<XS> Back Porch
The back patio is a restful place to sit and relax, in most weather. Ample seating comes in the form of umbrella'd deck chairs and a cushioned porch swing, and the neighboring gardens attract butterflies and hummingbirds to make the viewing pleasant. The hot tub is usually open for use, though in snowy weather the transition in and out is a shivery one!
Aloke 'Laser' Suresh has become a permanent resident of the hot tub this weekend. The word around school is that the handsome thirty-something was a key player in the rescue of a big group of kidnap victims last week, but he pushed his teleportation powers to the limit and has been in recovery ever since. He can be found now, lounging back in the gurgling machine, head tilted back, eyes not quite closed as he looks up at the night sky taking in the full moon. Nearby are his robe, and giant blue fuzzy slippers. He also has a glass of water, and a plate of fruit on hand, just next to the tub.
Having squared things away fully in the city and settled all the way in at the school, the new music teacher has spent chunks of time over the last couple of days just exploring around, figuring out the layout of the grounds on a meandering pace. No doubt Stefan's already checked out the back porch before, but he's back to visit it again, this time curious in the direction of the hot tub. He's not dressed for it, in jeans, a plain cotton button down shirt, and some leather flip-flops, but that doesn't mean he can't look and chuckle to himself about the fact it exists. Though, he does find it occupied. "Hey," he greets, so he doesn't startle the hot tub goer by just... being there.
Aloke looks around, surprised at the voice on the porch. "Oh, hey there man. I heard we had someone new coming on. I've barely got my training wheels off too. Started last month." He stands up in the tub, steam coming off him in the night air, and offers a wet handshake. Classy, Aloke, classy. "Aloke Suresh. I teach painting and drawing, mostly." He climbs up and out of the tub wearing paisley printed board shorts and retrieves his towel, tying it around the middle before slumping down in the plastic deck chair by the tub, apparently worn out by the effort of dressing.
"Didn't mean to interrupt," Stefan apologizes as the other man gets up. For his part, though, he doesn't even hesitate on the handshake, wet or no. There are callouses at his fingertips. "Nice. And nice to meet you. Stefan Soames. I'll be picking up music with the summer term." When he has his hand back, he simply wipes the damp off on his jeans absently and then tucks both hands away into pockets. "You like it here so far?" It's always good to get the skinny from another new guy, right?
"Don't worry about it," Aloke says, gesturing at the tub. Steam is still rising from him as he sits in the deck chair, wrapped in his robe. He has not chosen to re-don his big, blue fuzzy slippers however. Must be cooling off. He picks up the glass of water and sips at it before saying, "Hey thats great, Stefan, I heard we really needed a music teacher. And you know what, I actually love it here." The golden glow behind Aloke's eyes is particularly obvious in just the porch light illuminating the area. It would be hard to hide 'out there', even in the daytime. "It's just nice to... not have to hide. I was at NYU before. Things got... political. But Xavier pulled me out before it got bad. I'm just happy to be here, man."
Stefan nods along slowly with what Aloke says, considering the hot tub with that kind of idle curiosity that goes along with finding visual noise while focusing on something audial. At just the right angle, the right turn of Stefan's head, Aloke might catch sight of the plugs tucked away in the musician's ears. "Political's a good word for what it's been like in the city, lately," he agrees, quiet and mellow about it. He brushes brown hair back out of his eyes. It'll probably just fall back in the way in a minute or so.
Kira actually is still in explorer mode, as this place seems huge to her. She's been all around the grounds and building and up front but oddly has missed the back porch up to this point. As it is a long weekend it seems like an ideal time to explore. So she's in this odd explorer mode, complete with a flashlight, intent on exploring the grounds actually, as she emerges from the house on to the back porch and looks around, flashlight in hand as she scans who might be out here, her eyes still covered by sunglasses despite the time of day and lack of general light. She turns her head towards the hot tub and tilts her head curiously.
Aloke nods at Stefan's remark about what 'political' might mean, and is about to say more when Kira comes out. "Well, hello Ms. Haverson. Have you met Mr. Soames, yet?" Aloke doesn't bother rising from his slumped position. He is /bone/ tired and it shows in every fiber of his being. "He's our new music teacher. Mr. Soames, this is Kira Haverson."
