2012-05-03: Who Likes Chinese

Players: Robin, Tara, and Cale

Robin_icon.jpg Tara_icon.jpg Cale_icon.jpg

Summary: Cale cooks Chinese food for some friends and such. Robin's crazy puppet is there and scares him. Tara is cool and all also because she is always cool.

Date: May 3, 2012

Log Title: Who Likes Chinese

Rating: G


Xavier Mansion - Kitchen


This kitchen was designed to feed large numbers of people, and looks it with its bright white walls and stainless steel appliances. The stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher are all larger than normal. There is an island with stools around it for people to sit and eat around along with a table for twelve by the windows in back. Along the wall is a hole in the wall looking into the dining room so food can be passed back and fourth. Anything you want to cook or eat in the kitchen you will find the food and supplies to do so.


Players: Ahmed (ZZZ), Cale (IC)


[Hall]way

It's after the usual dinner buzz in the kitchen - in fact, it's pretty much empty except for one person. That one person is Cale, and whatever he is doing, it is making lots of noise and smoke/steam - but it smells pretty good. There are some various spices and whatnot piled next to the stove, and on one of the burners sits a wok, with a bunch of chicken and vegetables inside. Behind that, a pot. Apparently though, he's made a grave mistake, as he peers at the food with the sudden realization that there is /no way/ he will be able to eat all of this.

Robin comes through the door to the kitchen as well, her hair cut short into a pixie cut, and her blue puppet following after her. The young woman is wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a light pink blouse. She smiles and says, "Well, someone knows how to cook. I hear that you're new around here?" The young woman then looks towards Tara and says, "Hello, Tara."

"I, erm," Cale seems a bit surprised that the smell of food summoned hungry teenagers. Of course, he /shouldn't/ have been, all things considered. "I mean, yeah! I'm pretty new. I guess. I dunno," he answers in a small voice, "Are students allowed to use the kitchen? I mean. I was just bored. And this place has a /fantastic/ kitchen. It's like a professional restaurant or something. So I just sorta started with some stuff I found in the fridge… I hope that's okay…" he glances towards Robin - who seems to be a bit older and perhaps a person of minor authority or something.

"Hey, Robin. Yeah, just make sure you put everything back where you found it," says Tara, drifting through the kitchen to sit at the island. "And it's fine, as long as you don't set the place on fire and clean up after yourself. I come to cook here all the time." She drops the duffel bag beside her and leans on the counter, "Oh, and if I ever find out that you mix up the diet and regular sodas in the fridge, I will make life very unpleasant for you."

"Yeah, you can do pretty much whatever," says Robin, smiling slightly at Cale, "I mean, cooking is perfectly fine, I do it all the time here, actually. Well. Not all the time anymore. I've been doing lots of volunteer stuff in the city and trying to get into premed programs, kind of taking a lot of my time."

"That's good," Cale nods, stirring at the pan which is sizzling and seems to be getting close to done. He's pouring some oil and some other junk into it, and then stirring some more as he talks, "I'm Cale, by the way," he turns to Robin, left hand with the wooden spoon in it on his hip, as he holds out a hand to her. "But, I guess you kinda figured that out already, if you knew I was new," he laughs, glancing at Tara, "I um. I'll not do that." Please don't hurt him, scary blind girl!

Tara nods in satisfaction, having successfully put the fear of Tara in him. "Good. Now. Anybody want a soda?" she asks, the door of the fridge swinging open by itself, and a can of Pepsi drifts it's way to the girl, who is grinning hugely.

"I might get a diet Pepsi," says Robin, glancing over towards the fridge, "Though I dunno if they're in the usual place." The young woman and the puppet both seem to synch up as they look towards Cale and extend a hand towards him, though Blank is off by about a foot. "I'm Robin, it's nice to meet you Cale. How recently did you get here?"

Cale kind of glances nervously at the puppet, not sure what to make of it; why didn't he notice that thing before? Of course, it does seem to be linked to Robin, so it must be in some way related to her powers. He shakes Robin's hand, his grip soft and not particularly strong feeling. "I dunno. A couple weeks ago, I guess. I've just been settling in mostly… I've started classes, but they still haven't put me on a squad or anything yet." And he's still getting with the rythm of things with regard to the classes, the teachers obviously not expecting a whole lot out of a fresh mutant who basically just lost everything a few weeks prior. Still, Cale DOES like school, "So far it's been pretty good. Everyone here is really really nice. It's, well, I mean I can do pretty much whatever I want here, and nobody cares. In a good way."

