Players:
Summary: A couple of students and a teacher spend some time together in the Salem Mall.
Log Title: Weekend Mall Rats
Rating: PG
Westchester - Salem Center Food Court
Entering the mall brings its visitors right to the Food Court. A wide open area with tables and chairs sprinkled around it, its edges lined with a wide variety of fast food choices. Pizza, burgers, ice cream, chicken, Chinese, smoothies, you name it, you got it.
Scene
It's late morning, getting on towards afternoon. A small cadre of Xavier's students have come to the mall, each for their own reasons, and Sophie has come along with them. The blind girl isn't really going about shopping, though; she's brought her laptop with the special screen, so she can work. Right now she seems to be taking a break, and is sitting at a table by herself, busy enjoying an ice cream cone — with one hand resting on her laptop, to make sure it doesn't get up and wander off without her.
July had the bad luck of being in the wrong place and wrong time, and so she got conned into chaperoning the students, and she, out of the goodness of her heart (and some favors gained) agreed to do it. right now, she's sitting at the same table as Sophie, herself enjoying a soda cup. Everyone else are spread throughout all the stores, "Won't you go out buy something?" she asks, smiling.
Sophie's blindfolded gaze tilts up towards July, and she shakes her head slowly. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were still there," she murmurs. "No… I don't think I really need anything right now. Though I am saving up for an iPod, so I'll go shopping when I have enough for one of those." She flashes a grin, just as a bit of her icecream breaks loose and lands with a splat on the floor, unnoticed. "I usually just come out here on Saturdays with the other students to get out and about. I can't live my entire life terrified of New York just because I can't see it."
July ah's softly and she nods, smiling, "I see. Well, I hope you get your money for your iPod soon." she nods to that as she sips some of her soda. She looks at the blindfolded girl, wondering why she wears those things, but since she thinks it relates to her powers she keeps it quiet. "So what's about your laptop?" she aks, looking at the computer.
Sophie licks the icecream, twisting the cone in her hand so she can neatly prune it down on all sides and minimize dripping; hopefully so as not to make a mess of the table she's sitting at, shared with July. "The laptop, Senora Lanford? It is very special." She pats the top of the closed piece of electronics. "The screen just makes bumps, just like braille, so I can type into it and read what I'm typing. It's really quite amazing." She pauses, and licks her ice cream again. "I've been using it to work on my French braille in my spare time, trying to get as good with it as I am with Spanish and English."
July ohh's softly at that and nods, "Really? That's a very nice piece of technology you got there, Sophie." she smiles at that, "And no 'Mrs. Lanford', please. It makes me feel like I'm seventy years old." she giggles softly. "Just 'July' is fine, or if you want, Ms July." she shrugs gently, smiling still.
Robin walks through the foodcourt a bit aimlessly, though she attracts a few stares: it's hard not to stare at the blue puppet that follows her around and seems to move in perfect synch with her. She stops and says, "What do you want to eat, Blank? - Oh!" At noticing July in the foodcourt, Robin approaches, looking between her and Sophie before arriving at the table. "Mind if I sit down?" she says, smiling. Her voice is androgynous, and based on that alone, it's very difficult to tell whether she is male or female.
Sophie chuckles softly. "Yes, Senorita July, it is quite amazing," she agrees. "The school provided it to me so I'd be able to do my homework. It is much better than having to dictate to someone else with a pen, anyway." She gets down to the cone on her icecream, and bites off a chunk; she's still chewing it when Robin makes herself known. "Oh!" She swallows quickly, and gestures in the general direction of an empty seat. "Please, do; I am sure Senorita July will not mind."
July nods, smiling, "Indeed. Pretty good. But I'm curious: can you write? I know blind people have better calligraphy than usual, when compared to normal people." she says, before looking at Robin and Blank, smiling to them, "Oh, hey, Robin dear! How's one of my best gal friends are doing?" s he asks, standing up to hug Robin and kiss her cheek softly. "Please, have a seat!" she nods, before sitting down.
Nodding, Robin sits down in the seat and smiles at July, "Hey, there, you're looking good as usual!" She nods to Sophie but, catching herself, adds, "Hi, there, to you too." She crosses one leg over the other and glances between the others. "So what's on the table today?" Blank remains conspicuously standing behind her.
Sophie blushes softly. "I presume you are Senorita Robin," she murmurs. "I am Sophie DeCosta." She smiles softly, before biting off another bit of her cone. Her fingers tap her laptop once more, just to reassure herself that nobody has walked off with it. "Uhm.. my laptop is on the table," she adds. "I'm not sure of anything else." The blind girl pauses, and shrugs her shoulders. "My hand writing used to be good, but now on the odd occasion when I try it, nobody can make out a word."
Tracy nods to Sophie, smiling, "It's a practice thing, I think. Like Braile. If you give me a braile sheet all I'll be able to 'read' is that it's not a smooth surface." she giggles softly at that and nods, before looking at Robin, "You're looking good, girl. How's life treating you?" she grins softly.
