ArchivedLogs:For Fun

For Fun
Dramatis Personae Cody, Jack, Lyric, Nick, Shania
In Absentia	2015-10-21 "I am *so* serious!"
Location <XS> Rec Room - FL2
School this may be, but life for Xavier's students certainly isn't all studying. Outside classes, this is a popular spot to find students in their downtime. An enormous tribute to slacking off, this room is a wealth of fun and relaxation. Comfortable armchairs, couches, and beanbags offer plentiful seating scattered throughout the room, and the cushioned windowseats by the high windows offer a cozy nook to curl up and look out on the grounds. The room is often filled with the noises of gaming -- whether it comes from the big-screen television (tall racks of DVDs beside it, if nothing can be found on the multitude of cable channels), tricked out with consoles from retro to the latest releases, or the less electronic clatter and thump of the pool table, air hockey, or foosball. For those a little more subdued in their gaming, the cabinets hold stacks and stacks of board and card games, ranging as classic as chess and go to as esoteric as Dixit, Catan, and Gloom. More days than not, there's some variety of snacks to be found on a table beside the gaming cabinet -- quite often in the form of fresh-baked desserts. The television is on in the rec room -- playing /Back to the Future/, the movie near the beginning with the captions playing across the bottom. Perched on a beanbag to one side of the large television, Lyric has her laptop beside her, though she's currently ignoring it -- her attention is split between the television and the embroidery project she's working on, a new and elaborately hand-stitched scarf with fine vinework along its edges. She is dressed in jeans, a light blue cardigan, black and light blue scarf folded neatly around her head and tucked under her neck. Her eyes snap back up to the television as another student picks up the remote, switches the captions off: "-- Ugh I hate those they're so distracting." There's a small roll of her eyes as she looks back down to her work, jaw a little tighter than before. Not far from the TV area, a neon-blue-haired girl in a black hoodie is hunched over her laptop, scribbling notes in a notebook next to her. As the unnamed student steals the remote and cuts off the captioning, her head snaps up, brown eyes narrowing. By the time Marty is about to ruin the amp stack, she blows out a breath, sets her laptop aside and stands, moving behind the couch and leaning over, snatching the remote back. "Y'know what else is distracting?" she says, turning the captions back on and tossing the remote next to her roommate, "someone shuttin' off the sound because they wanna think. Captions're on for a reason, asshole." With that, she makes her stompy way back to her seat, picks up her laptop, and fumes behind it. With the unseasonably warm weather hitting today, Jack is just jeans, sneakers, and a blue Giants logo t-shirt. He's been perched on a window seat, writing something in a notebook but when he hears complaints about captions and then sees the blue-haired girl start fuming, he frowns. Sitting up, Jack glances at the TV and tries not to think about his own little time travel adventure. He shakes it off and hopes there's not going to be a fight about whether or not the captions stay on. Nick enters, looking *just* a touch smug with a smile curling the edges of his canine lips. The brown fur that covers his entire body looks clean and neatly brushed except around the cuffs of his t-shirt (unbleached cotton with a large graphic of the planet Earth across the chest) and brown cargo shorts. The scent of sugar and spice sweeps in with him, wafting from the big platter of cookies he carries: snickerdoodles, by the looks of them, dusted with cinnamon. He casts around for a clear surface, and finally settles the plate down on the table near the (currently empty) cupcake tree. Then he pulls an index card from a pocket, folding it length-wise, sets up a sign: "Chai Snickerdoodles! (Contains dairy, eggs, gluten, caffeine)." Now he suddenly looks lost, as if, having Deployed Cookies, he hasn't actually thought through the next step. Though, recognizing Lyric, he waves and points. "I made...oh wait." Snatching up a whiteboard from beside the boardgame cabinet, he writes, "I made cookies". "Oh come on who gives a shit." The first student -- Max, a short girl with a short mop of shaggy brown hair -- is scowling over at