ArchivedLogs:Concerns and Confessions
| Concerns and Confessions | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
2013-06-07 ' |
| Location
<XS> Workshop | |
A large barn-like building situated at the far end of the gardens from the mansion proper, this makerspace functions as a classroom for many of the more hands-on classes. An expanse of workshop space, it is subdivided into smaller segments for the different types of activities: Woodshop, Welding shop, Machine shop, Electronics, Bike shop, Screen Printing and Photography, Fabric Arts, and the Rapid Prototyping Lab with a trio of 3D printers. The space comes complete with a large host of tools available for use, although many of the more dangerous require prior clearance from administration to use -- students with appropriate clearance to use them can gain access to locked equipment with their student IDs. From sanders to MIG/TIG welders to soldering stations to industrial sewing machines to its own darkroom, though, this space is well equipped for teaching students how to /make/. Peter is up to /things/. At the moment, these things involve his mask; a red mouthless ski-mask that he is currently -- modifying? He's got a fireman mask (disassembled) out on the table nearby; a needle and thread, and -- he's apparently, uh. It's hard to really say. There's also this unusual plastery substance next to him -- white, kind of sparkly, it looks like a heap of melted plastic. Today, Peter's clad in his blue collared shirt, black dress slacks, two-toed socks, and terrible hipster glasses. Right /now/, he's got the mask flipped inside out and is -- taping something? A large plastic ring, pressed to the inside of the mask. He's putting tape over it to see if he can make it stick in place, apparently. At a table in the Fabrics section. Rasa pushes the door open and peeks inside, eyes scanning the room quickly before moving all the way in. Ze is not dressed for going out yet, in fact, it appears as though ze has just returned from the gym, wearing navy blue sweat pants with the X logo and a white, form fitting, athletic tank top, highlighting the curve ze just does not really have. Ze has a bottle with hir, filled to the brim with a milky white substance that seems thicker than milk. Ze is sucking at it through a straw off and on, the drink just a few shades lighter than hir gray skin and darker grey eyes and hair. When ze spots Peter, ze heads over, pulling over a chair to stare at him. "Hello." Peter is /stared/ at. He is, just finishing putting that ring on! And now, he is sloooowly, sliding the mask on top of his head, and: "Hey!" Mask. ON. There are no goggles on this mask; there is a notable impression of the ring underneath it, though, over his mouth -- kind of a spot that 'pops out' a little in a ring-shape. "I'm adding a smoke-filter," Peter mentions, semi-idly, before adding: "Um. For smoke." Then: "What's that stuff you're drinking? Looks like -- milk? Gross." Peter PASSES JUDGMENT. On Rasadrink. "Protein drink. Want some? It's kind of gross in that it's utterly bland." Rasa offers that bottle, nearly shakes it in his face. Taaaake it. LOOOOVEE IIIT. "My stomach's kind of messed up right now. Well, lots is messed up right now, but I have to eat - consume calories, or my body, you know, just kind of shrivels and dies." Since ze doesn't actually believe Peter is going to take the bottle, ze pulls it back to hir lap and holds it. "Still going to do fire rescue? You're taking a team from now on, right?" Peter does /not/ take the bottle. He tugs the mask off, though, making adjustments. He's also got a laptop out nearby; occasionally, he pauses to type -- or read -- but otherwise... fiddle fiddle with mask. "No thanks. And yeah, maybe. I dunno. I just -- I mean, y'never know when you're gonna be in a fire," Peter comments, idly. Like, y'know. It might just HAPPEN. Bam! Fire! Crap! "I dunno if I'd take a team if I ever did it again, most people can't keep up with me. I probably won't -- like, just go after fires anymore, though. Not for a while, at least." :/ face, as he continues adjusting the ring's position. "I wanna at least have body armor, first." "Peter, going out alone is bad. You've run into that problem over and over again - hell, even I have. You gotta... not do that." Rasa takes a deep breath and lifts the bottle up once more, taking a long drink. Ze swallows hard to get it down. "And you know the twins can keep up with you, so knock off that bullshit. Not even professional firefighters go off alone." Ze cups hir hands around the bottle and looks over at what he's working on. "Body armor? What kind?"
