Logs:(Super) Heroic

(Super) Heroic
Dramatis Personae Avi, Echo, Harm
In Absentia	2023-04-14 "I mean that sounds incredible of you but is this like. A normal Tuesday here?"
Location <XAV> Lake - Xs Grounds
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. It is a glorious spring day at Xavier's, sunny and mild and on a Friday with the final class bell rung, many students are opting to flee campus already, go have fun in town and not bother to hang around for the scheduled time set aside after lunch for sports or band or theatre practices. Avi is not one of those -- almost certainly he'll be at track practice later, he's certainly already dressed for it. Right now, though, he is down near the lake, a short distance from the water where he is alternately tugging futilely on the end of a heavy-duty leash and crouched, pleading (equally futilely) with a sizable and extremely unmoving tan and white lump. From the front end, at least, the lump does have a face, extremely jowly bulldog underbite, improbably droopy eyes under an excess of wrinkle, flopped-over ears, tong lolling comically out of his slobbery overhung lips. Presumably he has legs, tucked under his muscular body, thick folds of skin, somewhere, but all Avi's pleading, tugging, offering of treats, is not convincing him to condescend to unfold them and walk. Occasionally he will deign to snuffle Avi's hand amiably and slurp up a treat, though. Echo shifts every minute or two on the shore of the lake, feeling the rocks poking uncomfortably through both her straight-legged jeans and the soles of her white-and-gray running shoes. She's brought Tad Williams's River of Blue Fire outside so she looks less aimless, but she's clearly not reading very intently; her eyes keep drifting from the creased paperback to the surface of the lake, and she keeps turning slightly as if to hear what everyone else is doing with the start of their weekend. Xavier's is starting to feel familiar but not yet comfortable, although, she reflects, some people have definitely been welcoming. Over to the right is one of them; she cranes her neck to get a better look at Avi as she recognizes his voice, and then lets out a choked laugh when she lays eyes on the…dog, she is assuming by the leash and not the shape. She looks over three more times to the unmoving scene before deciding that dogs are good social grease. "Is he…yours?" she asks as she approaches, crossing her right arm over her muted green ribbed T-shirt to hold her left upper arm, book hanging limply at her side. "Um. Echo," she adds, in case Avi does not remember her. "Avi, right?" she adds, as though she is not sure either. Harm doesn't really seem in much of a hurry as they wandering down the hill from the mansion. They're dressed in a mauve linen tunic and wide-legged blue jeans, barefoot now, black sandals clipped to the strap of their black canvas shoulder bag (covered in many-colored patches and pins). They looked to be headed for the woods but, spotting Avi and his lump, veers toward the lake instead. They offer a bright smile and a wave to both their schoolmates. "I didn't know you had a dog." They're tilting their head and looking closer as if to confirm the lump is, in fact, a dog. "Are they hurt? Or sick? Or..." "Yeah!" Avi's looking up at Echo with a bright smile to confirm he is, in fact, Avi, and then again to Harm, more eagerly, "Yeah!" to confirm he does, in fact, have... "... well, got a pile of lead and drool anyway, was a dog when we left the mansion. Boy ain't sick he a damn lazybones!" He's patting the broad side of the heavyset bulldog affectionately as he maligns the pup. "Found himself a good patch of sun and now he finna make me late for track he a tank but he would not cut it on no army base I tell you that. Anyway I did not have a dog yesterday but ain't he perfect?" As Avi solicits confirmation of Dog Perfection from the other two, the dog rolls its oversized head to the side and drools on his shoe. Echo returns Avi a smaller but not less friendly smile. Her shoulders tense initially at Harm's approach but then relax as she sees another face that has thus far only seemed friendly. "Hi, Harm," she adds politely, releasing her arm to wave back. "I didn't know we were allowed to have dogs?" Echo scrunches her face up like she is trying to X-ray-vision the Xavier's handbook from here, but it dissolves into a snort of laughter as she mirrors the dog's head tilt. "I hope you don't need dry shoes for track. He's, uh," she pauses, searching for something she can say truthfully. "He seems nice? Where'd you get a dog in one day?" Harm squats down next to Dog and pets him, or kind of mooshes around the loose skin on his head. "He's perfect," they pronounce very seriously, as if they have performed a very thorough investigation to arrive at that conclusion. "We're allowed, you're just supposed to get permission from the administration, probably so they can make sure the dog won't like...eat the school cat." Their mouth tugs to one side. "Or us. What's his name?" "Yeah! You can have dogs you gotta fill out a whole form and they'll like un-permission you if you don't, I dunno, feed it or it eats the library books or pees in the Professor's shoes or something I guess but I don't think this guy's gonna do, uh." Avi is squinting down at his contented lump of dog. "... basically. Anything. I don't know his name yet we still getting to know each other." He whumps himself down beside the dog, leaning up against the pup's side and making himself comfortable. The dog pants, and wags what very small nub of tail he has. "Oh man," Avi looks up at Echo with a bright