Before Aloke can start with the introductions, Stefan's already turning his body slightly at the sound of door opening, so he is facing both that direction and the art teacher. "Oh, hey Kira," he greets, a mild smile sliding into place. He looks back to Aloke after and says, "Yeah, we met a few days ago."
Kira nods, "Oh, yes, I met Mr. Soames? Yes, he was playing the piano.... and I sort of stumbled across him in the music room. He's really good." She gives a smile, "But... Ah, you okay there?" She asks Mr. Suresh, "You look... rather worn out. Is there something wrong? I... don't know if I can help but I do think you look like you need some rest?" She ventures, having apparently appointed herself medical type person for the school in general without any real permission to do so, as the resident healer and all. "I hope I'm not interupting anything important?" She asks as she looks between the two professors.
Aloke smiles indulgently and shakes his head. "No no, Kira, you're fine. And so am I, mostly." He chuckles. "I'm just worn out after... Wednesday." He seems to think about that some more and adds, "Wow I really have to quit moping around. It's been /days/ and I wasn't even injured. Ah well. It all worked out, at least." He takes a long drink from his glass again, and leans back, breathing deep.
With absolutely no preamble, Sophie is standing at the end of Aloke's deck chair. More to the point, she's actually standing somewhat /inside/ it; the end of the chair is inside her legs. Looking around with surprise, she lets out a shocked little yelp, and disappears. All-told, she was there for what, three seconds?
Shortly thereafter, she appears out of nowhere. Again. Though this time she's, y'know, her own separate entity, standing, for the moment, a couple yards away from the nearest person, though she walks in closer now that she can see where everyone is. "Um. Hey. Sorry about that, I didn't realize anybody was out here." Today's Sophie is dressed in a sparkly black skirt, and a gray T-shirt depicting a DeLorean crashed into a TARDIS. Anyone paying attention may notice that while the skirt is sparkly, it isn't actually reflecting the present light sources, it's just sort of... sparkling of its own will. "Am I interrupting anything?"
Stefan keeps quiet during the exchange between Kira and Aloke, content to be in the background for it. He blinks, though, at the sudden Sophie, with just the slightest, tiniest jerk to his form in reflexive reaction. Because whoa. And then she is gone and what is going on. And then she is back again. He rubs at the back of his neck, and then lifts one shoulder in a shrug, which rolls on to the second one after. "Uh, hey there. And no," he says, as far as interruptions go. His expression shifts to just mildly curious while he considers the newest arrival, though it is well masked behind layers of politeness and his general go-with-the-flow nature.
Staring a bit, even behind glasses, it is clear Kira is staring at Sophie. "You're not here." She blurts out as is her way of stating the obvious. She's been doing that a lot. "I mean, there's no there, there. Um, you know that, right?" There's a pause, "You're not dead, are you?" She asks as she actually steps forward and tries to put a hand through Sophie, if possible, and assuming Sophie doesn't retreat from the hand extended towards her curiously.
Aloke stares at Sophie for a microsecond before his finely tuned fight or flight sense overrides his ragged, worn out self control. In a flash of light about as bright as a camera bulb, Aloke moves a few feet to the side where he appears instantaneously, but standing instead of sitting. Anyone who's eyes had adjusted to the evening light could easily have afterimages dancing in their eyes. "Wow, ok, sorry everyone. Sorry. Sophie, you... caught me off guard. But its ok, don't worry about it." The teacher obviously had to struggle to make sure he didn't say something inappropriate or accidentally make Sophie feel bad. He's not /mad/, just flustered. Finally he smiles, sighs and leans back against the wall. "Jeez, you really got me." He laughs, shedding the nervous energy.
