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Message
Dramatis Personae Derek, Hercules, Jack, Lyric	2015-10-14 "Do... you know what this means?"
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. It's later in the evening and with classes and dinner over the rec room is surprisingly sparse. The large television is blaring cartoons as the last person left it on Cartoon Network. One of the few students in the room is Derek, curled up on one of the beanbag chairs, dressed in simple attire of jeans and a jean jacket over a green t-shirt. He's kicked off his shoes so they lay on the floor next to him. He's not really paying attention to much else than the smart phone in his hands, appearing to be in deep concentration. A large, and perhaps familiar, teen steps into the rec coom, and glances around. He watches the large TV for a few moments, grinning. Derek's position is noted, and Hercules waves to him. Canting his head to one side, he approaches the beanbagged teen. "Derek? What are ya playing?" Assuming it's a video game. The noise of the TV helps make Jack's entrance even more quiet than it normally would be. Worn jeans, old sneakers, and a bright red hoodie make up his attire for the day. Backpack hanging off one shoulder, the invisible teen makes his way over to an open beanbag chair and flops down into it. He lifts an empty sleeve to give a quiet greeting but doesn't speak up just yet. Jumping slightly at being addressed, Derek gives Hercules a quick smile in greeting. "I'm not playing any gameth. I'm trying to figure out how to uthe thith thupid thing. It'th lucky I haven't thrown it againtht the wall yet." There's just so many buttons and what the heck does he need a Safari on a cell phone for? Taking a deep breath he looks over at the clothed nothing? slowly returning the wave. "Hello?" He shouldn't be surprised at much at this point but there isn't someone there. Hercules ohs and grins. "Oh, you were looking so intently I thought you were playing a video game. Heh, I have a hard enough time with my big thumbs using mine. I suppose I could just use a tablet with phone capability." He waves to the empty clothing, "Hey Jack, how're you doing?" Hercules looks to Derek, "Derek, Jack. Jack, Derek." "Hey," Jack offers, having been listening quietly to the phone woes just because he's nearby. It reminds him of his own troubles with the phone when he first got it. "Hey, Herc," he offers. "Doing alright," he says with a shrug, looking towards the tables that usually hold tasty snacks in hopes of finding anything left. "How do you know who everyone ith already?" Derek says shaking his head at Hercules. Tucking his cellphone inside his jacket pocket he extends a hand to Jack. "Hi, like he thaid, I'm Derek. I gueth it'th thafe to aththume that your power ith being invithible?" Sometimes it's easiest just to address the elephant in the room. "At leatht you know how to uthe them, Herc, I've never had a thell phone before. Don't underthand why you need all thothe buttonth." Lyric is a colorful entrance to the Rec Room, dressed in long flowing blue kurta embroidered in white and pink flowers, pink pants underneath, socked feet. Blue and white headscarf wrapped around her head. There's a small tablet clipped to a belt around her waist, and a cellphone currently held in one hand. She's rushing over to the television, tapping at her cellphone as she waves a hand towards the others. Then to the TV. KIND of apologetic? Like SORRY-not-sorry I'm STEALING this. "You sound a little bummed out, Jack? Classes getting you down?" Hercules looks to the invisible teen curiously before glancing back at Derek. "How do I know people? Easy, I introduce myself and talk to them. I express interest in stuff they do, looking for common ground. It's easy, if you try." The large teen winks at Derek. "You doing alright in your classes so far, Derek?" Hercules glances at the colourful clothing and smiles, waving in return to the young woman. "Hi. Name's Hercules.", he offers up in a cheerful, if loud, voice. Jack reaches out to shake the offered hand, his own unseen but definitely felt. "Don't get too down about the phones. I had trouble figuring them out too when I got here," he says. "Some other stuff, don't worry about it," he offers in reply to Herc, trying to sound less bummed. He glances over as Lyric enters and sits up a bit. The empty hood nods slightly, Jack having no objections to the TV being taken over. Derek frowns at Hercules. "The day ith over, I don't want to think about my clatheth." His tone comes off a bit more snappish than intended. He just isn't looking forward to another day of struggling but that's a road he'll cross tomorrow. "TV ith all yourth." He says to the colourful girl and leans back into the beanbag chair. Lyric doesn't answer the greetings, just pressing the TV remote and then swiping at her phone. It switches the television to whatever's been playing on her phone -- the news, evidently. She sits back on the floor near Jack after this, a little wide-eyed. The television is reporting, now, on the /aftermath/ of the attack at the Registry a few days ago. A message sent out to news outlets, evidently from the Brotherhood of Mutants, scrolls across the bottom of the screen. Reports of people across the country stumbling into trouble both bureaucratic and legal and plain-old-discriminatory following the entire country having their registration level all changed to 6. Lyric presses her knuckles to her lips. She unclips the small tablet from her belt, unhooking a stylus from the top of it. All she writes on it is: 'SO. Uh. Wow.' Hercules nods to