"Weellll," Tara says, drawing out the word as she cracks open her soda, and floats a (hopefully) Diet Pepsi out to Robin. "Not really. They're pretty strict about students not using their powers on each other," she explains, sounding as if she's gotten into trouble for that before. "But, yeah. They want everybody to feel like they belong here."

Robin takes the Diet Pepsi out of the air and smiles at Cale, "Oh, yeah. I know that when I started here, I was kind've surprised by how nice the people are around here. Actually, it was kind've a stark contrast from where I used to live…" The teen smiles and says, "Don't be nervous around Blank, she doesn't bite."

"Are, are you sure?" Cale replies, still seeming a bit nervous. He can't help it, though he does /try/ at relax, at least, visibly, "Can I have a diet pepsi also?" he asks Tara, a bit belatedly, while she's hopefully still in the fridge. "I don't think I'd wanna use my powers on a fellow student, anyway. That'd be pretty, well, pretty gross anyway. 'n yeah. This place is MILES better than my old school, like I was telling Tara, I mean," he pauses, "I used to get beat picked on all the time for-" he cuts himself off. "Bleh, it's better not to go into that. But I like it here."

Tara makes a show of rolling her eyes. "Please. Blank doesn't even have teeth." She was just about the close up the fridge when Cale asks for his drink, which she, then helpfully provides. "For being different," Tara says, finishing Cale's sentence for him. "Yeah. We get that a lot around here. It's like the Island of Misfit Toys around here some days. In the end, no matter how broken you think you are there's always going to be some kid who's going to love you." Deep, Tara. Deep.

"Oh, yeah… yeah, most of us were pretty different before coming here… I mean, I dunno, I sure was, and here, most people are pretty okay. Well, sometimes people can be jerks, but they're usually equal opportunity jerks," says Robin, smiling at that, "And yeah… what Tara said."

"Well if someone's just a jerk, I don't really like that either, but it's better than picking specific groups of people just 'cause…" Cale trails off, smiling a little. "Yeah, I guess you're pretty much both right…" Suddenly, Cale realizes that the sizzling behind him has gotten louder, and the smell has gotten stronger, as he rushes back over to the stove to stir his frying pan and turn down the heat. "Actually, this looks about ready… do you guys like sweet and sour chicken?" he peers in the pot behind, noting the white rice seeming to be okay. "It's not like, gourmet or anything, but." He pokes at it some more with his spoon.

Tara thinks about it for a minute before nodding. "Sure," she says. "But only a little bit. I just worked out."

"I like sweet and sour chicken pretty okay," says Robin, taking a seat and noting, "Do you mind sharing? I know lots of mutants have to eat a lot to keep their nutriotional needs up."

Cale shakes his head, "Nono! I'm not like that, I just always make waaay too much food whever I cook! There's no way I'd be able to eat even half this much…" he smiles, poking at the stuff and dumping it from the pan into a more suitable container for putting on the table; hopefully one that will refridgerate a lot better than a whole freaking wok. "You don't have to eat more than you want… I didn't… even really want that much. I just like cooking," he grins. He's obviously glad that people showed up who could eat it.

Tara just shrugs. "It's okay. I just can't eat a lot after working out or else I get uhgy," she explains. "But it does smell good, though."

"Ah, okay, well, I'd be glad to have some," says Robin, smiling, "Well, I don't actually eat very much… But you can always refrigerate the rest."

Cale sets out a few plates and dishes up a small amount for himself, seeming pretty happy to eat it. "Aaanyway." He taps his fork against the plate idly. "Blank doesn't eat, does she?" he wonders, glancing at Robin idly…

"No teeth, remember?" says Tara, dishing out some rice and chicken for herself. She nods her approval as she takes a sampling of it. "This isn't half bad," she says.

"Yeah, no, Blank doesn't eat. She's just a projection from my own mind," says Robin, looking over towards the puppet, "She uses my mental energies. I can kind of see through her eyes and use her senses, which is good, since I lack depth perception."

"Oh really, you're blind in one eye? That's pretty awful. My eyes are sorta weird. Sometimes I feel like," Cale pauses, "Nah, I dunno," he grins, shaking his head. "Anyway," he grins, sticking the lid on whatever he's made after everyone gets their fill. He snags a post-it off the counter, scrawling 'for whoever' on the top of it, and throwing the rest in the fridge. Since Chinese reheats fairly easily, he rather assumes it'll be gone in short order.

Tara shrugs. "At least she's got one working eye," she says under her breath while eating her food. "So. Why are your eyes sorta weird?" she asks, not letting Cale so easily dismiss what he started to say.