At the mention of the body armor, Peter turns briefly violet, but then -- he's pulling something up on the laptop. Turning it slightly to let Rasa see. There are -- many links! Things on firefighter materials; astronaut uniforms (mini ventilation and cooling suits they wear), so on. But there's also, prominently, an article on using spider web as /body-armor/. "Ivan -- um, he's been -- spinning me a lot of spiderweb? Into kind of a fabricy, thing. For me to experiment with. The stuff is like ten times stronger than steel! But it's really elastic, so any impact, it transfers the energy directly to the wearer -- not great. But, if you arrange it in the right pattern, you can get it to absorb that energy over a large area, instead -- /and/ still be flexible." "Compression? Huh. Well, if you're working on twinsuits, why not a hydrating type? Build in a water tank instead of an air tank. You know, smoke isn't exactly good for anything that breathes." Rasa peeks at the schematics and information on Peter's computer and considers while Peter goes on about the spiderwebs. Ze stiffens at the first mention of Ivan's name, but the tension ebbs slowly out of hir again. "Elastic, eh? How elastic? Is it stretchier than spandex, or are you just talking about impacts and all that?" Rasa is only distracted by the talk of body armor for a little while then begins back on the other topic. "Peter, I'm serious. You should ask them. You should ask anyone. You can't go out alone because just don't feel like asking people to go with you." Ze worries the topic like a puppy with a chew toy. "S'pretty stretchy," Peter responds, idly. And: "Hydration suit would be cool but it'd have to feed their gills and -- I dunno there's a lot of things that could go -- wrong? Compression suits are -- they have them /already/, so -- s'probably the best way to go. I want to get an air tank, though, so they can show me, um." Violet, again. "Where they live and sleep and stuff." "...yeahokay," Peter responds, /reluctantly/, to Rasa's assertion that he should ask others to come with him. "I mean, yeah I know. I'm not gonna -- do anything for a while anyway. I just want to, um. Build stuff for a while. Test stuff. /Make/ stuff. I guess." "Ah. Because. you know. Clothes can be a problem for me sometimes." Rasa is quieter now that Peter puts up no protests to hir encouraging... mandates. Ze takes a sip from hir protein drink and then sets it on the counter Peter is working at where the condensation won't ruin anything. "If... when we find him, maybe I'll ask him to make me something." Ze swallows again. "You are worried about him, right? And just doing things like this to stay busy and not freak out?" "Ohright, yeah. I mean, you probably go through -- I mean, your wardrobe's probably pretty unusual. I, mmmf," and Peter pauses, now, fingers stopping at their work, setting the inverted mask down -- glancing to Rasa. "...wellyeah. I guess. I mean. I know Jax will find him, it's just." He takes a quiet little breath. "I /know/ he'll find him," Peter repeats, a little more firmly. Rasa nods solemnly. "I wanted to... um, thank you, by the way, for letting me... um." Ze takes a deeeeeep breath and looks over hir shoulder left and right before settling hir gaze on Peter's feet, once ze's discovered no one else is watching or listening. "For letting me be in your head when we figured out things... that he was gone. I wasn't doing well and it would have probably gotten worse." Ze rubs at hir upper arm before shifting hir weight nervously, hir tail twitching low. "Things are still bad, but you know, I just have to ... not well, take matters into my own hands." Ze licks hir lips. "And yeah. I've only really had a couple episodes where I've really ruined what I was wearing, but it does tend to stretch things out of proportion a lot. I should probably take up sewing to fix some of my clothes." "S'okay. I don't mind, um. I mean, people in my head is a little weird but I'm getting used to it," Peter responds, still painted a particular shade of violet as Rasa looks at his socks. "Yeah, I know what you -- man," Peter says, glancing back to his mask. "I keep... wanting to just, run off. To New Jersey. Do /something/. Try /something/. Because -- but there's nothing to do. So, um. Just... tinker, I guess. With stuff." At the mention of the various fates of Rasa's costumes, Peter lifts his head, and: "That would probably help, yeah -- I've been -- learning a lot about it, s'pretty cool, actually. There's some materials you could /probably/ wear that wouldn't -- I mean, that can stretch better..." "I did that when you disappeared," Rasa admits quietly, but