Shania, slumping down against the back of the couch. "Just fucks up the picture." She doesn't actually go so far as to /reclaim/ the remote from Lyric, though, grumping off to nab a cookie and slump down into a seat. Lyric glances up with a quick grin at Shania when the remote is dropped beside her and the captions turned back on. Juuust in case, she tucks the remote away on the /far/ side of her beanbag. A moment later an instant message comes through to Shania from the Deaf girl: 'Yeah, I WONDER who could give a shit.' She glances back up when Nick enters, looking over at the whiteboard. Then looking over at the cookies. Then over at the whiteboard. Her fingers move across the keyboard, laptop tipped outward a moment later with a message printed in its notepad: 'I don't suppose you could be cajoled to turn those into DELIVERY cookies?' Shania snorts at the message, fingers flying briefly as she types in a response. F I thought it'd do any good, I *would* mute it on her next time she was watching something. But fuckit, ain't worth it.' Her nose twitches as Chai snickerdoodles are brought in, blue eyebrows rising. Once Max has collected her bounty and moved aside, she slips back out of her chair, waiting on the fringes until the crowd clears. Jack sighs at Max's reaction to Shania, closing his notebook. The smell of the approaching cookies has him perking up and looking towards the door. Jack takes a moment to watch Nick before rising from his seat to get a cookie for himself. "These smell amazing," he remarks as he snags himself two of the snickerdoodles. As he takes a bite of one, the half of cookie just seems to disappear. A moment later, he offers an unseen grin in Nick's direction. "And they taste really great too," he offers, the cookies he took and his notebook floating in mid air due to invisible arms. Nick's triumphant smile broadens into a toothy grin, and he answers the question by collecting a stack of three cookies with a napkin and walking it over to Lyric. "Hey, thanks!" His ears perk up at Jack's compliment. "First time I've made 'em like this." He perches himself on an unoccupied beanbag and starts writing (kind of messily: "They're snickerdoodles Jax said to put chai in them") as he speaks, "It was Jax's suggestion. The chai." He lifts his eyes from his writing to look at Jack again. Or, at his clothes, anyway. "I'm Nick. New here." 'New here and you're already falling under Professor Holland's baking influence.' Lyric's smile is amused -- and then /approving/ after she takes a bite of one of the cookies. Nods firmly. She holds up one of the other three cookies, waggling it in offering over to her roommate. Sniiickerdoodle? Shania looks to Lyric's offering, then the crowd around the plate. Looks back at Lyric's, then the plate... and sighs, seeing as how her grand strategy of 'waiting on the fringes until the bigger ones take their pick' seems to be bearing out the usual degree of success. Bobbing her head, she takes the offered cookie, popping it in her mouth. "...'S gfd," she says around the baked good, nodding at the wolfman. "Sh'n." "Professor Holland is some sort of...magic cookie and cake wizard genius," Jack chuckles. "First time? Man, you've got some great cooking skills too," he chimes. "I'm Jack. And welcome to the school," he adds for Nick, flipping open his notebook again. He flips to a clean page and writes down a quick: 'Hi, Lyric' before turning the book to show the girl. When Shania comes over, Jack quirks an unseen brow. "Huh?" "Oh, no, I've made snickerdoodles before." Nick waves his hands in a 'back up' sort of gesture. "Only the *chai* part is new." He nods his wolfish head at Shania, "Glad you like...Shen?" Meanwhile, he has already started writing again, 'I'll take baking advice from anyone who's good at it!' "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Me and Paras are starting a band, who wants to join?" His writing lags behind, 'Also I'm starting a band with Paras you said you make music what kind?' Lyric tips her head to read Jack's notebook, her brows lifting when she sees the message. She stifles a giggle, lifting a hand to wave back. Enthusiastically! Nick's message gets a puzzled furrow of brow. A looong contemplation. She doesn't answer at first, taking her time to finish her cookie. She offers the last one to Shania, too -- this might be generosity or might just be convenience, freeing up her hands so that she can write better. 