ArchivedLogs:The New Kids

The New Kids
Dramatis Personae Tatters, Peter, Ivan, Kai
In Absentia	2013-03-11 Peter and Ivan meet the new kids! Wait, is Tatters an honorary X-kid now?!
Location <XS> Conservatory
Tall panes of glass keep this large indoor garden warm year round. Tended to by the school's groundskeeper, the conservatory is lush with plant life, a carefully cultivated paradise within Xavier's walls. The room serves as a classroom as well; in the center of the garden a ring of seats forms a small circle, a favorite locale for some teachers to hold court. "...and he said they had a /DRAGON/," Peter says, his excitement barely contained. "Like, a /dragon/ dragon. Like, an ACTUAL FRIGGING DRAGON." He is walking besides Ivan through the conservatory, babbling away at him like he usually is prone to do. He's dressed in his black hoodie, blue jeans, a t-shirt that says 'TEACH THE CONTROVERSY' (with a picture of the devil burying fossils), and a school-bag slung over one shoulder. Awkward looking hipster glasses (Buddy Holly!) perched on his nose. "Also, Doctor McCoy says he's not gonna be able to look at the canisters for a while because they have /so/ many things to do, but..." Ivan, meanwhile, is listening ever so patiently. Just as Peter is doing his usual yapping, the bugboy is doing his usual Anything But Talking. Looking around attentively as he walks, steps calculated, alongside Peter. He's dressed in a boring old white dress shirt and faded jeans, and a two spiders the size of thumbnails are oh so meticulously perched on his right shoulder, occasionally twitching left or right a few spidery steps. There's the softest scrape of foot on floor as another enters the Conservatory. Shadow-like, Kai slips into the overlarge room, closing his eyes briefly at the feel of warm sun on his face before he begins to drift slowly through the room. He's dressed in a pair of sweatpants and an Xavier's Academy phys ed shirt that are both a little too large for his thin frame. In his hand, he carries...a sandwich? Peanut butter, for those looking closely enough. It seems forgotten, though, as he begins to look at the plants, thin fingers skimming lightly over leaves and blossoms as he goes. Occasionally his brow twitches, and he cants his head as if listening. Maybe the flowers are whispering sweet secrets. While the trio of kids enters from two different directions, Tatters is already here, sitting crosslegged on a bench. It's been a few days since the raid, now, and she's mostly intact once again: her frame is a bit softer, a bit more doughy than it used to be, lacking its habitual layer of leathery armor, and she's still missing an eye -- on the bright side, eyepatch! -- but she has two arms, two legs, and most of her facial features back. So: all the important bits. Also presumably the internal important bits because she's not dying. What she /is/ doing is bouncing a small rubber ball off an interior wall, a divider between two tall windows, pausing every so often to make adjustments as she recalibrates her manual dextrifiers. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Peter is continuing to natter at the ever-silent Ivan as he goes, but he's interrupted by the sound of that Ba-dump, ba-dump -- his mouth snapping shut. Then, promptly, he's sneaking forward -- eyebrows crunching together -- as he slips around a corner and... "Oh," he says, and then his eyes /bolt/ open with recognition. "Oh!" he says, and then -- stage-whispering to Ivan: "Oh I met this person once but," much softer now, "it was when I was the /Spider/, but anyway maybe she is a student here now? And," and now Peter is straightening, stepping out to wave to Tatters. "Hello!" he says, and if Ivan does not immediately follow Peter is /pulling/ Ivan after him. "I'm Peter. Are you a new student here?" He has not yet noticed Kai, in the distance. Ivan is not very good at sneaking. At least not when he doesn't see a reason to do it. He pops up next to Peter with considerably less subtlety, eyes flitting from Peter to Tatters, and then-- around. Strange things hardly ever come alone, after all. His gaze lands on Kai momentarily, but he hardly manages to get a good look before he is /pulled/ after Peter, ending up halfway behind and beside his friend when he finally looks at Tatters