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Summary: Theo escapes to the woods to be alone. Max ends up there with out of control icing, and Connor makes a poor teleport. So they strike up a conversation
Date:May 2, 2010.
Log Title: Why are we out here?
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Forgotten Path
Overgrown with trees and brush, this path has long been out of use and is rather difficult to find at all. Looking closely at the ground shows the remains of a dirt walkway, but the entrance to said walkway is long since lost to the plants. It winds through the woods, eventually opening to a view of a long forgotten chapel on the grounds. Perhaps once it had been a charming little building, but now, it has certainly seen better days. The windows are boarded over, the doors are barely hanging on their hinges, vines have started to grow up the walls, and there's even a good chuck of it toward the back that looks as if it were the victim of a fire. All in all, it seems it was judged not worth the cost of repairs and left to nature's devices.
The evening sun is setting, but it's hard to tell because of all the rain that has been pouring down during the day. It's cooled off the temperature, which Max will probably appreciate, but it's also wet. There's been a break in the weather though, and Theo has taken the opportunity to find his way to a familiar log, wet though it may be. It rests just off of the forgotten path. He sits on it, one foot resting beside him and the other on the ground. He's staring at something on his iPhone. His personal one, not the school one. He's quiet, not making a sound, and not moving.
In fact Max is appreciating it, as much as he can. The ice kid is working on his ice sliding. Skating on a sheet of ice forming on a path of ice. Though soon enough me makes a painful sound as he slips off of the ice and his ice body is rolling on the ground from the momentum. He lands face down on the ground not too far from Theo. The ice boy then rolls over. "Oww!" He says, more frustrated with himself than anything. He starts brushing off leaves from himself.
Theo doesn't seem to notice Max much, not until he gets close, and lands on his face. He casts a look over his shoulder. With a rather bland look, he rests his head on his shoulder, still looking back at Max. "Nice of you to drop in," he quips dryly. He spinson his perch to face Max.
Max looks to THeo and smiles. "Heya!" He offers before moving to join Theo on the stump. "Whatchoo doin?" He asks, sounding as if he's curious, but not nosy. Eventually the ice gives way to flesh and Max is in his training uniform, looking much like a wetsuit with legs that end below the knee and short sleeves.
Theo looks at his iPhone, and turns off the screen. It was a picture of some sort. A man is holding Theo in a headlock. He puts it in his pocket. "Just enjoying the weather," he says with a false grin. "How about you?" he returns the question. "You got some mud on your face," he indicates Max's face with his finger.
The cryokinetic isn't sure what to make of what little he saw of the picture. Max's eyes flare a little as he's told there is mud on his face. "Dangit." He wipes it up with his hand. "You like rain?" He asks, not something normal people like, though Max can't do much of the sunshiney stuff, so he's understandable.
Theo smiles with a half laugh. "I was being coy," he says. "Just came out here to get away from the machines in the school for a bit. How about you, practicing in the rain?" he asks, looking back at the path, now covered in ice. He puts the phone in his pocket.
"Oh." He says, before looking to the ground for a little bit. "Oh, well, the water is cool to freeze, and well, not too many cold days left until fall so I take what I can get, y'know?" Max, with his flaw takes it quite well, and tries to let things not affect him negatively. "If you wanted to get away from the machines why'd you bring that out here?" He delivers it like an idle question because that is what it is.
Connor has arrived.
Theo follows Max's indication. He doesn't have a good answer immediately, and it seems clear for a moment. He hesitates on his response. "I…" he starts. "Well, it's just one. It's not like the school where there's fifty of them in every room. Can you imagine if everywhere you went, there were fifty people talking? That's what it's like for me inside." He motions his hand around. "Out here," he says. "There's just this," he pulls the phone out, the screen still dark. It's clearly not a school phone, if Max pays close enough attention to such things.
"Well heck, that's kinda close to how I talk to myself up there." Yes, Max drives even the most even-keeled telepath rabid with his inner-monologue. As for the school phone, Max knows that a lot of students have the school one and their personal one, himself included. And fortunately for Theo, Max is just a bit too naive to see the hesitation in his response as anything more than trying to get the words out.
Behind the pair of you comes a strange sensation… as if for a moment gravity was attempting to reverse itself, followed by a sound that reminds to Max might be familiar… air collapsing in to fill a vacuum with a pop-sound… and then the heavy thud of someone hitting the ground… followed by an almost familiar voice groaning and grumbling out, "Shit…" When the person stands up… it's Connor… in a sleeveless top and a pair of knee-length shorts. Theo can note in one of his pockets there's a cell phone there, one of the more advanced touchscreen models with wireless internet. Pushing some dirt off his arm, he looks up and around, mumbling to himself, "Where the hell…"
Theo frowns, and looks behind him, made rather uncomfortable by the sensation. "Man, it's just raining men, huh?" he says, not realizing he made a pun. "First Max and now you. I really thought it'd be more…you know, secluded out here." In the distance the thunder rolls, who knows how long it'll be before the rain starts up again, but it seems to be holding for the moment.