"Well, life's treating me pretty good. I'm still trying to put on some weight, but every time I move towards my healthy goal, I get dropped into some crazy situation where eating is not a thing I have much access to," says Robin, sighing and shaking her head. She adjusts her glasses slightly, and then smiles at Sophie, "But I'm only asking metaphorically what's being discussed, not what's physically on the table."
Sophie ohs! "I see. English is not my first language, so sometimes I misunderstand," she explains. "We were just talking about… well, actually, about my laptop; and how the screen makes braille on it that I can feel, instead of just pictures that I can't see." She shrugs her shoulders. "It is a marvelous tool for a blind person. I can do an essay or something on it, then e-mail it to my teacher and they can read it normally. Senorita July." She pops the last bit of ice cream cone in her mouth, and chews it up before swallowing. "Are you a student at Xaviers as well, Senorita Robin?"
July nods to that, "Yep, pretty impressive piece of technology there." she says, smiling at Sophie, before sipping the last bit of her soda, while Sophie turns her attention to Robin. "Damn." July chuckles, "If we were at school I'd be able to reach the garbage can from where I'm sitting." she shakes her head softly, before looking at Robin again.
"Oh, yeah, that does seem like a pretty nifty machine. I'm blind in one eye, but that's really, uh, not a huge deal and I don't really need anything for it. I imagine it's convenient that they provide you with some tools," notes Robin, her and Blank both nodding in synch, "But yeah, I'm a student. Hellions squad." She adjusts her glasses slightly again and says to July, "I can get Blank to throw your things away, if you want!"
Sophie's eyebrows rise. "Oh, Hellions squad? That's good; I'm actually in the same squad. Though I haven't actually been to the danger room yet… but I'm told I'll be going this week, and getting into the normal routine. The teachers let me have a bit longer than most people to get used to the school first, since I'm… well, blind." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "Do you mind… if I ask what you can do? If there's nobody sitting too close by listening in." She smiles softly, and as her ice cream is finished just sits and fiddles with the top of her cane. "I have absolutely no idea where the garbage cans are around here," she adds.
July chuckles softly, but she shakes her head, "Thanks, but no thanks, Robin. I'll toss it away later, but I'll hold it for now, thanks." she says, nodding her head now, before looking at Sophie, "I used to be in the New Mutants group. Quite a nice bunch of people." she giggles, before looking around, "That… we might talk about when there's less people around."
"Oh, uh, sorry! I guess since I'm an obvious mutant, I assume everyone automatically knows what my abilities are," says Robin, frowning slightly, "So I don't really mind saying. I control a humanoid puppet that's created out of projected psychic energy (I think), that I've named Blank, who can do all kinds of cool things." She glances over to July and then nods when she expresses her desire not to share.
The blind girl nods her head slowly. "Well… obvious to everyone except me, I suppose." She smiles softly. "I have… I'm not sure exactly, but the doctors called it a calcified lump in my chest. I'm told that it glows sometimes, though I've never seen it; it didn't do that until after I lost my vision," she murmurs. Sophie shrugs lightly. "It doesn't matter. The important part is, I can heal people by touching them. So if you get a bad scrape or a broken arm or something, come see me and I'll put it right."
Tracy oh's softly at that, as Sophie explains her abilities, "That's pretty good. Healing people is always a good thing." the girl says with a smile and nodding. "By the way, Robin…" she smiles, "How's your relationship with Skyler right now?"
Robin says to Sophie, "Well, that's a useful ability to have in a scrape! I know I don't get injured often, 'cause of the particulars of my ability, but others at the school sure do." Her eyes turn towards July and she blinks a few times, "Um, I don't really want to talk about that at the moment…"
Sophie chuckles softly. "Well, it isn't instant," she murmurs. "But I'm sure sitting still for a couple hours while I heal a broken bone is quite preferable to having a cast on it for four weeks." The blind girl brushes her fingers through her hair, and in so doing causes her blindfold to shift just enough to show the hint of a scar underneath. She listens to the question, and answer, about Skyler; but no words pass her lips on the subject.
July oh's softly and gets the idea behind Robin's words, and she just nods, "Ok." she says softly, smiling and reaching to rest her hand on Robin's shoulder gently, before looking at Sophie, "You have a pretty awesome ability, Sophie." she smiles, but then she blinks, "Say… can't you fix your own blindness? Or Robin's eye?"
"Umm, that would probably be pretty cool, but my eye's been destroyed for awhile now…" says Robin, rubbing underneath the blacked out lens of her glasses. "I guess it'd be pretty surprising to have depth perception. But, um, if she could repair her own blindness… I'm guessing she would have by now…"
The blind girl tilts her head in thought, and rubs her chin lightly. "It would depend on how it came to be that Senorita Robin's eye was damaged," she replies. "I might be able to. I do not want to promise anything, but it is certainly worth a try." She smiles, and clasps her hands around the top of her cane. "I cannot heal myself, however. My power simply does not work on myself; only on others. I don't know why, except to say that perhaps God has intended my gift to be of benefit only to others, and not to myself."