again. Quietly. Staring. Expression hard to read, beyond perhaps a pinch of curiosity. One of the two spiders on his shoulder crawls up the side of his neck while the other seems to join its ride in the gawking, albeit with teeny tiny little eyes. Voices in the room bring Kai's attention around to find the speakers, his eyes a bit wide with concern when he meets Ivan's gaze, and he moves to conceal himself in the plants. It is an unsuccessful sort of fade, though, as he catches his foot on a clay pot and sprawls, making a pained noise as he attempts to save his sandwich, which tumble-rolls awkwardly away from him, and towards Peter and Company. "{No...}" is whispered softly before Kai's mouth pulls into a tight line, and he begins belly-crawling towards his errant lunch, looking up occasionally to gauge where the others are in relation to its position. It'd be a lot more stealthy, if the 'brush' were heavier, and he wasn't in a WALKWAY. Tatters' eye swivels up to squint at Peter as he approaches, her head turning slightly and the eye drifting a few degrees across her face to complete the motion. And then she shrugs. "Nope. Just, like, crashing here while I put myself back together." Her eye narrows further, as she gives him a good, slightly out-of-focus look. "Do I know you? You sound familiar." His untalkative companion gets a glance, his spiderfriends another, without much reaction, but then her attention is drawn away by the movement and exclamation in the other direction, her expression widening in concern. "Oh! Man, are you okay, kid?" Or...crap, he doesn't English, does he? "I've got a really generic voice," Peter explains, just /staring/ at that eye as it moves -- dodging the question with a half-lie. And then, OH HEY THERE'S A KAI. Peter jumps, and blinks, and crouches, and /peers/. "Oh hey that kid's... Ivan! Don't let any bugs get on his sandwich!" Peter COMMANDS. Because protecting the edibility of that sandwich is /top/ priority. But also because that is the first thing Peter worries about when /he/ drops his food on the ground. At Tatters' second question, Ivan swivels around to look in Kai's direction again, head cocking to the side as he peers from sandwich to boy, and then - when Peter promptly declares the dropped food item now officially a bug free zone - back to the sandwich. And he /focuses/ on it, back straightening and hands balling to fists. This is serious business. The spiders on his shoulder and neck have had enough, it seems. They jump ship and land behind him, though seem uncertain where to go after they hit the ground. A second later, from several plant pots around Kai, a few centipedes and ants and tiny little spiderlings of all sorts come crawling out of the dirt and off of plants to drop to the floor and move directly /away/ from the sandwich. For one or two, however, that may mean crawling directly over Kai. Kai freezes when people speak directly /to/ him, and he furrows his brow at the strange words, although they sound kind enough. Then there is some sort of concern over his sandwich, and BUGS, so he abandons his belly-crawl to dart forward and pluck it up, cradling it against his chest protectively as he stares wide-eyed at the others. Tatters gets a glimmer of recognition, and he points at her, then to the scar on his lip. "{He wants your name,}" he says, taking a half-step forward. "{You got his attention.}" Peter and Ivan get another slow look, then he bows slightly, and presses a hand to his sandwich - er - chest. "Kai." Tatters says, "Sure." Tatters doesn't sound convinced, giving Peter a suspicious side-eye, and the mass, insectile exodus a similar look. She doesn't seem particularly discomfited by the sudden mass appearance of insects -- clearly, Tatters' fear of creepy-crawlies has been long burnt out of her -- but still flicks her gaze around the conservatory in a vain attempt to make sure the entoturge doesn't have any additional reinforcements lurking around. He probably does. But then her attention is dragged back to Kai, provoking further eyeing as he speaks in a language she can't understand -- though she does figure out that he's introducing himself by the end, and points to herself in response. "Ta- uh, Jill. Pleased to meet you."" Peter cocks his head to the left at the sound of that foreign