ArchivedLogs:Recuperating With Friends (Cont)

Recuperating With Friends (Cont)
Dramatis Personae Peter, Rasa, Shelby
In Absentia	2013-03-20 Peter gets a visit from Rasa and Shelby. Also, /TEENAGERS/. Happens after Recuperating With Friends.
Location Hospital
Peter's hospital room is currently crowded with well-wishing balloons, a few flowers, SWEETS, a brown box full of unusual brass cartridges -- and, of course, Peter. Laying in bed, hooked up to an IV, looking /much/ better than he did the previous day -- and with his shoulder swarmed in bandages. He's got his glasses on and he is currently STARING at his phone, skimming online -- apparently watching youtube. Eyebrows crumpled as he watches the video. Clever ears might pick up the strained sounds of commentators blathering about Norman Osborn's controversial press conference. No one else is with Peter, right now; Ivan had to head back home (a book he left for Peter sits nearby on the table, already broken in with a book-mark! WRITTEN IN STONE: EVOLUTION, THE FOSSIL RECORD, AND OUR PLACE IN NATURE) and Aunt May is coming by to visit tomorrow. So it's a good time to visit? EXCELLENT! That means only Peter will be disturbed when Shelby toes open the door and announces their arrival with a teenage-loud, "Hey /asshole/!" She is holey jeans and a t-shirt that's been tied into a knot at her hip, under her jacket. Her backpack is, as per usual, slung over one shoulder. She did not bring flowers, sweet, web glue or /anything/. Maybe Rasa was more thoughtful. Rasa is a teenager and not Peter's immediate roommate. While generally considerate, ze doesn't really think about thinks like adults do - like the notion of bringing gifts. What teenager does that? They have markers for signing casts, but gifts? Those cost money that teenagers wish to spend on tasty hamburgers outside. Upon entering the hospital, however, Rasa is diverted to the gift shop and finds a funny little teddy bear that is dressed like a doctor that costs WAY TOO MUCH MONEY, but is cheaper than some of the other things. So, ze buys it. Ze wanders in a little after Shelby with this little teddy bear caught between hir fingers, hovering near hir waist. "Shelby. People maybe sleeping. Please do not bring in nurse doom by being loud." Ze walks up to Peter and sticks out a straight arm with the teddy bear extended. "Here." Peter blinks. First, at Shelby's arrival and exclamation; next, at Rasa's arrival and HERE IS A TEDDY BEAR IN A DOCTOR'S COAT. It's /hilarious/, because bears can't even /read/ nevermind get a medical doctorate so what the fuck is this one doing in a doctor's coat?! Peter accepts said bear with a meek little smile, quickly glancing between the two teenagers. Said teddy bear gets nestled up against the side of his hip; the phone gets put down on a nearby table, the video freeze-framed on an obnoxiously red-faced O'Reilly giving tonight's Word (which is, of course, 'MUTIE-LOVER'. Actually I don't know if that counts as one word SHHHH NOBODY TELL HIM). "Hey! Hey, I didn't --" BLUSH. "I didn't expect you guys to come here...!" "Yeah, sorry about that." Shelby sounds neither sorry nor concerned about nurse doom--possibly because the door is one of those slow-close jobbies that swings shut behind them and remains so. She dumps her backpack in one of the chairs and opts to sit on the bed, near the foot. Her knee hikes up, providing a place to rest an elbow. The presentation of Dr. Bear is observed with a crooked little smile. "You're supposed to say /thank you/," she observes, "when someone gives you a present." So she is now lecturing others on manners? Hilarious! "And you sure got weird priorities, dude. We went into the sewers to find you but you didn't think we'd come visit you in the hospital. Gawwwd, you're such a weirdo." Her eyes shift with bright interest to the IV. "They giving you anything good?" Rasa is a sunny yellow shade today, but it doesn't look so attractive around hir eyes. Ze is still rather bundled up and hangs out near Peter's bedside whiel Shelby starts to look at the IV. "There is this thing, Peter, where we left you alone for a little while and you ended up in the sewers and almost dead." Hir voice is serious and somewhat quiet, looking around the room suspiciously. "So, I have decided it's good to check on you more often." Ze folds hir hands in front of her. "I hope this is okay." There is something about hir posture, however, that says 'deal with it.' "Oh -- oh jeez, right, um thank you Rasa!" Peter is EASILY SUBDUED beneath Shelby's badgering about proper etiquette. Also, to Shelby's comment about priorities: "I mean, with everything going on... like, with Jax, and the /apartment/, and..." The