Players:
Summary: Second Day Of Lockdown and the inmates are restless.
Date: May 1, 2010
Log Title Stir Crazy
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Xavier Mansion - Observation Deck
Glass windows surround the circular room giving a full view of the school grounds. Two telescopes sit in front of the window for students to looks at the stars. A few comfortable chairs are placed up here for students to relax. Its a quite place up here that allows the fresh air in through sky vents in the summer and is well heated in the winter.
It's early in the night and Robyn's decided to do his homework up in the Observation Deck, keep his mind off of things. It doesn't help that he's listening to The Smiths right now but it's what works for him. He's sprawled out on the floor working on his Math homework. He usually just blows by it but right now he's actually spending his time and making sure everything is right. Robyn's purposefully going slow, trying to have it take as much time as possible.
James trods in from the elevator, big old book under his arm. He drops the disty tome on a table and continues over to the windows that overlook the shcool grounds. With his back towards the boy, the hyena says, "Hi Robyn." And then he starts trying to open the windows while trying to see how much of his large self he can fit through one, "Hmmm…HmmmMMMM! Hmmmm!"
Mike has finished his homework already, by dint of the obnoxious practice of actually doing it during class time, at least the stuff that's easily done. And really, there's not that much to do, so he's come up to the Observation Deck to see more … stuff, than he can from ground level. Maybe to spot those back roads he can't go on right now.
When he steps off the elevator behind James, he nods a hello to Robyn and starts looking out the window that the hyena is NOT trying to break.
"James, what are you doing now," comes Rashmi's weary voice from the door, a surprisingly thin paperback held in one hand. With a quiet sigh, she shakes her head, nodding and smiling slightly at Robyn in greeting.
The Observation Deck goes from quiet with just the sounds of The Smiths to now a Hyena climbing out of a window, a Robotic Teen and Rashmi's sighs. Robyn looks up and waves to everyone. "Hey James, Mike, Rashmi. Trying to get on the roof James?" He asks, after all that's where he was earlier that day. He sits up and closes his math book pushes his hair back.
James pants a little, trying the same thing from other angles, "You ever see….Jurassic Park?" He hmmmms…lupping a claw on the window's seal and tracing it around, "Wired I bet…." He puts his nose against the frame and starts snorting it, "Yah…something." He gives it a wild eyes look like he might bite it before going onto something else, "God I loved those raptors. Why couldn't I have been one of those? Maybe get a huge nose ring. That'd have been cool." He gives the window a little push before giving up. He throws his arms in the air, "I hate lock down! One of the teachers said they put a tracking device in my breakfast! How can I compete with that!"
Mike laughs … well, he says "HAH!" with a laugh-like intonation. "OK, that's pretty good, Jamesz, you gotta admit. Scott got me to promise not to sneak out by merginng with any of the vehicles here."
It was in the morning emails. Darnit. And Mike had considered trying it to see if they really COULD detect him.
Rashmi merely rolls her eyes, moving to a couch near Robyn to plunk down in. "…Do you think, James," she says as she cracks her book open, "that if I said 'please,' I wouldn't have to worry about you trying to climb out the window and probably get in trouble? Hi, Robyn… What class is that for?"
Robyn is biting his tongue but he figures that he'll ask James if he has an ideas of what might be a good way to get out. He really wants to look around the train station. "Oh, this is just Algebra homework. I figured homework would keep my mind off of things." He doesn't say much more though before looking at James. "I always loved Jurassic Park, but the Raptors were always kind of creepy, but you can get a nose ring as a Hyena?"
James 'perfs…' blowing a bit of air past his inhuman lips, offering the answer of indifference to the question. He pulls out a seat and takes a hard sit, glowering slightly, "'Gotta book." He opens it up and starts reading, sulking slightly, whispering, "Attica, Attica, Attica," a few times before finding a page worth reading, "Ehh…wouldn't be as cool…" the beast says with a sigh.