Best part of being a spooky projection? No real eyes to get blinded by sudden flashes of light. But she does let out another little noise, jumping back a bit and still looking a bit surprised by the sudden commotion she, herself, created in the first place. "Ohh jeez, people I don't know." Blushing, she addresses Kira first, taking a step back to prevent the hand-going-through, though she does hold out one of her own hands to meet Kira's. "Could you just touch my hands, please? Anything else feels sort of creepy." And she shakes her head. "I'm not dead. Just, uh, practicing my power. I kinda... we were calling it astral projection for a while but I think it's more of a telepathy thing." Lifting a hand, she also gives a silent little wave to Stefan. "H'lo." And then to Aloke, she blushes again. "Um, sorry, Professor Suresh. I don't usually-- I usually try to only do that in places I'm pretty sure nobody's around. So that that doesn't happen."
Blinking to try to clear his vision, Stefan winds up tipping his head while he does, so that one ear is turned to the small gathering. That way, he can keep track of people without accidentally blinking furiously at someone. With another rolling shrug of his shoulders, he muses to no one in particular, a smile tugging at a corner of his mouth and also at his voice, "Gonna take me a bit to get used to this place." When he's fairly confident he can look at things without seeing anymore residual flashes in his vision, the music teacher looks back up. And brushes his hair back from his eyes. Again.
The sound of raucous laughter often precedes Bobby. He likes to hang out with a group of the broiest bros lately, who are just coming from the lake in wanton scoffing of the time. Doing god knows what out there. He should probably be drug tested.
Anyway it's summer, and this is Bobby's excuse to run around without a shirt on. Big baggy swim trunks and flip flops are his only attire. From the direction of the lake over to the greens, with one of his buddies jetting off real quickly to the other side of the building (looks like a cool mutant power!), Bobby is basically ice surfing, his new favorite past time. What's he do? Creates bobsled tubes and hugs them as he slides down them, keeping his momentum a lot like a roller coaster. Woo-hooing like it was a 90s film, he even manages to do a terrifying tight loop vertically upside down before the ice deposits him at the edge of the patio (apparently with the intent to just plop straight down). He doesn't quite stick the landing so he won't be taking the Olympic gold, stumbling forward a couple of steps and pinwheeling his arms before he finally regains balance.
He looks at the gaggle of folk and ghostSophie. "So is the hot tub revved up, or what?"
Kira backs off from Sophie. "Ah, sorry, just... you weren't there." She notices the rather dramatic entrance of Bobby and laughs a bit shaking her head then backs up, flashlight still in hand. She moves so her back is against a wall, as if other people might be flashing, dashing, popping, or generally just appearing out of the blue some where else. Seems she's getting wary of such things as she hangs out around here. "So... you knew about there being a hot tub and you didn't /tell/ me?" She says accusingly at Bobby, then glances at the hot tub then back at Bobby, "It won't melt you, will it?" She asks curiously. Then she glances a the others and says, "Sorry, all very confusing. I'm going to have to... yeah, what he said, get used to this place."
"Not to worry, Sophie, it wasn't on purpose." Aloke smiles and holds his hands up to Stefan in apology. "I'm sorry Mr. Soames. I usually have that under control, but its... been a crazy week." The Aloke is competing in the Olympic Eye Roll event as Bobby makes his entrance. "/Mr./ Drake..." Aloke says, annoyance in his voice. He pauses though. Its clear he wants to be one of the /cool/ teachers. On the other hand, this kid is gonna break his own neck one day if adults don't intervene. "Please be more careful in the future. And to answer your question, yes, I just finished a soak actually. It's all yours."
Sophie shakes her head at Kira. "No, no, don't worry about it, it's. It's weird." She lets out a little laugh, and then-- here comes Bobby. She takes in a deep breath, juuust about ready to say /something/ but ultimately... calms down again. Cleansing breath, soothing thoughts, and she shakes her head. "Hello, Bobby." It sounds just a touch strained, but she's ... being nice. "I would have thought you'd prefer a cold shower." She strides over towards one of the nearby deck chairs, sitting down on it and leaning forward on her knees. Sure she may not actually be here, but just standing in place gets to be weird after a while. But then, as if a thought suddenly occurs to her, she adds, "Bobby. Can you create a block of ice so cold, not even you could touch it?"