bed makes a little springy creak when Shelby perches atop of it; Peter's eyes flick to Rasa, then. "It -- yeah, it's... okay." They flick back down. "I think, um. I think we should all start checking on each other. Especially with --" Back up to Rasa, back to Shelby, back to Rasa -- not sure exactly /which/ one to settle on. "Are Sebastian and Shane okay?" Shelby hooks a thumb at Rasa. What she said. She is approving of this new confident and no-nonsense Rasa. "Yeah, well, since we can't really do shit about the gubmint, and they've got Hive locked up somewhere..." Oh, Hive. Her expression tightens briefly before she plasters on a more appropriate shit-eating grin. "C'mon, dude, you almost died. You're /allowed/ to get a little attention. But...maybe next time, don't fucking go into the sewers without us, huh?" And damn if he isn't making it hard to maintain her grin with those questions. The girl huffs. "They keep bouncing them between homes. Guess no one wants to take care of sharks...or feed 'em right." "They should let them go back to school," Rasa announces flatly. "They should know that the school is the best place for them. And with Jax, but they are being willfully stupid." Hir skin starts to darken and gray out. Ze looks around for a moment and finds a chair. Ze then drags it over toward the bed and sits down on it so that ze is not far away from Peter. "You should be at the school. Make them transfer you to the med bay." "I..." Peter's gaze flickers back over to Shelby again. "...I didn't actually /go/ into the sewers," he admits, a little weakly. "I was... there was this blood monster thing. It attacked me, and dragged me down there. It's still all a bit hazy..." When Rasa mentions the medlab, Peter's attention snaps over to hir. Watching as hir skin tone changes right before his eyes. Frowning a little: "Actually, yeah, I -- I mentioned that, my Aunt May, she kinda wants me to stay here because she can visit me, but I told them -- I told them I don't want to miss any school, and she said okay. And yeah the twins should /totally/ be there too, and -- um," he says, looking at his phone -- then at the two of them. "...did you two hear about the, uh -- Jax is on the news," he finally announces. The unspoken word that follows that statement is, of course: /AGAIN/. "Bastian said they might be back tomorrow. Maybe," Shelby volunteers. After a moment, she adds, "It'll be their birthday." Then she slumps into silence, falling all too easily into a fit of teenage angst that only gets worse to hear Peter's description of bloodmonster encounter. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD? WOE! It's a good thing Rasa's here to dictate how Things Should Be. What she said, again. "...wait, what? Jax? Oh fuck, what happened now?" "Jax will be so unhappy." Rasa decides, frowning. "He hates being in the news." Ze starts to pull hir hands apart from where they are folded, fingers curling into fists, hir skin taking on a burnished color. "I am sorry. I shouldn't speak so frankly and ignore your aunt's wishes. She is probably very worried as well." Hir jaw sets as ze lowers hir eyes. "I -- oh no! No, Rasa, it's fine!" Peter immediately exclaims, perhaps with a bit more force than he intends. "Like -- I like you being frank! Also I don't know if I thanked you guys for, like, coming after me, so in case I didn't /thank/ you that was..." he trails off, then. Looking back to Shelby as she gets all tense and worried. And then: "It's... kind of good. I guess. But, also, kind of..." Deep breath. He pulls up his phone. Fiddles for a moment. Click, click, tap, tap. Load, load, load. And then he turns the phone to face them -- an image of Norman Osborn in front of a podium. Press conference. And then he hits play. Norman Osborn proceeds to talk: "...I have recently been informed that Mr. Holland -- a hard-working American-born citizen with three jobs -- a volunteer at local homeless shelters -- a single parent raising /three/ children -- a man who has, on two occasions, used his abilities to /save lives/ -- is now, and /only/ now, facing down children services -- who seem intent on taking away his boys." "Now, I'm not making any accusations here, but -- I must say, I find it extraordinarily /unusual/ that this whole process has started only /after/ Mr. Holland started fighting a ticket. A ticket he received for having the audacity to /save/ the lives of some of New York's very finest! And -- speaking as a single father, I cannot begin to tell you how much it would pain me to have my son taken away merely because someone didn't agree with my /politics/." "Again, perhaps it's just an unusual coincidence. Or, if I might make a suggestion, Harold -- maybe you should concern yourself less with my party's guest list and more with what our government is doing to those who protect our heroes. Maybe that's something the media should look at. I don't know; I'm not a journalist. I'm just an engineer who likes to build things." Peter hits 'pause' then, cutting off the commentators before they weigh in. "It's on all the news," he says, and he sounds a little sad -- a little /off/. "Basically, um -- it's a frenzy. A total mess. I think," Peter adds, "I don't know but I think Jax might get them back soon." The boy in the hospital bed receives a thumbs up for remembering his manners, though Shelby doesn't grin to punctuate the gesture. "You're telling it like it is, Rasa, s'cool," she remarks before shifting on the bed. She pulls her other leg up as well to sit lotus-style, except slouched forward with a posture that would horrify any yoga instructor. The little screen is squinted at and she listens intently, making various faces as Osborn does his thing. When it's done, she opens her mouth--gets cut off--frowns at Peter--and then thinks to study him more closely. "That's a /good/ thing, right?" "Who is that guy? How does he know Jax?" Rasa looks quite confused, looking from Shelby to Peter for an explanation. "The media frenzy is still probably not welcome, but if the twins /and/ Spencer come back, that is good." Ze is making up for Shelby's poor posture by sitting ramrod straight in hir chair. Hands still balled up in fists display more knuckles than before. "..." "I guess. I -- yeah, it's good," Peter says, but he still has that concerned /look/, and he's not meeting Shelby /or/ Rasa's eyes anymore. He's staring at the floor, instead -- and his hands are tight little fists, just like Rasa's. "He's Norman Osborn. CEO of Oscorp. He builds weapons. Stuff to fight mutants with. He's -- he owns the lab I broke into. Back when I was being chased by murderdrones. The one I got the lab address from," he adds, and /now/ there's a pointed look at Shelby and Rasa. "And..." Softer, now. "...I think... he /knows/ I did it." Shelby's eyebrows slowly come together. She is the lone hold-out for fist-clenching, but her jaw works side to side as she considers what's just been said. "So he like...wants to put people like us down but he's helping Jax out? That's kind've...wait, wait. /That's/ the guy who made the fucking thing that almost blew me up?" The effect is immediate--she gestures imperiously for Peter to hand the phone over so she can check the dude out again. Gimme. "What do you mean he knows you did it?" Peter lost Rasa at "He makes murderdrones?" Hir eyes widen in horror and then narrow in thought. "The same drones that they were talking about - outside of where they were rescued?" Hir nostrils flare as hir skin darkens to the color and gloss of volcanic glass. Hir expression remains hard as hir words run out. Ze reaches up and rubs at hir face, the flesh still soft and movable, but still strangely glossy. "This is wrong." "Yeah," Peter tells Shelby and Rasa, "he builds drones. I was reading about him on wikipedia, he's like the whole architect behind the US drone program, and --" PHONE SNATCH. Well, it's not the /first/ time Shelby's snagged Peter's phone from him! "He was here, today. Visited me. God, he was right /here/, he /hugged/ my Aunt /MAY/," and Peter says this like it is a capital offense, like this is the /WORST THING IMAGINABLE/, "and she thought he was WONDERFUL. He... he said he was visiting all the victims of the blood monster. He brought me a gift!" And then Peter gestures, almost angrily, to the box on the counter besides him. Filled with brass cartridges. "It's more /web-fluid/!" he says, and his tone is getting just a /bit/ frantic. "He brought me more WEB-FLUID!" How *DARE* he. "Like, he said it was because he heard I was interested in science and thought I might have fun with it but I am pretty much 100% sure he knows /everything/ and I think he might be a /monster/!" Peter's... gathering momentum, now. Someone might want to slow him down. At least this time Shelby doesn't shove the phone in her bra. She frames it between her hands and thumb-swipes crisply, frowning as she tabs back and rewinds and hits play again--with the sound off, just so she can stare at Norman Osborn with a look that hints the man is in SERIOUS TROUBLE. "Breathe, Pete," she says absently without looking up from the screen. "Could be maybe he isn't sure and he's either just fucking with you or trying to see if you'd give it away that...wait." Her eyes flick up. "You didn't give it away, did you?" Rasa turns ashen pale almost immediately. Ze barely breathes as ze stares at Peter, attempting to process this