Mike grumbles, that is, his voice goes a bit more metallic and down a half-register, "You KNOW the only reason that I want to leave right now, besides the obviouzzly stupiid idea that I coulld help Jono and the othersz, is that they said we COULDNN'T. Stupiid forbidden fruit synndrome."
He looks off into the distance, staring at the cloud of light pollution to the south.
Rashmi opens her mouth to reply to Robyn, pausing at James and Mike. Her head drops briefly, and she throws a wry look at Robyn. "Well, at least it worked for a while…" Tucking her hair back behind her ear, she tips her head back, clearing her throat. "So, um… what would either of you *do* if you got out?"
Robyn bites his lip trying to keep what he wants to say in, as he has a strong opinion of what Mike just said. "English homework James?" He tries to keep off of the subject that's strongly on his mind and is grateful that noone has brought it up yet. "I know I'm going to go stir crazy being cooped up in here, again."
James continues to grumble incoherently, "Yeah…and like….testing the cage…the then…bzztz!….soooon." He glares over at mike. Well, it's supposed to be friendly, but it looks like a glare, "I bet I could have picked up their trail at the stations if I had been taken over there." He looks over at Rashmi, and says, "I dunno…stuff." Almost sounds as if he hasn't through that far out in advance. He looks over at Robyn, "No…same teacher that said she'd put a trackign thing in my breakfast called me a 'Bouda.' Storm, I think?" he shrugs, "Been reading up on them. She might be right…"
Mike admits, "I'd come back in as quickly as possible of courrze."
He shrugs, theatrically enough to show that he's aware how stupid that sounds. "I'm juszt a vehicle, y'know. I don't even want to know how to fight. But I did the ambulance thing, remember? And no, I don't want to think about why I'd need to be an ambulance. It just came out thaat way."
Rashmi blinks. "…What's a Bouda? Um… anyway… You know we *can* go out on the grounds during the day, find things to do… Mike, maybe you can ask someone if you can take your bike out around the property? Or… Iunno… something… James, er… What're you reading?"
Robyn looks at James and there's a bit of hope in his eyes. "Wait, you can sniff a trail, do you think you still could or do you think it's too old. I mean I don't know how it works but if I could help if you need anything, I mean, if you can find them or any other clues…I'll help any way I can." Anything to find Jordan, Jono and the others. "We're all allowed on the grounds, we're just not allowed off of school property, beyond the gate."
James looks for a passage in the book, reading aloud to the question, giving the paragraph the monotone all teens give this sorta thing, "In Ethiopia, it is traditionally believed that every blacksmith is really a wizard with the power to change into a hyena. These blacksmith werehyenas are believed to rob graves at midnight and are referred to as bouda." He looks up from the book, "I'm…technically a blacksmith? Technically? So, there might be whole packs of me out there. Heck, she's heard of things like me. So, why not!" He smiles, "These books say were hyenas were around before werewolves. I'm gonna go tell Wolf Cub where to stick it later!" He looks over at Robyn, "Maybe…but I can't get anything off of Jono. He's…unreadable to me. So, his trail will be invisible."
Mike shrugs, "Szo, arre car designersz secretly wizzardsz with the power to turn into something? If so what? And that would be aweszome to be able to turn into a hyena but not if one has to rob graveyardsz."
He stops and remembers Rashmi complaining about being nicknamed Cassandra and makes a short choking laugh-like noise, but doesn't say anything because he doesn't want to make it worse for her.
Rashmi looks from Robyn to James, shoulders sagging. Sinking low in her chair, she sticks her nose in her book for the moment, preferring to keep her mouth shut rather than voice her opinion of the plan the two are beginning to hatch.
Robyn wasn't even thinking about saying anything but James has unintentionally planted some false hope in Robyn. "I'm pretty sure Jordan was there with him, if I were to get you something of Jordan's…I dunno….um…" He looks at Mike and Rashmi for a second and decides to just maybe find James later before sighing. "Probably not, sorry, just…been a rough few days. So blacksmith werehyenas?"
