: Mason and Kisha introduce themselves at a rather late hour. Mason lays the charm a little too heavy, and Kisha responds with a little too much morbid realism. The good news is that there was plenty of each to go around!
Date: Tuesday, November 23, 2010. 3:23am
Log Title: So Late It's Early
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Ramsey Dormitories Lobby
The lobby of Ramsey Dormitories has two elevators at one end of the wall along with the entrance to a cafeteria. On the wall are three pictures that say 'In memory of'. One is of Douglas Ramsey, another of John Proudstar and the last one is of Jean Grey. There are several couches and tables down here for students to relax. Large windows in the front and sides allow for a lot of light in the room.
The clock reads 3:23am, but not everyone is asleep. Mason's reasons for being wide awake at this hour may fail to have a clear explanation, but it doesn't look like he's going to bed anytime soon. Blond hair hangs down stylishly, skirting the top of his brow and giving way to baby blue eyes and a lightly tanned and smooth complexion. He's wearing enough to be decent, but at the same time, that enough is but a pair of red gym shorts and a plain white A-frame. He can afford it though, given that he has a rather chiseled physique to show off.
Playing music in the halls would certainly get things thrown at him, so he's down in the lobby, his keyboard set up and giving a melodious sound that does not lend itself to a lullabye. While Mason may be a pop star, he hasn't had an audience tonight, and he's changed his venue. Chopin's Revolutionary Etude is the flavor for the evening. He focuses on the sheet music before him, and it doesn't take an expert in music to realize this is no walk in the park piece of music. His fingers dances across the keys, power and vigor with each stroke of the 88's.
Some might wonder why Kisha is wandering in the front door at 3:23 in the morning, but few of them are people who have met her. Indeed she would still be at work now if not for a slight mishap which has more or less resulted in her putting a nail part of the way through her hand. As such the petite technology addict is looking a little paler than normal and has is barely paying any attention to her computer (aside from looking up basic first aid advice that is!). "I knew the calibration was off," she mutters. "Serves me right for not trusting my instincts."
Mason isn't so engrossed that he is unaware of Kisha's entrance. The teen star glances up from the music, making it a few more measures unaided before he stops. "Hey there," he says with a smile, "I thought I'd be the only — Wow, what happened to your hand?" he cuts himself off as he sees the injury. He moves out from behind the keyboard and toward the girl and her injured hand.
Kisha scowls at the strange boy advancing on her. "Shot myself with a nailgun. Thankfully my hand was under something at the time, so it just stabbed me instead of attaching my hand to anything. Nothing worth mentioning so please sit yourself down and resume whatever you were doing," she says flatly. "Unless you have some alcohol for medicinal purposes that is?"
"Um," Mason purses his lips, licking the front of his teeth behind them. "I might have some bicardi? Would that work?" Rather open with that fact, he is. It's clear from his demeanor on the situation that he doesn't know much about first aid." He thumbs back toward the elevator, "Want me to go get it?" he asks.
"Tempting but no," Kisha decides after a moments thought. "You might also want to get rid of it if you do. Telepathic staff who will ground you for a month for having it…" She shrugs indifferently. "Must be new right? I'd offer to shake your hand, well actually I wouldn't, but you get the idea."
Mason gives a dismissive wave. "I'm immune to telepaths," he says. "Sounds like that'll come in handy, too. Oh, wow, I'm rude. My name is Mason, Mason Steele. It's more than a pleasure to meet you," he adds. "Maybe we could at least get you some napkins in the kitchen," he suggests. "If you put pressure on it, it'll probably stop bleeding soon, right?"
Kisha rolls her eyes. "You might be, but do you know if I am? Besides the school has exceptionally comprehensive security cameras and plenty of people with enhanced senses," she points out. "And my hand is fine. The worst of the bleeding is done, I'm letting it get some air before I disinfect it. I have a little improvised medical kit in my room, this sort of thing happens more often than you'd expect." She wiggles her fingers as if to prove they're fine, although who she's convincing is anyones guess. "I'm Kisha. If you've heard me mentioned it'll have probably been as that mad science girl."