'Are you serious?' Shania flushes, taking the cookie out of her mouth. "...Shane," she repeats, frowning at the second cookie and raising an eyebrow; not having even finished the first, a second being offered seems just confusing. With talk switching to bands, however, she shuffles a half-step backwards, silently taking herself out of the conversation just to be safe. "Oh, well, still great job. Way better than anything I could do," Jack says, finishing off his first cookie. He eats it quietly as the conversation turns to the band. He looks as curious as empty clothes can but he doesn't get into the conversation himself. "Nice to meet you, Shane." Nick's ears swivel back, then forward again. "I am *so* serious!" He writes the same words he speaks, underlining 'SO' three times. "Well, okay, it's really more for fun. We're not *professional* musicians or anything." His hand scribbles messily to keep up, 'OK, it's for FUN, we're not pros, but we actually DO want to start a band'. Lyric shifts slightly in the beanbag where she sits near the television (it's currently playing /Back to the Future/, with the captions on), lifting a hand to toy for a moment at the hem of the scarf wrapped around her head and neck. Her teeth drag against her lower lip, eyes scanning the words Nick writes a /few/ times before she looks back to the laptop on her lap. Her fingers tap against her keyboard several times without actually writing anything before she finally prints on the screen: 'Well so long as you're not making fun of me', and underneath that, 'I play drums. Why are you starting a band?' "...Thanks," Shane the Girly says, popping her cookie back in her mouth, retreating to the safety of her laptop now that talk of music is firmly a thing. Notebook is picked up again, compared to the screen, and by degrees the blue-haired teen relaxes. Peeking at the writing, Jack hums a little. "What do you play?" he asks Nick, glancing back to see if any Snickerdoodles remain. He's standing by the others, not paying any attention to the movie...not that anyone can tell. "For fun seems like the best way to start a band to me," he remarks idly, glancing over as Shane retreats back to her computer. When Jack starts trying to figure out just what Shania is up to, Cody comes wandering into the rec area, his frankenputer under one arm, and a pair of cans on his head blasting some country-ish rock. He's sort of missing everyone who there at the moment, the newcomer makes his way over to one of the corner chairs and flops down into it, then sits back up as he digs out where the power adaptor is. It's only then that he sees the small knot of people, and the cans come down as he says, "Ummm... Hey. Sorry, something going on here? I can leave if you needed the space..." Nick's furry brows furrow. 'Not making fun, just want to HAVE fun,' he writes. "I sing," he tells Jack, then writes, 'We started out talking about this band called Of Monsters and Men?' Running out of space on the white board, he erases while voicing the same. 'Like that band name reminded us of this school. Anyway then we joked we should start a band. Then we were serious.' He adds air quotes around 'serious' when he says it aloud. "Hey," he glances over at the Cody, ears swiveling and nose twitching. "Nah, we're just hanging out, talking about making a band. There may still be some chai snickerdoodles over on the table? But you don't have to move or anything." Lyric glances up -- over at Jack, first, then over at Cody, before her brow furrows slightly. She gives Cody a wave but then her eyes shift away from both of them, back to Nick and his whiteboard, focusing again on the writing there. 'Is that a mutant band?' After writing this on her computer she points to -- well, where "Of Monsters and Men" /had/ been written. And, more important: 'Are you going to make snickerdoodles for band practice?' "Still plenty of room," Shane murmurs in answer to Cody from behind her laptop. "Back to the Future's on, an' hope you don't mind captions." By the tone of her voice, there's a suggestion that he probably doesn't want to mind, and a random student on the couch scowls at her in reply. "Cool," Jack replies. He looks up when Cody arrives but he waits for the cans to come down to greet his roommate. "Hey, Cody. Like they said, you don't have to go. Room's open for everyone," he says. "How's it going?" he asks, finally eating that second cookie he took. It takes a few moments of looking at everything that's being written, then said, then written again. Almost like a dog watching something it's never seen before as Cody turns his head to look towards Jack, "Going allright. I got the speaker system on the computer working again. Turns out it was just a faulty wire. Sorry about the weird feedback this morning. That was SUPPOSED to be Youtube." He keeps glancing back towards Shania as he talks, then finally he settles on Jack once more, and mouths out 'What's up?' And then flicks his eyes back to the girl behind the other laptop in the room. Nick cocks his head, one ear pressed back and the other perked up quizzically. 