James stops paying attention to the car who obviously doesn't get his point, assuming Rashmi doesn't either, "I'm adopted Rasmhmi. There might be more of me out there. Like, a lot more. I don't know why I was given up. Maybe they know what's wrong with me. Meanwhile…we're in lock down, Jono's been taken, and I'm starting to get rather pissy about the whole thing. Jono's one of us! I'm not going to leave him to rot. Like I got left with the demons…or in Indiana…or…." He goes quiet and looks down at the floor, "Sorry. I didn't mean that demon part. I know I wasn't left. I'm just….reallly not good at sitting still. I'm gonna explode soon." He glances over at Robyn, "Yeah, cool, huh? Apparently we like…whisper peoples names at night and get them to come outside before eating them."
Mike suddenly gets it. "Wait, when you came here, did they scan you with their mutant-detector? So, there might be a race of mutant hyena blacksmith wizards?"
Then he hears another 'gotta go save him'… "Jamesz? Pleasze let Scott keep hisz worrd before you do thaat. He promized us they're trying to finnd them, and they're goinng to do a reszcue. It hasz to take a few dayyyz."
He slumps down along a wall to a slouching-seated position. His eyes remain slightly lit, as the evening dark increases.
"Two days," Rashmi says, just loud enough to be heard. "Not *even* two days, like one and a half…" One hand leaves the book to pinch the bridge of her nose, and she looses a rough sigh, pitching her voice to something a touch less frustrated, and more reasonable. "That's actually really interesting, James… It kind of makes you wonder how some of the old legends really started,
doesn't it?"
Robyn looks like he's about to say something to James but then Rashmi's words just cause him to shut up and he doesn't say anything about the 'rescue' idea. "I'm adopted too, James, but no stories about possibly being a wizard Hyena. Just a twin brother that randomly appeared at the school." If he wasn't feeling so crappy at the moment he'd find the whole thing about James and the Bouda to be extremely intersting.
"Yeah…it's started with my ancestors eating your ancestors," he smiles toothfully, not totally serious about that. Two days yes…but the a hyper kinetic, 2 days might as well be 2 months. The hyena looks at Robyn, "That's kinda cool. Maybe I have the same. I wanna hear more later." He smiles, Robyn being one of the few he might actually be getting a long with as of late. Well, aside from 'part' of his team/
Mike says, not moving from where he's slumped, "James, if you started as a human, then who's to say that your ancestors ate ours? Maybe they mated with them instead."
Now that's a sort of brain-bleach-inducing mental image.
"No I mean seriously, like, what if there were other mutants like you, way way ba—" Trailing off as a pained look crawls across her face, she tilts back her head to look Mike in the headlamps. "…Ow, Mike. That hurt. ….Ow." Shaking her head, she looks to Robyn, closing her book. "Robyn… I'm sorry I'm being a pill about this.. really I am. Just… I did a lot of stupid things. And… People are supposed to *learn* from that, right?"
"Hey, I don't know who my ancestors are, just my adopted family." Robyn doesn't even know what nationality decent he is, but he's not sure he cares either. Then Mike just causes his brain to stop for a bit. "Why do you even think of this stuff Mike?" Robyn's weird but he doesn't think along those lines. "Rashmi…please, I…" He just shakes his head as he pulls his knees up so he can bury his face by resting his arms on his knees.
James' moves a single eye to look over at the machine, "Mike, if you're trying to make it so that I don't like you, you're well on your way today." The friendly tone dissipating, his voice taking its normal sound. Still tense, he looks over at Rashmi, "What's up?" He narrows his eyes a little, "I missed something important again, didn't I?" There's a little frown forming.
Mike's eyes go out. "Zorry, Jamesz. I'm not in a great plaaze tonight."
He stays where he is, then his eyes start to blink a rapid on-off flickering pattern.
"Backup initiated," something says inside his chest.
"…Nothing, James," Rashmi replies, her voice small. "…I'm just making things worse, trying to make them better… Don't worry about it."