and animated expression, "so last week," was it really? does time matter? Who is counting, certainly not Avi, "Asva and I we were down Salem Center taking ghost pictures because it looks mad cool to be all lit up when you see-through and then one the M-Kids, they like this whole-ass superhero squad you probably meet 'em they been around, they show up tell us it's an emergency and whisk us off to save all these pets been kidnapped by this creepy ass robots like some knockoff Sentinels, ugly spider things crammed all these poor dogs and cats into some ol' stank toilet, anyway we totally saved 'em Asva was a real badass and we got 'em out and to a shelter safe and sound." Does any of this explain Chonk lying here like Avi's pillow? Minor details but Avi is beaming proudly about the whole escapade. Echo's eyes widen at the news that they can have pets, a brief flash of excitement parting her lips. She looks down at the dog again now that Harm's pets have elicited no aggressive response and then, slowly, drops to a squat herself, inspecting him from up close. She reaches out shyly, like she still thinks he might bite, and pats his side a few times. The dog is briefly forgotten, though, as her brows draw closer and closer together and her jaw drops further and further with Avi's story. "Superheroes? Kid superheroes, like us kid, or...Billy the Kid nickname kid? Petnapping robots?" She glances at Harm. "I mean that sounds incredible of you but is this like. A normal Tuesday here?" Equally as unclear to Echo as to a listener whether the undercurrent to her words is nerves or excitement. Harm sits back onto their heels, their eyes widening with more more delight than surprise at the story. "Oh wow! They've really been coming around more and more, it sounds like." For Echo's benefit, they add, "The M-Kids, I mean. They don't go here, but they've been coming here when they need backup. I'm not sure it's happened enough to count as a normal Tuesday thing, but it's definitely a thing. Don't worry, though, I don't think any of the superheroing has happened here." Their smile suddenly brightens again. "You know, Avi, I think that makes you a superhero. Like, part-time maybe." The dog does not bite, but does move more than he has moved thus far -- sloooowly tumping over onto his side to allow access to his belly. His tongue, still lolling out of his mouth, now flops straight into the dirt. Avi is jostled aside by this shift in the pup's bulk, but doesn't seem to mind. "Yeah! For-real superheros. They're --" His brows scrunch inwards, briefly. "... actually I'onno where they at school, I just figured they in school like us but they ain't never said exactly where. Just about our age, though, yeah." He shoots a crooked grin at Harm. "I don't know what's a normal Tuesday 'round here. It was pretty cool, though." He sits up a little straighter at the suggestion he is a superhero. "One day gon' be full-time. Maybe get some practice in saving a few more cuties like this, though." He pats the dogs side firmly. "The shelter been tracking most their folks down but he ain't got no microchip. They still looking but said I could foster him, this place way better than putting him in dog jail you don't wanna be in a sad ol' kennel do you boy. -- Anyway you hang around long enough," he's telling Echo earnestly, "maybe you do some part-time superheroing, too. Just, uh. Probably don't let the teachers catch you at it, they frown on that kinda thing." Echo draws back in alarm as the dog shifts, but gives it a little smile as it just rolls over and even reaches out to rub its belly lightly. Her nod at Harm's reassurance is accompanied by the slightest hint of skepticism in her expression, as though she'd believe anything could happen here. "Damn. So superheroing is like, an option?" She's clearly impressed both with the mysterious M-kids and Avi's dog-saving, but her face falters a little and she glances toward the lake briefly with a wistful look. "I thought being a mutant might be more like that, way back when." Looking back and forth at the smiles on the other two, though, Echo can't help but let some enthusiasm creep back in. "Yeah, maybe. Stuck here for a couple years, aren't I? I mean, can't be bad if it comes with perks like temporary puppy." She leans forward, getting dangerously tippy in her squat. "Wait so. You guys think anyone can be a superhero or is it like, power dependent?" Harm has shifted pretty seamlessly to scrtiching the underside of what passes for the dog's chin. "Oh, definitely. There are grown-up superheroes here. Some of them are teachers, too. They just don't like us doing it, which..." They shrug and indicates Avi. "Like with a lot of stuff they don't like us doing, they can't actually stop us. I think maybe you have to have powers to be a super hero, but there's regular kinds of heroic, too, right? I think fostering a rescued dog is pretty heroic." They study Echo thoughtfully. "But if you mean like...if your power isn't like the kind of thing comic book characters have? I think you can still be a superhero. I'm a healer, not great comic book superhero material, and I'd absolutely never be any use in a fight, but I helped the M-Kids, too." "It comes with some good of perks for real, I was skeptical at first cuz this place full to the gills with white folk but I gotta give 'em their props their pretentious-ass classes actually interesting and it's wild to go boating and hiking and rock climbing without leaving the grounds and getting roped into superhero adventures on the side would never have happened at my last school and I could for sure have not brought