'I have no idea if they're mutants,' he says the words as he write them, so they end up coming slow and drawn out: "I...have...no...idea...if...they're...mutants." 'But I will make ALL kinds of cookies for band practice.' He underlines the word 'ALL' with a truly exaggerated scribble. In his excitement he forgets to read that particular part aloud, though he does voice what he adds to that, 'Anyway if you wanna join hit me up I'm fiercegreenfire@gmail.com' Lyric grins brightly, giving Nick a thumbs-up. She turns her computer back around to face herself, shooting him a quick email -- from her school address, it simply says, 'Let's make music! -- Lyric.' But after this she sets the computer aside, picking her stitching back up to nestle back into the beanbag, continuing her embroidery as her attention focuses back on the movie on the TV screen. At one point, when Cody looks back at the blue-haired girl, she's already facing him; seems his surreptitious glance wasn't subtle enough, the way her eyebrow -- likewise the same shade of not-quite-electric blue -- rises. "...Sup?" "Ha, don't worry about it. I was already up. Just caught me off guard," Jack assures his roommate. He just shrugs at the mouthed question. He doesn't know what Cody's asking about. The invisible teen jumps slightly when an alarm goes off from his phone. He fishes it out of his pocket and checks it quickly before letting out a sigh. "Gotta run...counseling session," he mutters. "See ya later," Jack says on his way out, sleeve lifting as he lifts an invisible hand to wave. Giving Jack a 'Well Thanks' glare as he heads off so quickly, Cody turns his head back to look towards Shania, and says after a moment, "Sup." Though coming from him it sounds a bit lame, and then he opens up his laptop, waiting for it to start up. Sitting back in his spot, he eyes the movie to one side, and then says, "So... he bakes. That seems to be a thing here. I wonder if it's contagious." Nick sets his whiteboard aside as well, and rises to peer at the platter he had brought in. Gratified to find that the cookies have been well-received, his face lights up with a wolfish grin. "Wow, those sure were a hit." He nods at Jack. "Cool, see you around." Then, considering, he rises as well. "I'm so pumped, I'm going to go make *more* cookies so I can share some with my roommates. Nice to meet you, people I just met, and see you all!" He waves and lopes off smoothly. "Dunno," Shane grunts. "Don't mind so much, though. Reminds me of Dad Three. Dude treats cooking like you treat computers I guess, kinda rig is that anyway?" Cody seems to animate just a bit more when asked about the machine, "The casing's mostly an older ASUS machine, the motherboard's actually from one Dell, and the proc's from another." He runs his hand along the side, "It took a bit of extra work in the case to keep the new board in place, but she works as well as a machine worth three grand on the market." A beat. "Most days." "...Huh," is the answer to the moment of hardware geekery. The blue-haired girl pauses for a moment to scribble something in her notebook, then closes it, then her laptop. "Guessin' your thing's homebrew? Kinda had the..." her finger points at Cody, waggling to sketch in the space immediately surrounding him "...geek glow, there." "Unintentional side effect." Cody replies as he actually closes the lid for now, focusing in on the conversation, "I had to buy a half-dozen machines, because I couldn't afford what I wanted. I learned how to bodge it together from rebuilding some machines for my dad and his business. Soooo... less geek, more gear." "Close enough," Shane snorts... then falls silent, clearly at a loss how to continue the conversation; talking does not seem to be a strong point, for her. Cody bridges the gap, "And you? Don't see many girls