"Mad scientist?" Mason repeats, "That's pretty impressive. So you are one of those girls who has an IQ of like 180, but people don't realize it at first because they just think you're another pretty face." He smiles confidently. "But then you come out of nowhere and are like "Whoa! She's brilliant!" His developed LA accent seems to have creeped ino to his dialect.
"Do people often tell you that you're insufferably smarmy?" Kisha wonders, adjusting the carry strap on her touchscreen computer so she can better use it with one hand injured. "As for if my intelligence is noticed by others, that's not really my concern. I work on my projects and so long as they're not getting in the way they can think whatever they like."
Mason grins, "All the time," he answers. "I try my best." He steps back to his keyboard casually, giving a toss of his blond hair to reset its position. "Well, I'd hate to get between you and one of your projects," he says. "If it's what you love, then who am I to stop you?" he plays a few chords, bringing life back to the instrument.
Kisha waves her injured hand. "The world is full of small minded people who want to stifle my creativity. Only the other week I was told I couldn't complete my signal scanner. Apparantly it's okay to play vigilante or for a school to lose half the students in a demon realm but not to listen into encrypted communications." She huffs and taps a few bits of information into her computer. "What're you here for anyway?"
The blond teen smiles in an almost shy manner. "That's a good question. I know my powers have something to do with earth, but…I don't exactly know what. Still trying to figure that out." Mason runs a few scales, altering them casually into a melody as he speaks. "What do you mean, lose half the students in a demon realm?" He hopes that's a figure of speech or an inside joke.
"While that's very interesting about your powers, but I was meaning down in the lobby at this time of night," Kisha asks glancing from side to side. "Oh no. The demon realm was quite literal. What they don't tell you in the promotional material is this place is a death trap, between the mandatory faux superhero paramilitary training and the assorted groups aware of the school who dislike mutants. Lets just say you should expect to get injured or disturbed within around six months."
Mason doesn't seem to be very comfortable with Kisha's evaluation of the school. "Really?" His tone seems rather concerned. "I thought this place was supposed to be a secret." He finds himself moving to the window, leaving the music behind as he checks to see if there is anyone outside. "I was just down here because I have to play for some rich guy's Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. One of the chores of fame, but at least it pays well. What're you doing outside in the cold at this time of night? Too many ideas to let them wait until morning?" he asks. He seems distracted still by the revelation that he might not be as secluded here as he was led to believe initially.
Kisha smiles at Masons comment about secrecy. "For a secret school they have a remarkable amount of firepower hidden away in the grounds," she states. "And if there weren't risks to the students why would they make it mandatory for everyone to carry a phone with a panic alarm /and/ a bug that tracks your location?"
"…" Mason eyes the girl. "I thought it was just because mutant powers can go kinda haywire," he says. "I mean, we have a girl who can explode here, that's kind of dangerous by itself. I didn't think it was to protect us from outside threats." He moves away from the window, and pulls the curtain down. His fingers reach out to switch off the keyboard as he returns to it. "Well, maybe we should get some sleep," he suggests. "It was great to meet you, maybe I can see some of your cool devices sometime." He starts to pack up the keyboard, tucking it under his arm and then picking up the stand in his other hand.
"You've already seen me holding the best one," Kisha points out, nodding at her computer. "I made pretty much the entire thing. Except for a couple of the chips which fitted the specifications I needed." Of course that leaves out that the side which does most of the processing is largely built from a huge number of mundane computers and could have been built by any dedicated computer geek. "By the look of things you might have trouble sleeping now you know the truth, but if it makes you feel any better no-one has died since I got here. Although I have seen a girl who had her hand cut off a few months back. You should think about getting yours insured if your a professional performer."
Mason's eyes go a little wider. "Yeah, well, thanks for that," he comments. "But at least I know that there's a genius on campus who can probably solve any of the problems we run into," he adds the compliment, as if he was searching for a way to work it into his sentence. He's not too worried to be able to flirt a little, it seems. "It was really nice to meet you, Kisha. I hope your hand heals soon." He starts to make his way to the elevator.
Kisha's amusement at the new kids discomfort vanishes when the compliments resume, replaced with undisguised disgust. "Nice… quite… " she says flatly, then muttering to herself she adds "Almost makes me wish I was demon-napped again…"