Ice surfing and spontaneously created bobsled tubes are kind of new sounds for Stefan to experience in person. For a moment there, he's thoroughly distracted by that fact, watching Bobby make his entrance. "Definitely gonna take me a bit to get used to this place," he reiterates, amusement clear in both tone and expression. When he looks back to Aloke, he does so with an easy smile and a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it." His attention strays back to the kids then, as they behave as, well, teenagers generally do. He'll just have to do some more formal introductions later.
"Sorry, Mr. Suresh. Just practicing for my maymester finals! I'll cool it down from here on out." BOBBY STOP. STOP THAT SHIT. It hurts, it burns. It's also such lies. He seems really excited about the hot-tub, though, rubbing his hands together happily as he waddles over in his flip flops towards yon steamytub. He points back over his shoulder at Sophieghost for a moment, and goes, "I'm sorry, Sophie - I've tried, but you're just irreplaceable." For a ice guy he's all about burns. Bobby makes to go for an animated handshake with Stefan. "Bobby Drake! Nice to meet you man! Welcome to Xavier's School for Summer Fun!" And for Kira, as he starts to lower himself into the hot-tub. "You never asked, y'know. You can pretty much assume we've got everything here. And I may melt from /comfort/!"
Kira watches all of this then gives a little laugh, "Okaaaay, well then, in the spirit of finding /everything/ I shall go forth and attempt to find an ice cream parlor and candy shop on the school grounds, that servers only calorie free desserts." She says in a joking manner. She double checks her flash light then waves, "See you around, I'll be out on the grounds... exploring." Which is where she was headed to in the first place after all. "Don't stay in the hot tub too long, even for normal people it's not too good to stay in hot water too long." Kira points out to Bobby on her way out to the grounds. Yep, she's a bit of a medical nag, but she means well. And with that she heads off into the... darkness? Well, thank goodness for flashlights!
Aloke cringes a little, but doesn't say anything directly about Bobby's terrible puns. Mental notes are made. They will be scheduling a sit-down soon. "Thats alright, Bobby. No harm done." He waves goodbye as Kira is lost to exploring, and that seems to remind him of his own tiredness. "Well, Mr. Soames, it was a pleasure to meet you. Don't let these kids run all over you though," Aloke says with a wry smile, pointedly looking at Bobby. "I think I'm done for tonight. Bobby. Sophie. Goodnight!" And then something unusual happens - Aloke /walks/ into the mansion. He hardly ever walks anywhere, typically prefers his mutant mode of travel. This must be a telling indication of his real exhaustion.
"Bobby." Sophie is pinching the bridge of her nose. She is trying very hard...!! "That's... that's great. That's just great. Bully for you." A little wave is given to Kira when the girl departs, and upon Aloke's subsequent exit she goes so far as to offer him a "Goodnight, Professor." At this point she strides over towards where Stefan is hanging out, giving him a little wave. "Mr. Soames?" She says, uncertain if she heard the name right. "Hi. Sorry about the weird entrance, I've been trying to practice my power more and.. well, like I said, I wasn't expecting anyone to be out here so late. You're the new music teacher, right?"
Stefan takes Bobby's... extroverted nature in stride, albeit with just a very small hint of amusement sparking in his blue eyes for it. His end of the handshake isn't quite so animated, although it's firm enough, his fingertips calloused. "Stefan Soames," he says, by way of both greeting and introduction. He watches Kira go a moment, and then looks to Aloke's exit, as well. "Good night." And then he is back to those still remaining. "It's no problem," he assures Sophie with a mild smile. "And yeah. New music teacher."
Bobby's now quickly sunk into the hot tub and lying back all relaxed, his arms on the side of the tub now keeping him slightly more aloft. Ahhhh. "Music's a pretty difficult profession to get into these days, like, academically, right? So you must be pretty good to get recruited by the Xavier School." He gives Sophie a bright-eyed smile.
Sophie in turn gives Bobby an odd look. But attention is returned to Stefan. "I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take any music classes. I mean, I know we have to do artsy things, but I was leaning towards like, theater production stuff." Getting up again, she wanders over to sit in the hot tub. Which. Probably looks a little weird, but. "Seems like I keep running into art teachers whose classes I'm not gonna take, lately," she adds with a bit of a grin.
