Players:
Summary: Theo and Max meet the Master of Magnetism
Date: March 23, 2010. 11:45pm.
Log Title:Who are You?
Rating: PG
Xavier's Mansion - Court Yard
Surrounded on three sides by the school, a large courtyard forms the front yard. The courtyard leads right up to the door of the mansion. Yellow square stone slabs cover the ground where the grass would be. The most noticeable thing about the courtyard is the large statue of Jean Gray, aka Phoenix, in the middle as a memorial. Benches surround the outside of the statue so students can sit and hang out in the courtyard. There are two paths leading off the courtyard, one to the left and the other to the right.
Out of a clear night sky, the sound of fluttering fabric. A moment later, a crimson figure in a purple cloak settles to the gravel driveway. Magneto flicks his cloak straight and faces the mansion.
From the Dorms, a small thin figure walks. Hard to make out in the dark, but as he gets closer to the court yard, the freckle faced teen's features come into the light. His breath is visible, hands in his green hoody for warmth as he walks. He slows down as he sees Magneto. Of course, he doesn't know who Magneto is. He never really paid much attention to the news back home.
He doesn't seem scared, but he does start to quietly back away to come back from the direction he arrived, making as little noise as he can. He's no master of stealth though, and his footsteps can be heard in the cool dark night.
Magneto crosses his arms and stares at the front of the mansion. Just stares, for the moment; no telling why, yet. He does turn his head as Theo approaches. "Student," he says. He heard the footsteps, but there are other ways of noticing someone's approach, such as tracking the movement of the metal zippers in Theo's clothes, and the magnetic trace he leaves in the air. "It is late to be out."
The lad stops, and casually turns on his heels back to face Magneto, a sluggishly defiant look in on his face. "You're up," he gives as a contest to the statement. "I was just going to grab a snack. Been studying. Should please you, right?" He truly doesn't seem to recognize the master of magnetism.
Ice blue eyes narrow within the slit of the helmet. "The studying pleases me, yes. The snack, not so much." Magneto looks Theo down, then up. "What is your name, boy?"
"Theodore Fegenbush. The third actually, if you wanna know," he says, resting his stance with his feet at shoulder width apart, head slightly tilted back, as if studying his elder. "What's your name?" he asks. He slowly strolls forward. He walks with intention, but not with a rush. His messy brown hair is brushed out of his eyes, but most clearly not precisely kempt, and his dark brown eyes meet Magneto's own.
Magneto reaches up and takes off his helmet, letting it dangle from the fingers of one hand. "Most often, I am called Magneto. I have other names, of course, many of them mouthed by the desperate." His smile is thin and cold. "Well met, Mr. Fegenbush.
"Now, tell me. As a student of this school, you have talents above and beyond the norm. What are those talents, and what are the teachers here doing to help you optimize them?"
At the name Magneto, Theo stops in mid stride. He doesn't know his face, but the boy's heart skips a beat, and the confidence is suddenly gone. The indication is subtle, but present. His progression stops, and he stands still again. His knees are slightly bent though, as if ready to move. All this considered, he does fairly well to not change his facial expression.
"Does it matter?" he answers with a question. "Everybody has different powers going on here. I guess I'm a little fresh off the bus you might say, so I don't really know what they are gonna do yet to "optimize" them. Don't even rightly know all the teachers' names yet."
"Indeed? So 'fresh off the bus' that you don't even know what you do, let alone how well you do it?" The tone could so easily be mocking, but it isn't; Magneto is serious. And maybe just a trifle angry. "How… lax of your professors. It is permissible to not know their names," he waves them off with his free hand, "but not to know yourself…?"
A slight bead of sweat starts to form on Theo's forehead, despite the chilly temperature. "That's a pretty big leap," he says, a tinge of defensive fight in his tone. He took it as mocking. "I think I know myself pretty well. My powers are my business, I'm not one of these ponies that do tricks for people." His pose seems almost frozen. He doesn't move a single muscle as he speaks, but the fight in his eyes seems to be conquering the fear, and he's still looking Magneto in the eye.