information. "Bad..." ze speaks under hir breath, the word starts printing out across hir forehead and repeats all over, rewriting itself again when hir mind has run out of flesh to mark, the first bits of script starting to fade white underneath so ze stays chalky white. "You have to go to the med bay. Here is not safe." "No! I didn't -- No," Peter says, his voice quieter now, muttering to Shelby. "I didn't give away anything. I just... thanked him. That's all." And then his hand jerks forward, into the case of brass containers. Fishing out something. "I found this in the bottom of the box." A wadded out piece of paper. He uncrumples it, showing it to Shelby and Rasa. Green felt-tip marker: CAN'T WAIT FOR THE REMATCH! <3 <3 <3 --GOBLIN "When I was down there," he tells them, "there was another monster. Green. It was the thing -- Tatters saved me from. The thing you heard giggling. I electrocuted it; Tatters blew its arm off. It didn't even /care/. And it called itself -- it called itself /GOBLIN/," Peter says, eyes flicking between the two of them. Watching as Rasa's skin... well, reflects his current mental state. Surprisingly, that actually calms Peter down a bit. "I... yeah I know. I'm... they said they'll take me tomorrow," he says, dejectedly. "I don't think... if he wanted to do something really bad, I think he'd just do it. I don't know what the heck is going on, but I think that he's crazy. I think they're both crazy. I think /I'm/ going a little crazy." Shelby reaches out for the paper too--she wants all the things!--and studies it before passing it over to Rasa. Her eyes have gone dark, her jaw set but she is not so pissed off that she can't shiver with a sudden onset of creepy-inspired goosebumps. "Okay, yeah, I'm gonna call it...Rasa's right, dude. You can't say what a crazy fucker's gonna do. Like, I knew this guy who was /batshit/ and some other dude totally thought he knew what was what and guy /cut his ear off/." She looks between them, expecting the pair to be suitably impressed. "So we should like, call Xavier's /tonight/. And then maybe let Jax know that the guy talking him up on TV is a fucking psycho who thinks he's a sewer monster." "I will call Professor Logan." Rasa decides, taking the paper from Shelby and staring at it blankly, unable to really read the words at the moment. Ze takes it and starts folding up the paper before placing it next to the bag of canisters. "Perhaps he will come down here and stay for the night." Because Peter needs a creepy old dude staring at him all night. "And then, you can be moved in the morning to the school." "I -- I guess that -- yeah I guess you're right," Peter mumbles to himself, squirming back down into his bed, his frantic energy steadily melting away. "It's just -- Jax, now he's interested in /Jax/, and yeah I think somebody should -- tell him -- that... that Norman Osborn works with a giant green murdermonster. Or /is/ one," Peter adds. "I -- I don't know. Logan -- oh man, /Logan/ I met him, um. Thanks... thanks, Rasa." As to Shelby's story, Peter just blinks at her owlishly. And then, rather timidly: "Were both of these dudes... Van Gogh?" "...oh, OH. I was talking to Ivan, and... I think we should --" INTENSE FRUMPLE-STARE. "...talk to that girl in the sewers. Plus maybe learn how to FIGHT and stuff. Like as a TEAM." YES. Peter took Sebastian's suggestion to heart. "Like, like, in case this thing comes /after/ us." Shelby believes that Rasa has come up with the Best Plan and as a result, her roommate is handed Peter's phone to Make It Happen. Resistance is futile. "I can text Jax," she says after the phone has been handed off. Because she has her own phone, which is produced from a pocket and slid open to allow the texting to begin. "If anyone's gonna be able to watch your back while you're stuck here, it's Professor Logan. Dude pops veins when he /breathes/." This is a mark in his favor? Apparently? Peter receives a brief but withering glance for the Van Gogh reference before she returns to texting. "I'm gonna ask Jim to teach me how to shoot," she contributes to the team conversation. "I wish to talk to the girl in the sewers too, but we should talk to the school staff as well. They... well, are being paid to teach us already. What could we give the woman in the sewers in exchange?" Rasa is beginning to process practically again, hir skin-script lightening to illegible. Ze reaches into hir pocket and pulls out hir phone. Ze has a nice smart phone, not exactly like Peter's - as ze takes better care of hirs, but it does do all sorts of things. She scrolls through the teachers on her contact list and connects a call to Logan's phone. In a remarkable moment of lucidity, Peter