then lets Peter change the subject. "Yeah? I generally don't like wearing spandex, because it's usually cut to fit and the stretch is already pretty close to its max anyway. I could wear big ridiculous spandex that doesn't fit at all, but then I'd look like some sort of weird ragamuffin or like I always expected to grow to full adult muscly male proportions. I mean, who really ever /plans/ for that." And then ze is grabbing hir bottle and trying to suck down more of hir drink. Ze pulls the straw away and shakes hir head. "Should have gone for chocolate." "What /did/ you do when I disappeared?" Peter asks, watching Rasa as ze drinks, eyebrows crunching together in thought. "I'm sure there's gotta be /some/ material out there that can accomodate -- um, your changes. Maybe just something you can wear underneath your regular clothes, so when things get -- really weird or unexpected, you're not -- um, y'know." He gestures at hir. VIOLET. "Naked?" Rasa replies flatly. Ze shrugs and nods. "Yeah. Protection of some type would be nice, you know, from nakedness. Also, telepathy, but you know, that's got it's pros and cons." Ze shifts in hir seat, pulling one knee up to hir chest and hugging it with hir arms. "Well. I, um, don't want you to think that I was hiding stuff from you because I was hiding stuff from you, but you had a really shitty time where they took you and I just didn't know if you could deal with everything right away. Kind of wanted you to have a break from shit for a while. But... it's this thing where, or rather, why I needed you when Ivan disappeared. It'll probably come up again, so you should probably know." Ze looses momentum at the end of hir preamble. Peter's violet shade goes dark indigo at the mention of /naked/. But, he just, silently nods. Yes, Rasa. NAKED. Ohyeah also telepathy. At the preamble ze gives to this thing ze did, though, Peter's eyebrows shoot up; the boy's certainly interested /now/. "...uh, what did you do?" he asks, apparently expecting Rasa to now inform him ze ATE JENNIFER. "I, uh, followed up a lead." Rasa replies quietly, hir other leg being drawn up onto the seat beside hir first, hugging both of them to hir torso now. "There weren't any specific people we could go after, regarding the twins, because we weren't sure, at first, that they didn't just disappear again. I hate saying it, especially in retrospect knowing they were in trouble, but they, you know, have that habit. Anyway." "So we were looking through out the city, using the program Kisha created to try and find your webshooters, but it wasn't a very good way to look, so I decided I would ask someone who didn't like you ... to see if he had anything to do with it." "..." Peter naaaaarrows his eyes at Rasa, now. Very intently. Brows crumpling together. Remembering, now, Rasa mentioned asking /someone/ about his disappearance. Someone... he doesn't like? Ze has his /full/ attention. "Who... did you ask, Rasa?" He leans forward, just a bit. PEER. "I approached Norman Osborn for information." Rasa meets his gaze, hir jaw set. Peter takes in a loooooong breath, then leans back into his stool with a steady /creak/. And... turns back to his mask. Peering at it. Not tinkering! Just, looking at it. His face rumpled with a frown. "...is that why you were -- when I first saw you, you were. Kind of -- green." "Yes. I was very green for a while, but then... it got better." Rasa gives a little bit of a shrug. "I know, it was kind of stupid, especially since you had talked before about his 'associate,' but I guess I didn't really know what I was getting into and I was just so sure I could sneak in a little telepathy and figure out where -- if he knew where you were." "Well, you're not dead," Peter mumbles -- not so much to Rasa as the mask. "But at least we now /know/ he's -- um, that thing. I met. In the sewers. I guess." He glances up at Rasa, face still twisted up in a confused half-frown; like he's really not sure what to /make/ of this. "I mean I'm -- it's awesome that you're willing to -- but I mean. Obviously you know, uh. You shouldn't -- I'm sure everybody's told you that by now," he finishes, turning back to his mask. "A /lot/ of times. So." "Unless he's got another large green monster on his payroll, yes. Then again, there were three of us there, so I can't really say large green people are abnormal." Rasa clears hir throat, looking a little lost in contemplation before continuing. "I'd offer to let you see him to confirm, but I'm not wearing... the right clothes." Ze coughs. "But Yes. I'm not dead and I didn't kill anyone. Good stuff all around. I'm working with Professor Xavier, now, and it