ArchivedLogs:Chlorokinetics Unite!

Chlorokinetics Unite!
Dramatis Personae Silas and Liv
In Absentia	2016-04-07 "Please, heavens no. Makes me sound so old."
Location <XS> Gardens
From indoor gardens to outdoor, though without the protective greenhouse glass the back gardens do not last all year round. Still, the gardens out here are well-tended and well-worth spending time in, as well. The paths wending through the beds of flowers and herbs and vegetables spread out through the school's back grounds, tended by students as a credit class. Benches offer seating and a small pond is home to koi and turtles, as well as a few frogs. At the far back edges of the garden, a droning buzzing marks a few stacked white boxes as beehives. Spring has sprung in the gardens of Xavier's Academy. Trees and bushes are budding, flowers are starting to bloom, birds sing their mating songs. A man sits next to a flower bed, his feet apparently sunk into the soil has he leans back on his gloved hands. He looks up at some trees and sighs contentedly as a smile grows on his face. "Just as I remember it," he says to no one in particular, his accent a plain Midwestern. Another common visitor to the gardens, Liv is wearing a school sweatshirt, with grey leggings and ankle boots. Her vibrant green hair is pulled up into a high ponytail and swings about as she turns to examine the various plants, especially the ones just starting to bloom and show their colors. Used to being alone, she isn't aware of Silas's presence until he speaks and she turns in surprise to the plant person camouflaged with the rest of the garden. "Oh, sorry. Didn't see you," she begins to apologize before turning her head slightly, taking in his very plant like appearance before suddenly realizing she's staring and quickly looking away. "Sorry, I've just...never met anyone like me. I mean /really/ like me." The man embedded in the soil doesn't note Liv either until she speaks to him, turning his head slowly to look at her. His smile turns to a smirk. "No worries - and no need to avert your eyes. As you might imagine, I'm used to an odd look or two," he says while sitting up. His left hand grabs the glove covering his right and pulls, revealing a smooth vine knotted into a palm and five digits. He holds it out as if to shake hers, only it begins to stretch to cover the distance between them to the sound of wood creaking. "Silas McClain. Class of 2002. Joining the faculty." Liv doesn't bother to hide her surprise as her eyes suddenly widen at the sight of his vine hand and it's lengthening to greet her. "Oh, wow, that's really awesome," she manages to stammer, before holding her hand out and gently shaking his. "And I thought green hair was different." She snaps out of her amazement to look up to him again as he presents himself as faculty. "A teacher? So...do I call you Professor McClain then?" Silas' expression indicates he's enjoying her shock. He shakes her hand while studying her features, his eyes flitting to her eyes and hair. At the use of the teaching honorific he lets out a bark of a laugh. "Please, heavens no. Makes me sound so old. Plus I only have a master's," he says with mirth. His hand slides back and contracts into his jacket before he puts his glove back on. "You a chlorokinetic, then?" Liv blushes faintly and grins at his protesting. "Well, I mean, there are some teachers here who don't even have Bachelor's." At the question of her own powers, she nods her head faintly and gives a half-hearted, one shoulder shrug. "Yeah. Not a very good one though. And my powers are pretty temperamental. And I don't look as awesome." Though in the name of demonstration, she pulls a hand out of her sleeve and holds it to white blossom nearby. Within a second, it shifts into a deep purple color. Some stems near it also begin growing, curling and sprouting leaves as they grow nearly a foot in length, stopping only when she pulls her hand away and slips them casually in her sleeves. Silas chuckles while shaking his head, sending his wheat hair whipping to and fro. "Believe me, I'd trade looks in a heartbeat. Hard to even walk down a city street when your ears start sprouting leaves," he remarks wistfully. He looks on intently as she morphs the flower, smiling wider as she grows it. With a note of being impressed in his voice he adds, "Doesn't look too temperamental to me. I can make them grow or move, but can't change colors like that." Silas closes his eyes and seems to focus intently. The sound of wood creaking returns but duller, seeming to come from underneath the flower bed. When the creaking stops, twenty-some flowers at once begin to grow and bloom taller by a foot before he opens his eyes and the flowers cease their expansion. Liv's smile brightens as her ability is praised. "I can...well, I can pretty much do anything. I mean, as far as the types of changes I can pretty much do anything. But it's usually pretty easy to overwork myself. Anything more complicated than that, really, is exhausting." She watches with interest as he demonstrates his own abilities, sitting down on the ground cross-legged as he makes an entire bed of flowers grow. "Like that, that was awesome." She leans back on her hands. "It's...hard to describe. It's like I'm a plant too but in a different way. If I'm stressed or depressed or sick, it has a sort of...toxic effect on plants. And any attempt to use my powers actively usually falls apart." "State of mind affects the powers of most mutants, near as I can tell. And control grows with practice and time. I used to only be able to mimic a plant entirely - first time I was one big daffodil," Silas remembers with a laugh. The wood creaking sound returns from under the soil before he pulls his vine-like feet up and out of the soil. "Perhaps some meditation techniques will help clear your mind and remove that negative potential," he offers. "Oh definitely. Before I came here, the smallest things used to be exhausting. But I've been getting better. I can do a lot more within the last year." She glances towards a plant, thinking a moment as meditation is brought up. "Maybe. I've never thought about it before. Then again, it's only happened two or three times. The last time was during the whole zombie apocalypse and I don't think any amount of meditation would have helped that." Silas brushes the dirt off his feet and returns them to his nearby socks and shoes, looking up now and again to show he's listening. At the mention of the zombie crisis, Silas looks down with some apparent shame. "Wish I had helped during that. Was halfway around the world oblivious to human problems," he remarks before muttering, "Selfish." Silas shakes his head as he ties his shoes. "I think being halfway around the world is a valid excuse to not be able to help. Wouldn't call it selfish either. I don't really think there was anything to do. I mean...most of the teachers were off helping but the world was still a huge mess and they were just exhausted all the time." Liv gives a quiet sigh, picking at a clump of dirt and breaking it up with her fingers. "I guess I know what you mean though. As short as food was, I should have been able to help grow some. But with everything going on, my abilities were so useless." Silas sighs heavily. "Could have helped if I wasn't busy impersonating bamboo," he says standing and stretching upwards with a creak. "Don't ever call yourself useless," he asserts pointedly. "We'll get your abilities working as you'd like in due course. It'll just take some work." Liv blushes again at the comments, her face a pale rosy pink. "Sorry, Profe-I mean, Mr. McClain." She stands as he does, simply so she's not sitting on the ground alone. "Sure. Yeah, we'll do that. Thank you." "Oh good God, call me Silas. Or if you must, my old codename - Sylvan. Leave the 'Professor' business when Dr. X is around," Silas insists. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go do something truly torturous - paperwork," he adds with a grin. Walking back into the building he calls back loudly, "I expect you in my botany class!"