"Look I dunno they just are okay? Sometimes they're a little weird," Cale murmurs, "Like, occasionally they can point in different directions. Or they focus weird. I dunno. It's not a big deal. It's probably just some weird… thing. I dunno. I've always been able to do kinda odd stuff with them though occasionally. That's not mutanty." he grins faintly, looking over at Tara, "Yeah, but you act like you're not even blind."

Robin glances over towards Tara and frowns, saying under her own breath, "Sorry…" The young woman shrugs and takes a drink of her diet pepsi, noting to Cale, "Some differences from how your body used to work when you have a physical mutation can be expected, I guess…"

Tara snorts. "Yeah, I know. I can get around okay, but there's things that I'm never going to be able to do," she explains. "Like read, unless it's Braille." She quickly snarfs down the rest of the food before hopping out of her seat. "Anyway. I've got to get back to my room and get the rest of my homework done. The Avengers will never take me if I flunk out of high school." With that she deposits the plate and utensils in the dishwasher. "Thanks for the snack!" And with that she's gone.

"Naah, that's been that way, like, a while, I guess," Cale rubs the back of his neck, finishing off the small portion of chicken that he took. He sips on some of his pepsi as well. "I… well, okay! You're welcome! Bye Tara!" he gives the girl a little wave cheerfully, before turning back to Robin. "Did your physical mutation make you lose your eye?" he put two and two together, noticing the one lens of her glasses and of course her mentioning her lack of depth perception.

"Goodnight, Tara," says Robin, who then laughs and says, "My mutation isn't physical, it's mental, so I didn't really change much physically. Well. Not from my power, anyhow…" She considers that for a moment and then shrugs, "Anyways, I lost my eye after I got an infection. I was living on the streets at the time…"

Cale frowns, "That's pretty horrible. I was…" he trails off, shaking his head. "I can't even imagine what that would be like. I thought, that maybe, that would happen to me and my sister. But I guess we got lucky. We had good parents, they left something behind for us…" he frowns a little, "Still though. It didn't turn out that bad I guess… I like your glasses, anyway! They're cute."

Robin smiles and says, "Well, thank you. I painted the lens myself… I figured I could either do this or just wear an eyepatch, but eyepatches are kind of scary and I don't really actually like pirates that much, and lots of people would make pirate jokes… it's not for me."

"Hey, I think pirates are pretty cool" Cale giggles, "But, yeah, that was probably a good decision, I mean. The lense is much less obvious, it just makes it seem like you like cats. But who doesn't like cats? I like cats a lot!" the boy smiles, finishing off his food and picking up both his and Tara's plate, rinsing them off in the sink idly. He is, when it comes to the kitchen, quite tidy. It's a shame his bedroom doesn't look anything like that.

"I like cats, too," decides Robin, tilting her head slightly, "The painting is of a cat I had back home on the farm. I mean, we all had it. His name is Stripey." The young woman shrugs and says, "Though I don't know if he's still about, he was an old cat when I left…"

"Farm?" Cale looks curious, "That musta been kinda cool. I lived in Denver, but it was sort suburb-ish. I mean we had a house and all, sorta on the edge of the city. It was nice, I guess," he smiles, "I liked the mountains. But a farm musta been sorta cool, I mean, peaceful and stuff."

Robin finishes up, gets up and puts her plate away and then nods, "It was pretty nice living on a farm, yeah. I did lots of the chores and stuff…" She shrugs and then continues, "I guess it was peaceful, but I had a bunch of brothers, so not that peaceful."

"Oh… that sounds… I dunno. Chores aren't much fun. But I really enjoyed helping my mom out with hers, I mean," Cale gestures towards his latest project, "She taught me how to do all sorts of things. My sister was really maybe not that interested in it, but I really liked it. I even took hom-ec at school for the cooking part. But… I feel like I already knew most of it. It was kinda basic stuff," he grins. "That's pretty bad though. I can't even imagine what having a brother would be like. I mean, my sister is pretty much, like. Everything I have. Now," he frowns a little, studying the tile floor. "I guess I mean, she took care of me, in a way. That nobody else could."

Robin frowns slightly at Cale and then says, "I'm sorry to hear that… but yeah, I dunno, I didn't mind the chores at all, really…" The teen says, "I should be getting ready for bed, though… It was nice meeting you Cale, I'll be heading to the dorms."

Cale smiles a little, faintly, as Robin heads off, leaving him once again alone in the kitchen. He turns towards the counter to clean up the mess he made, rolling up his sleeves to get to work on it.

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