With the two students in the hot tub, Stefan opts to sit on one of the chairs by it, rather than remain standing, so he can at least be closer to eye level. "Guess I'm all right," he says, at Bobby's statement, with a touch of amusement there in his features, one corner of his mouth turned upwards, even as he shrugs one shoulder. "One nice thing about the arts: you can get away with combining them. You can do music with theatre easy. Or you could do visual stuff, too. So, you know, you don't have to just pick one direction and head that way, if you don't want to." He considers the two of them a moment, and then asks, "How long you guys been here at the school?"
"I always kind of wanted to know more about multimedia art...stuff," Bobby muses, rubbing his chin with a now wet hand. Hmm. Thoughtful, yes. Deep. He does seem to acknowledge Sophie's got a good point, nodding his head. "Yeah, plenty of stuff I'd have liked to have taken. I guess it just wasn't in the cards." He shifts gears, and sloshes. "I've been here for a couple of years, actually. Pretty long for a Xavier student. Graduating soon!"
Sophie leans back in the tub, pulling her arms back behind her oh so dry head. It probably looks a little weird, her being in the tub, given that she isn't effecting the movement of the water at all and, of course, isn't wet. So handy. "This was my first semester here, actually, so I have plenty of time to decide what I'm gonna do. I'm a freshman, so. Well, for like two more weeks anyway. Art's just... never really been my thing. I knit, so I was gonna take the fabric art class, but don't get me started on the way knitting is treated by arty type people."
"Never too late to learn, Bobby," Stefan points out, mild smile shifting into place again, a little lopsided. He clasps his hands loosely together to give them something to do, elbows resting on his knees. He nods along as they apparently come in at opposite ends of the student spectrum scale, Bobby about to graduate, Sophie just starting. With the mention of knitting, though, he looks thoughtful for a long moment, taking his time to come up with exactly how to say what he wants to say. "You know, I think a lot of people struggle with trying to define art and what it is. To me, something is art if it makes you feel. Evokes some kind of emotion. Right? So knitting can definitely be art. People who turn up their noses at that, well, they're probably just being close-minded."
Bobby sort of drifts off and sinks into the water. He is a lump. He is completely useless for conversation. Worthless.
Sophie nods a few times, emphatically. "Right! Like, I was just reading this thing the other day, about how like a lot of people 'in the business' basically say that since knitting is something that you can /use/, that makes it /craft/ instead of /art/ and they're all like... making it sound like that's a bad thing that you shouldn't do, like crafting is something anyone can do but art is special because... reasons." She deflates a bit at the end, there, letting out a little sigh. "I'm not comparing scarves to Magritte or anything but I don't see how wool is inherently less valuable a medium than oil."
Stefan keeps an eye on Bobby while continuing the conversation with Sophie. "Huh," he sounds, a thoughtful kind of minor confusion fudging his features around. "I mean. You can use paint to weatherproof a house. Or indicate lanes on a road. Or use tones to communicate stuff, like how a siren is a warning. Guess I fail to see how the materials for other forms of art aren't used like that."
Sophie does finally notice Bobby... sinking. And she looks at him kind of funny. Like, what. The staring goes on for a moment... until she pulls herself up out of the hot tub, sitting at the edge, either to get away from rotting student bodies - creepy even in ghost form! - or maybe just to make things less weird. "I actually have. A lot of opinions," she admits. "About that stuff. But I think it's getting a little late for /that/ conversation. Actually." She stands up, stretching her arms behind her back. "I should head back, I was already tired and using my power for too long is kind of a drain anyway. But it was cool talking to you! Most people, uh, sort of start to drift off when I start on about crafting."
"Sure," Stefan says, smile mild and warm. "Nice to meet you. We can talk more some other time." And the music teacher rises himself. He will make sure Bobby does not drown and heads to bed before turning in himself.
With a last little wave, Sophie blips out of sight as abruptly as she'd arrived.
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