dog to school with me without going blind first." Avi looks over at Harm, nodding along with what they say. "Some the teachers here are hella legit like Mister Holland? If I was half the hero he is when I grow up?" He lets out a low whistle. "And yeah, I think you can def be a hero-hero without any powers but it's powers that make the super, right? So any of us..." But now he's kind of distracting himself on this line of thought. "-- okay so any mutant can be a superhero but what happens if you got powers but you do all your heroing without 'em? Hero or superhero? Or like you don't got no powers but you make yourself a fancy suit like Iron Man -- oh shit what if you got powers, but you don't use 'em and instead you use a fancy suit -- we need like a whole chart for this." "Huh." Echo exhales contemplatively. "I mean I know about the app," her phone emerges from her back pocket and is waved about lightly, "but guess my brain dropped them in the simple 'responsible and trained adult' category and didn't think details." She looks at Harm a little extra-intently when he(?) refers to regular kinds of heroism, like she is trying to capture something about that statement. "Yeah," she says slowly. "But saving people, that makes you definitionally heroic, I think? Even my..." she cuts herself off abruptly. "Was it one of them? They get hurt? You get hurt?" she directs the last towards Avi. His comments about Xavier's demography are met with a sardonic half-smile and the don't-I-know-it kind of widened eyes. "Yeah, guess I'm used to that bit... But - Mr. Holland - oh yeah, that is superheroing huh? I was just getting in trouble about my stupid powers when he got arrested. Never thought I'd be somewhere everyone knows him." Echo drops phone and book and holds up her hands as parentheses. "Suit-hero's too specific, I'm going with throwing all that in (super) heroing." She points at Harm then Avi in turn. "So you're a superhero for saving people. You're a superhero for saving dogs and a (super) hero for fostering him. And you're both just regular super the rest of the time, can't turn that off." Echo rocks back on her heels again with a slight smile. Harm's brows are knitting steadily tighter as they try to follow Avi's increasingly complicated (super)hero classification system. "Well, I don't feel like a superhero," they hedge, "but one of the M-Kids got hurt, so they brought me and my girfriend..." They blush suddenly. "Well, she wasn't my girlfriend at the time and weirdly it was kind of that mission that got us -- anyway, they got me and Naomi to help. So maybe there should be a separate category for like, superhero support? Superauxiliary?" Their blush was just starting to clear, then deepens again with a quick smile at Echo. "Thanks! I bet you're pretty super, too. Do you want to be a superhero? Or..." They imitate the hand-parentheses. "(Super) hero? I don't know if you can like, volunteer yourself to the M-Kids, but if we were going to have our own teen superhero squad here and I feel like Avi's the guy to ask about it." "Psh I was fine we all fine. Anyway you super too, yeah? Otherwise why would you be here?" Avi's brows furrow. "'less you like Gae or -- no wait you just said you was getting in trouble about your powers. So, super! And you could be a hero if you wanted, I'm sure." His eyes light at Harm's suggestion. "We could totally make our own superhero squad. Be the X-Kids. Save the... maybe not the world." He grins, broad. "Not yet, anyway." "Maybe the best heroes don't feel like ones. Like Samwise Gamgee, everyone knows he's a hero but he just thinks he's a gardener. All the best people in LOTR end up as healers, too." Echo's lips twist in an embarrassed fashion after saying all that. Her eyebrows go up to a clearly interested level as Harm mentions Naomi, but she doesn't ask about the percussionist. "Er, yeah by that definition guess so? Not flashy or anything though," she says quickly, "basically just a walking voice recorder. Echo, get it, ha ha." She shifts from foot to foot, evidently uncomfortable. "I..." her brow furrows. "I don't know." Her voice is quieter than it's been this whole time. "Not sure what I want about much these days. Kind of scared? Just...trying to figure out what this all," she waves her hand behind her towards the rest of campus and everything it symbolizes, "means for my, like, life. But, it would be nice, to help people, if I could. For more than like, studying." Her laugh is slightly shaky as she turns a faintly hopeful gaze to Avi. "So maybe if you do, you could let me know." "It's a pretty big honor being compared to Samwise Gamgee, and I am a gardner, too!" Was Harm secretly biting their tongue to not just come right out and ask about Echo's power? Possibly, because they perk up with obvious interest the moment she volunteers it. "Oh! I'm not sure about superheroing, but I bet you could find ways of helping people with that. And who knows, maybe there are ways of superheroing with echoes. I bet the X-Kids could help you figure it out. Oh!" They pat the bag at their side, then root around inside until they come out with a small wooden case. "I have a harmonica, if you feel like jamming! I mean. With your power. If that's...not too weird." They look down to not very effectively hide their blush, their gaze landing on the dog still belly-up and still unmoving, then up at Avi. "You know what, I'll watch the dog while you're at track. I was just going to hang out anyway, and I don't see this guy going anywhere before you get back." They don't even bother reaching for the leash. "Go on, let me be a little heroic for you today."