"Do you, now? Do you really? Know your own powers." Magneto's smile has widened, showing a little white, now. "Do you know what you can do with them when you're surprised, Mr. Fegenbush? Or outnumbered? Do you know what you can do with them when you're sick, or beaten flat, or being rained on? Do you know what you can do with them when you're given all the advantages you can think of… except that one advantage that your opponent has, that can ensure you will lose, anyway? Just how well do you know yourself, Mr. Fegenbush?
"Better yet, how well do you want to know yourself?"
The boy doesn't answer quickly. He lets the silence hang rather than respond with the anger he wants to show. It's written all over his face. Evading the question, he responds. "What would you care? I'm not your problem." His weight adjusts ever so slightly to the left, and he takes a deep breath through his mouth.
Magneto shows his teeth. "An interesting question. The answer is, I care because you care… and I think you care very, very much. That is very much not a problem, Mr. Fegenbush. It is very much something that is very, very right."
Here, in the dark cool night, Theo and Magneto stand in the quiet court yard, no more than twelve feet from one another. "Well, good, I'm glad you care," Theo answers with a little vinegar. "So you just come here and stand outside in the middle of the night so you can tell me that?" he asks. "You'll have to pardon if I think you're a bit of a creeper." Feeling out of verbal ammunition, Theo takes a half step back, like an animal who feels cornered.
Unaware of a certain visitor to the mansion, Max approaches from the right path, going outside from the dormitories. Though he soon stops as he spots a new face, and… what's this? Magneto? His ice blue eyes widen with excitement. "Hello." He says, managing to at least get that out. He's dressed in a light t-shirt and cargo shorts. The air around him gets a bit colder as he's excited.
"A creeper? That's a new name for me. Are you feeling desperate, Mr. Fegenbush?" And now Magneto is mocking. Theo might notice the difference… or he might not. That doesn't concern the Master of Magnetism much, because here's another student.
"My," he says, giving Max a studious look, down and up, rather like he did Theo, when he first saw him. "There seems to be a crowd of students out and about. So late, too. Tell me, young man: were you studying, too? And you were in need of refreshment?"
Theo tries to regain himself, and he studies Magneto carefully. He doesn't like losing, and he's not used to losing, not in games of the mind. He's distracted though, as Max appears. He gives his fellow student a once over, but doesn't feel incredibly comforted. The youth clenches his jaw a little. "I don't get desperate, I get what I need. As to how I feel, that depends, what do you want from us?" he asks, eager to assume an ally in Max, even if he doesn't know the boy's name.
Max gives Theo a look, giving a friendly nod. "Heya." He says to Theo. "Umm, not so much studying. More like, insomnia." He says, trying to sound as courteous as he can. Just as if he were talking to Scott. "I was just gonna watch cartoons until I got tired enough." The young cryokinetic starts to shift about, still being hyper as always. The blonde spikey-haired boy moves closer to Theo and Magneto, more to Theo though.
"What you need? Is that what you're getting here, Mr. Fegenbush?" Still with that edge of mockery. Magneto's eyes are smiling now, too, even as he turns his attention back to Max. "Cartoons," he says, musingly. "An interesting pastime, if not precisely in concert with your studies, I am sure. But when battling insomnia, one uses the weapons at one's disposal." He regards Max for a moment. "What is your name, boy? Mr. Fegenbush has introduced himself," a negligent wave at Theo. "I, of course, am Magneto."
Theo likewise starts to move now, a little closer to Max. "I guess I'll find out," he answers simply. He gives a nod to Max in greeting, though he doesn't give him many words. "Hi," comes his short greeting to Max. Still, he makes certain to stand closer to the cryokinetic, but he shivers once with the drop in temperature as he draws closer.
Max looks up at Magneto. "Oh, I'm sorry. Max Farlane. My name is Max Farlane. Well, Maximillian." The cryokinetic answers back to the Master of Magnetism. The boy is surely intimidated, though he shows little fear of Magneto. He's always called himself someone who works to better mutantkind, right? Max looks to Theo as he gets closer. "Haven't met you before." He says, his way of welcoming Theo to Xavier's.