looks at Shelby and says: "...uh, I don't... I don't think you should carry a gun." But then: "Man I think the lady in the sewers will tell us /anyway/, she seems really cool and stuff. Like I was running from the Goblin and she was all 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS', right? And -- I'm pretty sure she's some sort of /superhero/," Peter adds. "I was reading on the internet and everybody was saying -- some sort of girl in the sewers killed the blood monster and I think that was /her/! She will totally help us," Peter says, now 100% convinced of it. "She is /definitely/ a superhero." Peter can tell these things. Yep yep yep. "Also we should totally... like, get Logan to train us all to be ninjas. He taught me to be a ninja." Then, softer: "Don't tell him that when he gets here. I was /incognito/. But I /totally/ kicked his butt." YES. THAT IS WHAT PETER THINKS HAPPENED. "Man, Rasa, you got all sorts of smart." Shelby means this as a compliment, really! She's looking with some admiration over at the roomie while she puts her own phone away. No chime has answered the text sent out. Then it's on to Peter, who's given a Look. "What? Look, all ya'll got seriously cool shit to bring into a fight. I'm /fragile/." Then, casual off-handedly, she mentions, "I know that chick. Totally found her that club weight bar thingy she had. We're cool." Okay, yes, Shelby is exaggerating too. "Suuuure you kicked his ass, Pete. Uh huh." Rasa is still stuck on the phone when Shelby issues compliments, so ze is unable to respond. At length, ze speaks up to leave Wolverine a message. "Hello. This is Rasa Djalili, one of your students. We need your help." Ze steps away so that ze can continue leaving the message with the correct amount of details and information without interrupting Shelby and Peter as they talk. Ze hangs up after a little while and comes back to the bedside. "I have left a message," ze states, as if it wasn't obvious. Ze remains ash pale, but stares at Shelby. "You know her? I would like to meet her." "I -- I /did/!" Peter sounds... defensive. "Well, I mean, I totally /dodged/ him. And he said -- he said I was really fast, and that everybody would underestimate me because of my costume!" Peter puffs up a little at this, apparently having taken it as a compliment. "He said nobody would take me seriously and that meant I could get the jump on them!" Y... yeah. Then, to Shelby: "You know, /BATMAN/ didn't have any powers. And he didn't need a gun, either. You could be our Batman. Plus if Rasa makes like a picture on hir skin you could move it off hir skin and, like, give them the MARK OF THE X-TEAM. Like as a warning. It would be our signature, our calling card. Beat up the bad guys, leave them outside the police station... only a mysterious Rasa-X on their foreheads." Peter is 100% sold on this idea. Yes. This will now be a thing. HE HAS DECIDED IT. When Rasa returns, Peter immediately perks up: "Oh, yeah!" he says. "I totally want to meet her too, she like saved my life! I mean, when I'm better. You know her?" he repeats Rasa's question, looking at Shelby. Shelby stares at Peter. /Stares/ at him. Rasa's remark goes unheard because she. Is. Busy. Staring. "You want. Me. To just.../tag/ every fucking thing you guys beat the shit out of." Flatly. Not a question! Danger, Peter Parker! Aaand she's done with this buddy buddy friend encouragement thing. She flicks a glance at her roommate and then /throws herself/ off of the bed to snatch up her backpack. "You know why Logan said that? Because you look /stupid/, no one takes you /seriously/." It's like kicking a puppy. Really it is. Fortunately, she stomps out before she can see the impact. Rasa reduces in size and looks elsewhere. Oh shit. "You said she has no powers." This is Peter's moment to clue in. "I... will talk to her, but that was probably a bad thing to say and apologizing is the best thing you can do." Ze then gets up and turns toward the door. Peter blinks! Mouth opening -- then shutting. Then opening again. Then shutting. He's not exactly sure how to /respond/ to this. The mention of his costume being stupid -- and not being made seriously -- it makes his /brow/ rumple. People DO SO take him seriously! But... "I -- I thought -- but /Batman/," Peter insists to Rasa, sounding feeble. "I... y-yeah, okay, I'm sorry, I totally will, I didn't -- that isn't -- oh man I'm /so/ sorry okay." SAD Peter. He has hurt Shelby's feelings. This must be rectified SWIFTLY. "You didn't focus on Batman," Rasa states from the door. "You just mentioned him and then focused on the boring shit." Ze gives a little shrug and sighs, looking into the hallway and bracing hirself. "Wish me luck."