tongue -- then: "Oh... oh man! You don't speak English, do you?" He nudges Ivan. "I don't think he speaks English!" Then, to Kai, smiling with a hand thrust out to him -- as if wanting to STEAL THAT DELICIOUS GROUND-SANDWICH. But not really: "Hi! I'm... Peter." Thumb-jerk back to Ivan. "Ivan." Then, he looks at Jill, because Jill is new and that must mean Jill must know this person. "Do you know what language he's speaking?" Ivan has no objection to Peter's introduction on his behalf, standing idly by as his fingers unfurl and his shoulders drop down slightly. He does not offer Kai a hand, instead choosing to observe the stranger further, /scrutinizing/ whatever part of the boy Ivan can see from where he stands. After that, Tatters receives much the same treatment. He doesn't look so much confused or surprised as he does just plain /thoughtful/. The creepy crawlies around him and the many plants seem to halt in their actions once the sandwich is secured, before making their way, much more naturally, toward the nearest dark corner or crevice to hide in. Kai stares, uncomprehendingly at Peter when he begins speaking, clutching his sandwich to his chest even more tightly when that hand comes at him, fingers pushing into the bread messily. He dances back, eyes widening as he shifts his direction towards Tatters, keeping Peter and Ivan firmly in front of him. "...Peter..." he echoes in a soft voice, rolling the strange name around clumsily. "Ivan." is a little more assured. Then he turns to Jill, raising a peanut-butter smeared finger to point in her direction. "Jill." He makes a slicing motion, as if wielding a blade, and touches his chin, repeating her name. "Jill." Tatters frowns at the gesture, giving the boy a worried look. "That doesn't still hurt you, does it? I don't actually know how--uh, right. Words." Glancing over at Peter, she shrugs. "He's a, uh, rescuee. Korean. We have, like, psychic guys who can talk to him, but I dunno any've the language that doesn't have to do with, like, Starcraft." Turns into a dragon, she /doesn't/ add, nor 'beat the crap out of me when I fought him the other day.' Gossiping about other people's powers and/or secret dangerous raids isn't her job. The slicing motion Kai makes with his peanut-butter tipped finger -- followed by the tap to his chin, where a scar has settled on his lip -- catches Peter's interest. He looks between Tatters and Kai. "Wait /what/ still hurts?" and then, when Tatters mentions the word 'rescuee', his eyes /pop/ open. "OH," he says, rather loudly, and then: "Oh, oh, uh, right nevermind," the scar probably came from that DRAGON they were fighting or oh god who knows there is probably TRAUMA here, except -- now, a bit more tentatively: "You... were you rescued, too?" to Tatters. Ivan seems skeptical of these two strangers. He takes a step away from both of them and then promptly sinks closer to the floor, hands pressed down. Where did his two friends go? If he is at all invested in the current conversation, he certainly isn't showing it. Kai's brow furrows at the obvious question from Tatters, but he can only lift a shoulder at the question, lifting his finger to his mouth to suck the peanut butter from it. His attention bounces between Peter and Tatters, and he chews on his finger a bit as nothing seems to make any sense. And slowly, very slowly, he drifts over to the quietest of the three, crouching flat-footed next to Ivan and peering at the ground for a moment before turning a questioning gaze at the other boy. "Ivan?" Comes with a gesture at the ground and another curious look. "Well, he seems fine." Tatters answers her own question, sighing and shifting back in her seat, tossing her ball in the air and looking pleased as she manages to catch it with a minimum of fumbling. And then Peters' persistent questioning occupies her attention again. "Oh, uh, no. I live in the city. I was just on loan as a bullet sponge." "Bulle..." BLINK. "You -- oh man you went /IN/. You were part of the --" It looks like Peter's about to seize hold of Tatters and start /shaking/ her, but suddenly he seems to think better of it. She looks... hurt-ish. Also, there might be pointy and sharp bits somewhere under her clothes. Then, with a voice that is a bit more hushed: "Was there a dragon somebody told me there was