Max quickly changes back into his ice form as he hears a popping sound. A reaction to already having an elevated adrenaline level at the moment. Suddenly he has what the alcoholics call 'a moment of clarity' and chimes in. "Yes, exactly that, I was a demon, but you know, the Eagles /did/ get back together. This is what happens. So now…hell has frozen over. Enjoy the…searing cold of ice for all eternity?" Max sits back on the log and changes back to flesh and bone. "Hey, I didn't fall out of the sky, I just slipped…on ice. Yeah that's ironic."
Connor looks around for several moments, and then frowns softly as he crosses his arms over his chest, "O… kay… this definately isn't the rec room… but if you're both here… that means I at least didn't titanically screw up…" Looking down at himself and pushing off more dirty before he looks at Max, "I know Theo, but I don't remember you… I'm Connor…" And with that he starts walking over towards the two, looking curiously at the ice formation.
Theo becomes distracted from Connor's explanation of his arrival by Max's…whatever he just said. "Max," he tells Connor. "Max, you okay?" he asks. "That was the most random things I've ever heard someone say." He puts his phone in his pocket again.
"So how'd you end up out here, Connor?" he asks.
"Well that makes two of us. I'm Walter, Walter Mellon." He says before snerking and doubling over. "No, really I'm Max. Max Farlane." As he begs himself on the inside to no ask him any more than that. "The Eagles broke up way back when and said they'd only get back together when hell froze over. They got back together in the nineties and their tour was called the Hell freezes over tour." Max kinda gives up after a bit. "Yeah, I'm alright, why?" He asks, being a little more random than last time he talked with Theo, and a lot more hyper. His leg jumps up and down and up and down real fast as he's sitting there.
Connor looks down at his phone, flicking a few options, and then looks at the screen, "Okay weird… I've got…" He sighs, "Allright… I was trying to get to the Rec Room… I just wanted to avoid walking the paths, all the cameras… explaining what I'm doing out this time of night… so I… cheated a little." Holding up the phone. Finally he walks over towards Max, and puts out a hand to him, "The Eagles were an okay band, but Hotel California gets overplayed… at least in my opinion. Connor Blake. Excelsiors. Something wrong?"
Connor pages, "No worries. XD We'll roll with it. the 'cameras' thing can be a decent excuse on who he REALLY wants to avoid at the moment." to you.
Theo grins. "Well," he says. "You managed to avoid the cameras," he offers. "So I guess you could say it was a success." He looks up at the sky, and then back down at the other two boys present.
"The cameras…you do know that they don't care if you're out here this late, it's more that they want you on campus before curfew." He speaks with experience, after being here for over three years. "Oh!" Connor would certainly feel his hand sticking to Max's skin out here in the humid atmosphere mixed with Max's freezing skin. "Spit." He says, looking to the hand on his shoulder. "We've got a Ralphie situation." Max says quietly before giving an unsure look to both Theo and Connor. "I'm on the New Mutants, B T dub."
Connor looks at Theo for a long moment, and the browperk followed by the headtilt does enough to say 'is he all there?' before turning back to Max. Sizing him up for a moment, he then closes his eyes, "I got this…" And before the freeze happens too long… suddenly they're both loose, as Max seems a very light blue-green aura appearing around him, and then disappearing after a moment. Looking down at his hand, he flips it over, "Wow… it worked… Cool."
Theo just smiles back at Connor, but doesn't give much indication one way or the other. He watches as Connor uses his powers to somehow unstick him from Max.
"Well," he says. "That's a pretty nice trick, Connor," he says, "But I think I'm gonna be heading back inside before it starts to rain again." He starts back town the path, rather carefully so that he doesn't slip. The thunder cracks again, and Theo, not expecting it, jumps. And butt first onto the ice he goes, sliding along a bit. "He shakes his head, "I guess we're three for three," he says with a wince, rubbing his rear as he carefully gets back to his feet.
Max looks to Connor after they are split apart. "The heck was that?"
Max looks to Connor after they are split apart. "The heck was that?" He asks before looking to Theo and holding back a laugh as he falls on his keister. "Later Theo!" He calls out before looking back to Connor. "So…" He says, not sure what to say, but his body sure is everywhere.
Connor waves as Theo departs and then shrugs, "Oh that? Phasing field… as long as the object has less mass than me, I can shift through or around it. Seems kinda stupid, but it's a good defense… at least at the moment." Shaking his head as he looks away a moment, and then says rather softly, "So… is it like… ADD or something? I mean… the fidgetting… or did you down a lot of caffiene before coming out here?"