"Jordan's my boyfriend, he was taken when Jono was. I'm just…not in a good place right now." Robyn begins to explain. "Rashmi's just trying to stop me from doing what she did back when Lucas was changed. She's just trying to be a good friend, and she is. I'm just…it's rough." Is all he says being honest. "I just would like nothing more than to run off and find them but…Rashmi doesn't want me to, with good reason."
James is about to say something but gets distracted by Mike's temporary shut down, and the look isn't a kind one. One of those, predatory, 'Now could be my chance' sorta looks. His ears flatten just a little as that other part of him gauges the 'threat.' He turns his head back towards Rashmi, "What? You make everything better. What happened?" He pads over towards his teammate before leaning on the table, James supporting his weight, "Rash, rash, rash….Tell me. Teeeeell me. Tell me….." He smiles toothfully, edging behind her to gives her a hug, "Rash….?" He litens to Robyn and nods, "Ahhhhh….okay." There's some disappointment in his voice.
Rashmi smiles a bit at James' wheedling, leaning forward and giving the hyena a brief hug around the neck. "Thanks, though… Robyn," she says, gesturing with a hand before she sits back, "come here, please? Sit with us?"
Robyn has a hard time with dealing with things like this, where he knows he's useless and can't do anything. If it were him, he'd have a much easier time dealing with something happening to him but Robyn and bad things, he's just not used to it fully. He notices the disappointment in James's voice and isn't quite sure why it's there, he still wants to talk to him later about….stuff. He moves to sit next to Rashmi and sighs. "Sorry, I wish I was happier, I wish I was myself. It's just hard to be. I haven't even felt like going into the art room."
James rests the bottom of his jaw gently on Rashmi's head, "Yeah Robyn. Come. Come play with us. Forever…" The beasty boy's arms give his teammate's body a quick snug, hands clasped at her stomach a quick moment before letting go to find a seat again, "Sorry I wasn't there yesterday. I was…I dunno what I was doing. But I should have found you and Lucas when the alarms started. That was bad judgement." He flops into his seat and rests his head on the table, arms prone, "We'll get'em back Robyn. And he's with Jono. I can't imagine Jono letting anything bad happen. Hurt or not."
When James moves away, Rashmi wordlessly gathers Robyn up into a large hug, sighing quietly. "It's… not that simple, James… I'll tell you about it later, I promise. But, don't worry about no being there. You were in the house, and that was all you needed. I got the rest, and… Well, I'll end up filling the team in soon as I can. Robyn… it's okay. Don't apologize for being upset, you know? You have a *right* to be, and it's *okay* for you to want to go off and get them back… I know. I want to, too. But… well, you know the rest."
The hug is a nice relief and he just leans against Rashmi for a bit. "I just hate this is all, and can't you be stupid with me this time?" He knows the answer is a 'no' but he does smile a bit to let her know he's not expecting a real answer. "Yeah, I wish Jono was here, I think I could deal with just Jono or just Jordan but both? It's tough." Jono was the one he would go to for advice, the one who brought him back when he ran away, he's become that older 'cool kid' to Robyn. "Thanks James."
The beast shoots an eyes over at Rashmi, an eye full of questions better left for later. He hmmmms, the bass reverberating a little through the table. He looks over at Robyn and shrugs, "Ehh…it's what I do." Actually, normally it's what he 'doesn't' do. He sighs, watching the area in front of his nose fog a little, "So…!"
Rashmi simply squeezes briefly, letting Robyn rest in her arms and smiling faintly at his half-joke. Shaking her head with a chuckle, she looks askance at James, an eyebrow rising. "So… how d'you feel about special Danger Room practices, James? I… was thinking about asking to put together some kind of emergency evacuation practice thing together, just in case."
Robyn pulls away and stands up. "I should head to bed, try to get some sleep, or go to the medbay and ask for something to help me sleep." He doesn't really want a repeat of last time with the no sleeping. "Thanks, and let me know if you do get any special practice in, I'd like that, if you don't mind people from other squads." Not like his squad is much with Jordan being gone and Antonio not being around much and Annalisa being terrified of her powers. "I'll talk to you guys later, and thanks." He says picking up his books before heading out.