a dragon I totally heard there was a dragon." Ivan's eyebrows shoot up at mention of his name, and his eyes home in on Kai's face immediately afterwards. "Hello." He breathes out hurridly, almost as a /reflex/, Russian accent pulling heavily on the beginning of the word. He follows the gesture somewhat ineffectually, eyes on Kai's hands rather than the ground he is gesturing /at/, before snapping to attention again. OH. "Spiders." He explains, quietly and somewhat uncertainly, before raising one of his hands to only have his very fingertips touching the ground. He then makes it 'crawl' forward an inch or two, attempting his best hand-spider imitation. "I don't know where they..." He stops there, looking a little concerned that he might as well be speaking Russian for all the use it's going to be. Kai offers a small almost-smile when Ivan looks up, and lifts a hand in greeting when the other boy speaks. He listens, uselessly, and watches carefully as Ivan demonstrates, mimicking the motion with his own hand. "Spi..ders," he echoes, staring at his fingers. Then, a switch goes on in his head. "{Spiders! You are looking for spiders.}" He seems pleased to have figured this out, and makes the gesture again with an almost expectant, happy look on his face for Ivan. "Spider." Then, he narrows his eyes, and visibly searches his brain for something; a word he's heard in this language before. "...Why?" "I'm not the person to ask about that." Tatters gives Peter a level look. Technically, she probably /is/ the person to ask about that, but if no one else has indulged his curiosity then she probably shouldn't. Ivan and Kai are watched with...ugh, she's down to one eye, this is less convenient. With /some/ of her attention and some flicking back-and-forth, as she tries to keep an eye on the pair. "Oh. Right. Right," Peter says, straightening up as Tatters reminds him that this is all HUSH HUSH. "I, uh, /sorry/, it's just..." Stage-whisper: "DRAGON." Then, a glance back at Kai and Ivan, stepping aside to let Tatters keep an eye (just one -- HA HA!) on them. His voice is a little lower, now, addressing Tatters with a hint of meekness -- and perhaps, just a mild bit of reverence? -- kept soft to try and ensure Ivan does not hear: "I was... going to go, too," he says. "But they talked me out of it. Cuz I've never, like, had to /kill/ anybody." Ivan's attention is now squarely on Kai and their tiny little close-to-the-ground world. He doesn't quite smile back, but his expression easily hints at the fact that he might just be too busy being fascinated by Kai's snippets of conversation to think of returning the friendly face. The question of 'why' does give him pause for a bit, though. "Because..." He starts, then looks unsure of how that sentence should be finished, "... they are /mine/." He presses a hand to his own chest, now, studying Kai's face for any sign of understanding. "/My/ spiders." Almost as if on cue, one of the spiders from before /jumps/ back into sight from behind Tatters' legs. A tiny little thing but it sure moves fast when it wants to, alternating between sitting completely still and /zipping/ to another spot on the floor. Kai regards that possessive move with a nod of understanding. "Ivan spiders," he affirms, and shifts his attention to the floor, where he begins looking in earnest. He sort of duck-waddles in his crouch, watching the floor carefully as he idly picks apart what's left of his sandwich. Eventually, his path intercepts the tiny, zipping spider, and Kai makes a happy noise. "Ivan!" he calls, the shout whispery and soft. He points at the racing arachnid. "Spider!" He BEAMS at the others, briefly, before continuing to track his quarry. Who needs all those fancy sentences? "Well I'd hope so. Whole thing's a friggen mess, not, like, a roller-coaster you've got to have killed /this/ many people to ride." Tatters holds up her hand indicatively. Apparently you need to kill three or four feet worth of people. "I'm still /here/ because I came back in roughly the shape of, like, a pretzel." And with that she quiets, pulling her legs up beneath her and giving the ball another bounce against the wall, listening to the ba-dump echo throughout the conservatory as the younger pair chases around after spiders. Not a bad place to convalesce, though.