"ADHD. You should see me during the week, no wait. Don't." Max says before looking back to Connor. "That's cool and all, but, you couldn't have just yanked?" Max has a little bit of a laugh in his voice with that. Not really seeing the need to be all aura-ey on himself. "I'm like the only one here who has it apparently. But anyway, I get by."
Connor laughs a bit, and then nods, "Well… ADHD boy… meet compulsive disorder boy… nice to know the mental stuff isn't just me… it's actually kind of… comforting. And before you ask… I have to have things in my personal space very neat… my room looks hardly lived in. And I get stressed… I clean… I know it's weird… but hey… can't all be like Theo… who's superpower flaw seems to be well… nevermind…" Cutting off the joke before it starts. Taking off his shirt, of all things, he actually begins to clean some of the dirt off of him in a much more meticulous fashion, frowning as his other hand balls into a fist, "I could have yanked… but that was more fun."
The cryokinetic widens his eyes at Connor as he takes his shirt off. "Yeah…you'd be glad I'm not your roomie." Max says, expecially when Connor starts to clean his shirt all fancy-like. "Now, you see, that's the answer I like to hear." Max says, loving the fun aspect.
Connor continues to work on getting the littlest spots of grime away from himself, before he sighs, "I'm dead scared I'm going to either have to lay out ground rules or talk the campus into putting me with someone who's neat too… yeah… not that I -want- to pick up after someone. I'm still settling in here… haven't even been a month… and hell… I only had access to this stuff since around Christmas." He stops and looks up, "Anyways… what…" Looking down at his toned chest… having a trim athlete's physique, "I have a spot on me somewhere?"
Huh? Oh, no nothing, just…zoned out. " Max didn't want to say that he didn't think Connor would do that right here. But he certainly believes Connor on the compulsion thing. I'm about to head back in myself." Max adds in, not feeling like he wants to continue the ice slide today.
Connor looks up and over towards the dorms, "Probably a good idea… so… you do ice-stuff? Nice… I'd say cool, but it's a little cliche…" Gulping once, he doesn't seem to want to, but he pulls his shirt back on, and then shivers, and scratches a spot, phantom itches springing up, "So.. nice to meet you Max… sorry I've never said hi in the halls… I tend to keep to myself. I've been trying to change that."
"It's all good, I've probably been on auto-pilot during school anyway." Max responds, looking to Connor. "You really can't get away from the cold-puns in my line of mutant-ness. Something Bobby kinda made me realize." Max himself is known by more than a few people in the mansion, hard to miss a walking air-conditioner, especially in the summertime. "And there's plenty of people to get to know here, it's kinda sweet, y'know?"
Connor turns towards where the main complex is, and starts walking towards it slowly, occasionally itching at a spot on his chest, wiping at places already clean on his leg, before he says, "I'm… not used to really getting to know people… but I'm changing that. I have friends… friends I made for a change. But I dunno if that means anything to you… you seem like the type to always attract friends… especially at beach parties."
"Well, the ice-thing helps in that sense, but I can't really do summers outside these days. Too much heat and I break out into a sweat and I can get heat stroke." Max has been trying to get over that, but it's hard when your body is technically dead, but your heart keeps on beating and your blood doesn't freeze. "You could probably grab a shower at your dorms."
Connor shakes his head, "No… these are going to itch until I get them in the laundry, then get a shower… I really don't like being outdoors too often when I'm stressed… it's one of those things…" Frowning a bit before he then says, "Heat Stroke? Really… weird… you'd think that would be the last of your problems… you could just keep something cold close all the time."
"It's thermodynamics, something hot will always try to heat up the cold around it. The sun just has a slight advantage over me when it comes to temperature." Max does seem to have a few moments of intelligence. Especially if it concerns him. "So, when you leave the door open and your dad bitches about letting the cold out, it's actually that you're letting the heat in." He says with a laugh, following Connor towards the main building.
Connor rubs the side of his head, "Oh for the love of… PLEASE don't start on the physics stuff… I'm still getting headaches over attempting to understand the nature of a quantum particle…" Shaking his head then and drooping it slightly, before his hands go into his pockets and seem to stick there, "My dad never complained about the cold. He put AC and dehumidifier units in his den and all the bedrooms… usually right next to where a computer would set up shop."
"Quantum particle…?" Max apparently has not gotten to that part yet. Even though the two boys are of the same age. "Nice, I guess you didn't have to worry about the computers then." Max says, giving a yawn. "Man, I wasn't this tired a second ago."
Connor shakes his head as he shrugs once more, "Dad's a tech nut… couldn't be avoided… and the physics stuff is to help me understand my powers better… anyways… if I don't shower I'm going to start scratching again… and I really don't need to add a visit to the medic in the morning… Later Max."