seems to help get things sorted out. And yeah, Peter, I know I shouldn't. I really know I shouldn't. Doesn't mean I didn't almost email him a couple nights ago." Peter stiffens at the mention of an email. His head slinging around to -- stare at hir. "Rasa," Peter says, his tone -- suddenly very flat, very careful, very tense: "You should not. Contact him. He's -- dangerous isn't even the right word. Rasa." Very hesitantly, his hand reaches out, extending for hir shoulder. "He's -- I don't know what's wrong with him. I mean, you got that telepathy thing, maybe you know more than I do. But I can tell you this: I know when someone is inches away from killing somebody. And every time I meet him, that's how he is. He's /always/ inches away from killing -- somebody. Everybody. He kills people, Rasa. I think the dude even /eats/ them." "Peter, there are two of them... in there." Rasa blurts out, frowning. Ze lets peter finish, but leaps on the silence immediately. And then peter grabs hir bare shoulder and there are flashes before ze takes a deep breath and concentrates on nothingness. "But, you're right. He kills people... and eats them. It's not exactly... him, Norman Osborn, but in other ways, it is. I mean, if it were just him alone, without the other, I don't think he'd ever actually hurt you, but he certainly would be thrilled to know if you died horribly. But it's never just... him alone." At the flashes, Peter's hand begins to retract -- but then -- so long as ze shows no signs of pulling away or discomfort -- he brings his palm back to hir shoulder, gripping it firmly. "...okay. I mean, maybe -- there's something wrong with him. I can believe that. /Holycrap/, I can believe that. But whatever is wrong with him, you should stay the /hell/ away from him, Rasa. Because I -- I've seen a lot of scary things," and for a moment, there is a flash in his thoughts -- Sebastian and Shane, trying to kill him -- a spider made of blood, reaching for him -- a woman with a razor blade, teleporting, cloning, surrounding him, stab-stab-/stab/ -- "--and none of it ever scared me as much as that guy, in a suit, smiling at me." << Well, try having him talk you down from killing everyone around you. >> Rasa can't help but let that out, the sound of his soothing voice filtering in from the background memories, the image of those yellow eyes being pressed down by gallons and tons of water pressure under a serene lake. It starts to fade away again, showing Peter only the craving of fascination and an enticing hint of the freedom that Goblin presents. "I'm avoiding him, Peter. I'm telling you about this because you understand." There's a heavy note of emotional strain in hir voice as ze tries to get the words out. "I'm telling you because sometimes, I need help. We all have to ask for help sometimes. This is me, asking you." "...okay. I can -- okay," Peter responds, briefly tensing under that flicker of imagery, something almost /instinctive/ about the way he retracts from only the sound of Norman Osborn's voice. But then: "I'd rather you ask /me/ for -- I'd rather you have ask /anyone/ for help. But, I can -- I mean, if there's... something in there that you think he understands... I can, um. I can understand. I just, just. He's /so/ dangerous. I don't want him to --" << /eat/ you >> "-- hurt you." He pulls, then. For /maybe/ hugs? "I'll do whatever I can, Rasa. I mean -- whatever you need." "I know, Peter. I don't want to ask him for anything, when my head is clear. I don't want to talk to him for the sheer fact that he doesn't --- but I have to be able to tell people when I want to, so I don't." Rasa hugs Peter and hugs him tightly, finally giving into the impulse to copy his biology. Pseudo-chitin grows, but hir facial features remain the same. "I just... don't do well when Ivan is missing. He helped me through a lot of it. Didn't care when my head was full of fangs and I scared half the students in at lunch. He has to come back." "He will. S'okay. Jackson will find him. /We'll/ find him. One way or another. I mean, yeah we always end up in danger but we always come back, y'know?" Peter tells hir, still hugging -- only pulling back to give hir a hesitant, crooked smile. "I mean, not as good as new but -- considering all the weird stuff that happens here we've got, um, a /pretty/ good track record. Ivan's not gonna break that streak. Trust me. We'll /get/ him back." "Okay. Just... don't you disappear either. I'm sorry if I'm being hard on you, but I'm scared." Rasa takes a deep breath and gives Peter a little squeeze, hir arms generating more power after borrowing the muscle tissue from the other kid. | |