around with blue hair. I saw one with green, but she apparently did stuff with plants. Is it yours, or just..." And then makes a brushing motion in the air like he's doing his hair up. "Dye," Shane says, lifting a shoulder. "'S temporary, washes out. Change colors 'bout every couple days, dependin' on what I feel like." Cody nods a couple times, "Cool." Then he motions towards the laptop, "So... what are you working on, that's not watching Back to the Future?" There are two kinds of geeks; those who will burble on about their chosen field of geekdom at the drop of a hat, and those to react like a prodded pillbug. Shane seems to be among the latter, as she hunches her shoulders a bit, eyes dropping floorward. "...Nothin' special. Jus' shoppin' list for Halloween. Costume. Figured what the fuck why not, right?" The best expression that can be given is a couple nods from Cody, before he takes a breath and says, "So... what are the main contenders? I've never really done the costume thing. I did help build some of the stuff for a haunted house once, though." Shania clears her throat. "...Scarecrow," she says. Falling quiet for a beat, she takes in a breath. "...Like, Arkham. Needle fingers 'n shit. Got more'n enough burlap, 'n Worbla and elastic for most of the mask. 'S the needle-fingers gonna be tricky, an' I'll need t'get my hands on a couple old gas masks. 'F I can have it done by th'dance, maybe wear it." "Huh." Now that the geek has been drawn out to the light of day, Cody says with a bit of a smile, "Gas Masks are easy to find, just need a military surplus place, or you can get some cheap replicas online. Could use resin sticks for the needles, so they're safe. Even put a little shank of metal in the center so they look the part?" "Do better," Shane says, "get a five-pack o' 14-gauge syringe heads, file 'em down, an' dip 'em in clear epoxy a couple times. Maybe crack open a shitload o' glowsticks for the juice, Iunno. Could do LEDs, but electrical shit ain't my thing." Cody looks down at his machine, pats it with one hand, and then looks back up, "Rigging LEDs is easy. I could show you how, if you want. But it's also what you want to rig them to, and how you want them to light. That might take some doing. You could even get some LED work for the eyes on the mask... if that's your thing." Adds after a moment, "Thanks for not calling them LED Lights. That's like saying ATM Machine, or PIN Number." Shania snorts. "LED lights're the bulbs. Anything else, it's the part. May not know electronics, but I know big-boy words." She falls silent for a moment, mulling over the offer of help. "...Maybe. Dunno. See how much time I got after puttin' everything else together." Cody gets a slight frown on his face, "Well, I don't know the first thing about how to make a costume, let alone a Scarecrow. I haven't even played Arkham. So... how about you tell me what you need, I'll rig it up for you, and that's that." "Well maybe I ain't gonna *know* what I need 'til I got the rest of the shit set up?" Shane snaps back. "You asked. 'Preciate it. But I ain't gonna know if there's *time* before the whole party thing, okay?" ...Apparently some pillbugs have spikes? "Ok-" And whatever Cody was about to say is cut off as the computer in his lap suddenly makes a buzzing noise that seems to be coming from the speakers, almost loud enough to interrupt the movie. He opens the machine and shuts it down before it gets worse, before grumbling under his breath, "Well, there goes MY credibility." Shania snorts, cheeks spotting. "...Homebrew, dude. How it goes, yeah?" Cody exhales hard, "How it goes." And then... the obvious and uncomfortable silence again. Eventually though, he moves to stand up, "So yeah, I'm Cody Maddox. If I'm going to be a build buddy, you should at least know my name. I room with Jack and Sergio, and start classes next week.'" "...Shane," the girl says back, though a small line forms between her eyebrows at the words 'build buddy.' It's gone as quick as it appears, however, and she lifts a shoulder. "Roomin' with the deaf girl, Lyric. Already started classes." Cody points over his shoulder with one thumb, "So yeah... I'm gonna go get something to snack on down in the cafeteria, then see if I can figure out what happened this time before lights out. See you around?" His head moves slightly to one side as if trying to gauge the response before it comes. "Prolly," Shane says, lifting a hand briefly. "Later."