James smiles, toothfuly at Rashmi, "JYou don't have to ask twice, just point me in a direction and let me go." He wiggles in his seat a little, "Professor Logan recently told me about this thingee I should be studying. Said it might make me more effective, given my size. I want to try it out." He nods to Robyn, "No, you're welcome. You're practically part of my clan." He smiles at his teammate, "Along with you and Lucas of course."
Rashmi shakes her head as Robyn pulls away, smiling. "Actually, I'd *really* like as many people as possible, once we've got an idea of what we're doing. But yeah… good night, Robyn. Try to sleep kind of okay, all right?" Blinking, she looks to James, brow furrowing. "…What thingee?"
James smiles, "It's called 'parkour.' It's like this…thing where you use your body to over come obstacles." He sits up and positions his hands in front of his eyes, "You're supposed to look at your surroundings. Figure out the fastest path to get where you want to go, and like…just get there using what you have." The bastardization of the technique is somewhat accurate, but James adds, "You can like…climb up walls using it, of go through them."
Rashmi blinks, mouthing the word to herself, tilting her head. "…I *know* I've heard that bef—oh! Right, Chloe says she does stuff like that, I think! Maybe you should talk to her? Um… but it'd be hard to keep up with her, since… y'know… she's all sped up, and everything…" Her eyes flick toward the door, as though to make sure Robyn's well out of earshot. "…Okay, so. James. I'm going to ask something *really* hard, and then I'm going to tell you why, okay? Please… please please *please* don't let anyone leave the school to find them if you can honestly, seriously help it."
James drops the subject of his fitness and scoots closer to Rashmi. His ear tilts towards her and he sighs, "You know…that's going against my nature." He sighs, "But for you…anything." He hmmms, obviously taking that team thing seriously, "Okay. I won't." He turns his big, black alien eyes on Rashmi, "So…why?"
"…Because this Mr. Sinister guy… Seriously… The adults, *all of them,* are terrified of him. They're going to try and rescue everyone, the Headmaster promised. But, it's not like with the demons. This guy… they say he's like this scientist, and that he likes to mess with mutant DNA or something." Letting out a deep breath, she leans forward, eyes wide, serious, and not a little scared. "You didn't see them, James… Lorna almost *lost it,* and the Headmaster… well… he said that if any of us try and stop him, he'll either kill us or experiment on us. Because he's *so powerful,* just about nothing can do anything."
And with that, the self-proclaimed hyper kinetic goes still, "Fuuuuuuck." James has a tendency to see things in size. So it takes him a moment to recover from the idea that something that 'big' is roaming around with at least one of his friends, "Okay. I'll stop screwing around and I'll keep an eye out for anyone else trying something."
Rashmi reaches out, putting a hand on each of the hyena's shoulders. "Thank you. Just… try and keep some of the others occupied, okay…? Like, play games with the kids, horse around a little… Just try and have a little fun. I know it sounds stupid… but… the Headmaster was right. All we can do, right now, is all we can do. And for right now, we really shouldn't try and do more."
James looks over at his teammate and makes a noise that isn't so much a sigh than it is an annoyed sound, "I'll try. I'm just…not the social type." He frowns at the idea of being asked for rides or displayed as part of a preternatural petting zoo in the name of entertainment, "But I'll trrrrry." He says that last part through his teeth. He puts his head on one of her hands and looks over at the clock on the wall, "I should get to bed." He reaches over and gives the tome a firm pound on the table, sending dust everywhere, "Night Rashmi. I'll do my best." He shrugs. He will, and more so since it's coming from her.
Rashmi nods slowly, tilting her head at the book. "Good night, James… I'll let you know if I've managed to get everything set up, okay?"
James smiles, "Please do I feel like I might literally explode soon if I don't do 'something.'" He gives Mike a look on the way out like that of a boy with a bug in a jar that was about to be shaken, "Hmph."
Rashmi chuckles quietly. "Good night, James…"