Jack, "I gotcha, none of my business. But if you want to talk some time, I'm good at listening." He raises an eyebrow at Derek for a moment, his smile fading slightly before it returns full force. "Hah, alright, it is supposed to be our time, yeah? Lets put studying behind us and play a game of something..." And then there's the young woman stealing the TV. "Erm, I guess we can use one of the smaller screens." The large man pauses... staring at the message scrolling across the screen. His face gets an incredulous look on it. "Do... you know what this means?", he says with a small voice, one that cracks as he begins to laugh. "She can't hear you guys," Jack points out. "She's deaf," he explains. When the news starts playing on the TV, Jack falls quiet. "Wow...if I were registered I'd sound a lot more impressive all of a sudden," he remarks. He glances at Lyric's tablet and nods, fishing his phone from his pocket and quickly calling up an app to type in a reply before holding the screen for Lyric to see: 'I wonder if the big blackout had anything to do with that'. The majority of the news segment is ignored until a few key works peek his interest. He tries to follow what is being said and is grateful when Hercules speaks up. "No... ith there thomthing funny I mithed?" His eyes glance between Lyric's tablet, Hercules and Jack. "Oh, oh!" Derek says to Jack. "Thorr... nevermind." He shakes his head as apologizing vocally won't get him anywhere so he offers Lyric a quick wave. "I think they thaid thomething about non-regithtered too being regithtered?" Hercules ohs and chuckles, pulling out his phone and messing with it for a bit. He holds out his screen also, 'Hi, name's Hercules, nice to meet you. And this story on the screen is some pretty big news. Though, we should be careful leaving school grounds. It's probably going to be chaos for a bit.' He nods to Jack, "Thanks for that. And uh, well, this means we're all equal again, according to the database. Everyone is going to be pulled over by the police. Everyone is going to be discriminated against if they are doing something that requires a Registration database check... jobs, leaving the country, getting ID... getting ID..." Hercules stops again, his face thoughtful, before bursting out laughing again. 'I'm Lyric', Lyric writes this first and then signs her name -- her namesign is kind of a cross between RHYTHM and DRUMMING, energetically tapped out in the air. She peers at Jack's phone, head tilting uncertainly to the side before she scrawls her answer: 'Wasn't the bombing in DC? That's far.' Her eyes dart between Hercules and Derek, narrowed in concentration before returning to the screen. 'So much chaos.' She wriggles a little where she sits. Then: 'I'm registered. I've always wanted to be more badass.' Looking over at Hercules, Derek doesn't understand how any of it causes for laughing. "Thoundsth wonderful." His tone dry. Standing up he looks around. "I thould go tell my thither about thith. You'll have to thow me how to uthe that writing thing on the phone thometime." His frown is quickly replaced with a chuckle when he reads Lyric's last sentence. "Well it wath nithe to meet you Jack and Herc, can you thay the thame to her for me?" He gives Lyric a wave the shoves his hands into his pockets and heads out of the rec room. He doesn't have the best feeling about this but then Derek's prone to expect the worst. "Huh...missed that," Jack murmurs. He snorts slightly at Herc's caution, shaking his head. "Pretty sure you'll be fine unless you need to show your registration card..." he trails off. "Wonder if the Professors will say anything about this whole thing," he muses before typing another message for Lyric: 'Yeah, I mean what if it was part of one bit coordinated thing. Like one group bombs in DC, another knocks out power to cause more chaos?' 'Some places actually check, though, in the database banks or if you need to get an apartment or a job or' Lyric's writing stops, not much time given to proper punctuation in her rapid scrawl, favoring speed over neatness when using the board to communicate. 'hopefully teach some people what is like'. A press of the button at the top of the tablet clears all the writing on it so that she can put a new message: 'oh i didn't think about that this one came with a message did the blackout have a message i missed the news a couple days too much homework :( :( :(' THREE frowns. Her tongue pokes out of her mouth at this, too. Hercules shakes his head slightly to Jack, and points to what Lyric writes. "It's going to be chaos for a while. A complete mess. And the government would probably have blamed mutants for this to begin with, given the target was the Registration database and the MAD building. The power outage is probably related but could just be a coincidence. I dunno." He shrugs and looks to Lyric. "I don't recall the blackout having a message." Jack's shoulders rise and fall with a shrug: 'I didn't see if there was a message. I was distracted with other stuff'. "Of course they'd blame mutants. They'd blame us for the weather half the time," he says. Lyric watches till the end of the news segment, but then flips the channel back to where it had been before she came in. She flops down on her belly, crooking a grin at the others. Then looking over at the window. Back at the others. She taps the button on her tablet, scrawls again. When she tips the tablet up, it's a very crudely drawn image of Professor Munroe, snow falling heavily around her. 'Only half the time', written beneath. Still grinning, she turns her attention back towards the cartoons on the screen.