"Maximillian." Magneto regards the tow-headed boy before him for a long moment. Theo is, for the moment, not on the planet for him. "Maximillian. A rather large name, Maximillian Farlane. I trust you will grow into it." If he's noticed the drop in air temperature, he isn't giving any sign of it.
Then he looks from one boy to the other. One white eyebrow raises. "I see you were being truthful, Mr. Fegenbush, about being fresh off the bus. Theodore, meet Maximillian. Maximillian, meet Theodore. Consider yourselves formally introduced, gentlemen."
"Yeah, good to meet you," Theo extends a hand to Max, but keeps an eye still focused on Magneto. Something about the exchange seems to lower his guard a little, however. "Told you, it's a little bit of a drive from Virginia," he adds.
"If you think that's big you should hear my full name." He says, trying to add in a little humor to the situation. Max shakes Theo's hand and smiles. His hand is just as cold as the air around him, maybe even colder. "I heard you were helping the X-Men, with Mister Sinister, is that true, sir?" Max asks quite out of left field.
Magneto gives Theo a sharp look at the mention of Virginia, but he answers Max's question instead. "In a manner of speaking, yes, I have been helping the X-Men with Mr. Sinister. If you call retrieving Jonothon Starsmore 'helping'." The mockery is back in his voice. "I left him with your headmaster for safe keeping."
Theo catches the look from Magneto, and his blood runs as cold as the hand he's shaking. "Jeez, you're like ice," he says to Max, trying to move the conversation onward. "Who's Jonothon Starsmore? He another student?" he asks, apparently quite ignorant of recent events.
"Oh yeah…sorry about that." Max says to Theo. "That's what I do." The cold kid smiles nervously. At least he doesn't need to bundle up against the cold. "Oh, I'll have to tell Markus that he was wrong then." He says, talking about the did Magneto help the X-Men thing.
Magneto looks aside at the mansion and frowns; whatever he is thinking, however, does not get said. When he turns back to the boys, he says, "It has been a pleasure making your acquaintance, gentlemen. The Institute has gotten more… comprehensive, I think, since the days when I was headmaster here."
He raises a hand and random metallic trash starts to drift and skitter across the gravel driveway toward him: a bottle cap from the shrubs near the front door, a bolt from the garage, some twisted, unrecognizable thing from the driveway itself. They rise and whirl in the air, their shapes bending and blending together, until a pair of devices like cell phones float there.
Theo takes a step backward, raising a hand to prepare to defend himself as he watches the pieces of metal swirl about. He knits his brow as the trash begins to form into actual creations of some sort, and seems to gather what they do. "You're creating a couple of walkie talkies?" he asks, his chocolate colored eyes fixed on the strange devices floating in the air.
Max looks up as the pieces of metal gather together. The expression on his face can only speak amazement. "Cool." is the only thing that he can comment about what's floating up in the air. He figures Magneto will comment on what he is making on his own.
Once finished, the devices drift over to float in front of the boys, one to each. "You may contact me using these… or each other, for that matter." Magneto puts his helmet back on and gives the two an ice-eyed stare and a polite nod of the head. "If you need something, or," and he shifts his whole focus to Theo, "if you need to … respond … to something that has happened."
He takes a step backward and gathers his cloak in both fists. "Good night, gentlemen." And with that, he's rising into the air, and is swiftly out of sight.
Theo reaches out and takes the device offered him, and lets out a chilled breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Always good to keep your options open," he says to Max in an even tone. He examines the device carefully and then watches Magneto float out of site. He stuffs the device into the pocket of his jeans. "Don't think the headmaster needs to know about this, do you?" he asks, and then adds evidence for the suggestion. "He probably wouldn't let us keep'm."
Reaching to grab the communicator, Max puts it in one of his cargo pockets. "Umm. Okay." He's oblivious about what Magneto and Theo are talking about. "Yeah, that'd suck a lot." Though Max himself may have someone more discreet take a look at the device sometime.