Tracy nods softly, "So it's like snake poison. Snakes can't poison themselves." she then shrugs, before looking at Robin, smiling, "So how did your eye get damaged, Robin?" she asks, before blinking in confusion as she realizes something, "Wait." she turns to look at Sophie. "What do you mean, 'how it got damaged'? There are condition on how your powers work?"
"Uh, I got into a fight and my eye got punched, and it probably could've been repaired, but I was a street person at the time, so I just… uh… did street person things, and it got infected and scarred and doesn't work anymore," says Robin, raising her eyebrows slightly, sounding more than a little self-conscious at this.
Sophie blushes heatedly, and drops her gaze. "I don't really understand my powers yet," she mumbles. "I don't know what my real limits are. but I do know I can't heal myself, and I can't heal things like genetic defects." She shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "But I can heal most other things… though some injuries will take me more than one session." She pauses, and tilts her gaze to look in Robin's general direction. "Would you like me to try?"
July nods softly, smiling at Sophie as the girl explains her powers, "That's why we all went through school." she giggle,s and then she looks at Robin. "Well? Would you like to try, Robin? I think it's worth a try." she smiles, nodding.
Frowning for a moment or two and furrowing her brow, Robin says, almost reluctantly, "Well, it can't hurt to try, but I guess I've been without it for so long, it'd be kind of weird to retire the kitty glasses…"
Sophie sits up a little straighter, and nods her head. "Wether I try or not is entirely according to your wishes, Senorita," she murmurs. "And if you allow me to try, I will give it my best effort, certainly. Though, I think we should return to the mansion if we mean to try; it is time consuming, and I am told that my hands glow when I do it, which might draw too much attention here."
July chuckles and nods, to both girls. "Yes. But I can't leave right now, I'm chaperoning a bunch of the students on this trip to the mall. If you want, we can wait until they all return to the school?" she asks, shrugging gently.
"Well, okay, I guess I'll run into you at school, seeing how we're squadmates and everything. But I should get something to eat and get out of here. I've got some assignments I'd like to finish off," says Robin, smiling slightly as she rises from her seat. "So it was nice running into you guys, and I'll seeya later!"
July nods and waves to Robin, "Alright. Nice seeing you again, Robin!" the girl nods, watching her friend go, before looking at Sophie again, "Frightening? Because of the room's name?"
"Oh, for sure. I can leave my main body with you, so that I can help guide you and stuff, while controlling Blank. It would actually help me practice my split attention," says Robin to Sophie. With a wave to July, and a, "Goodbye," to both girls, she heads off.
Sophie shakes her head, "No… I'm told it isn't really all that 'dangerous'. Just… just what it is. I'm blind. I'm used to getting through life by keeping everything routine and ordered and… safe, I suppose. Getting pushed into a place where I don't know anything and can't see anything is, well, frightening."
Tracy smiles and reaches a hand to rest on Sophie's shoulder, "That's why you got your teammates, to help you just as much as you help them. You keep them healed, they keep you safe. I can understand about your need to keep things routine and ordered so your lack of vision doesn't impair you, but we can't always control life. It has a way of tossing chaotic things our way…" she chuckles a bit, still smiling.
Sophie smiles, and nods her head. "I know," she replies. "I realized that when I discovered my mutation." As she speaks, a soft glow comes to be visible from teh organ she mentioned earlier, within her chest. "Leaving Spain for New York has been quite the tossup already. I realize that I shall have to get used to things changing, and be ready for surprises. And perhaps learn how to swat people with my cane, if they get fresh with me, yes?" She laughs softly, and shakes her head. "I suppose we shall see. Or at least you will, and I will merely find out."
Tracy nods softly, smiling. "Listen…" she says softly, "I've seen some pretty amazing things. Not because I'm a mutant.." she says, her voice pretty low, but since Sophie is blind, her hearing should be enhanced enough to listen to her. "But because those things beyond possible. I have no doubts that you might get your sight back in the future. It's not my place to say why, but thanks to those… amazing things, Robin today is happier than she ever were." she nods again, "And if people do get fresh with you? You won't need the cane. I'll kick her asses from here to the moon!" she giggles, before looking at her clock, "Well, it's nearing time to get back to school. Shall we go round up everyone?"
The blind girl smiles, and bobs her head. "Certainly," she replies. "Actually, I do not mind being blind; I have gotten used to it. To have my vision back would be a fine thing, I am sure, but if it does not happen I will not be disappointed." She closes up her laptop, and carefully slips it into the slim backpack she brought. She slings it over her shoulders as she stands up, and sweeps the ground around herself with her cane. She encounters only a discarded soft drink cup, which she sends skittering away from her with a flick of her cane. "Let us go and find the others, then, yes."
~ Fin ~
