ArchivedLogs:Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol
Dramatis Personae Flicker, Rasa
In Absentia	2015-01-26 '
Location <XS> School Grounds
Xavier's School is situated on grounds as luxurious as the mansion itself. The tree-lined drive brings you up to the lush green sweep of front lawn and the wide front porch with its bench swing, often frequented by students studying in pleasant weather. The large oak tree in the front yard is home to a tire swing, installed long ago beneath the sturdy old treehouse. The lawn rolls out all the way down to the thin rocky pier at the edge of the glittering lake. The water stretches huge and wide off into the distance, the boathouse a small blip at its shore. Along its bank, forest stretches dense and shady to one side; to the other cliffs start to rise, high and rocky, providing trails for hiking or climbing, for the adventurous. The snow is threatening to come down in buckets tonight and the wind is starting to pick up, but that hasn't stopped a few adventurous students from adding to their snowperson army around the school grounds. The small white bodies are really starting to add up, like a town hall meeting or a field of parade onlookers waiting for the next float to come down the school's drive way. Little ones, big ones, really huge ones that bear a striking resemblance to certain hairy doctor types that spend a lot of time in the basement - no matter the size, they all are hanging out around the edges of the drive, staring and waiting. To one side, there's more of a tableau, the snow people turned away from the drive to watch a mini Godzilla trample a tiny town. There is a silver and white figure covered in a purple coat darting amongst this group, adding teeny tiny fleeing people. Rasa harvests some of the snow from the plow reserves and sculpts it in hir mittened hands with a smooth instrument before crouching low and positioning it just right at the edge of the snow town, someone finally making a break from the buildings into the snow covered plains beyond. Flicker is only just wandering out from the mansion. In jeans, boots, X-Men jacket zipped up over a tee, but no mittens or scarf or gloves, he's not entirely prepped for wintry weather. He /does/ have a thermos in his hands, steam rising from it when he pops the lid. Maybe this is helping ward off the windy cold. His path seems a little aimless, at first, but veers over towards the snow-town slowly. Drifting between the white figures, carefully picking his way around them to halt at the edge of the Godzilla-destruction. His eyes shift between the buildings, locking on the fleeing person Rasa positions. "Who's the lucky one?" "This is Bob. He's a listener and a follower. He believes that when someone tells him to get out of Dodge, it's probably a good idea. He is also missing the gene that leaves people predisposed to stare at train wrecks and rubberneck traffic accidents." Rasa puts little Bob down and straightens up, lips twitching as ze considers the placement once more. "Poor Bob is not going to escape the Snow'mageddon. I wonder what that must be like for them. I mean... it's the stuff snow people are made of, falling from the sky, sticking to them like a second skin, merging them with all of their loved ones and well, whomever happens to be near by." Brows climb hir forehead as ze stuffs the clay working instrument into hir pocket. "How's it going?" "I --" Flicker stops, fingers tighter around his thermos. "Imagine it'd be terrifying. Merging with everyone else. Losing their identity." There's a bit of a sharper gust of wind, and he shivers. Shakes his head. Sips at his thermos. A beat later: "-- /If/ they had sentience." There's a small pull of smile. "So, kind of lucky they're just snow, I guess." He answers the question with a shrug, another sip of his drink. "Snowy. Enjoying it?" "I suppose we're lucky for the time being that the snow doesn't have sentience at this point. But some day, that's going to be very... strange." Rasa brushes snow off hir shoulders and looks around at the snow peoples. "Oh, I'm trying. It's going to get ridiculous later. Might not be able to push the door open and all that. I think it'll be pretty fantastic when it stops snowing, and maybe we'll be able to tunnel through it like when I was a kid. I... might be regressing, due to the impending end of childhood." "I wouldn't be all that surprised if one of us is some kind of -- snow-puppeteer. Playing at being the Great Intelligence to an army of snowmen some day." Flicker curls an arm around his chest, shaking his head at Rasa. "That sounds --" But he stops, looking down at the snow-people and lapsing into quiet. "I don't know why only kids get to enjoy tunneling through snow. I think that's something you only outgrow in a /technical/ sense." "I think the biggest issue is that most people are not architects and engineers and the extent of most people's tunneling skills is only large enough for small children." Rasa considers and looks around at the snow covered lawns. "Maybe we should have a winter course in Snow-structural Design. Then we could extend our wintery activities into the next ten to twenty years of our lives, then turn it into a skill we impart to the next generation. Igloo'ing 101." Rasa takes a deep breath and glances toward the school. "Dennis is probably our best bet for the future Great Intelligence. Not necessarily because he can imbue intelligence upon the snow, but it pretty much is solid water. He'll figure it out eventually." "-- only outgrow in a technical sense," Flicker reiterates, quiet. Quietly amused. "Hive builds pretty great snow --" He waves his thermos towards the yard. "Worlds." His smile quirks a little wider at the thought of Dennis, then fades. "Mmnh." Head bowing, he clicks teeth against the thermos's lip. "Don't know if he'd want to teach a snow-engineering course, though. Maybe. Problem is it's hugely dependent -- like what about winters where it barely snows? You'd get no practice." "Well, I guess we could make it less specific. Engineering in general. Structures and building. I don't know. Maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a mole- or snow hill." Rasa gives another shrug and kicks at the snow. "Yeah, Anyway. What have you been up to? Hanging out here as snow patrol? Helping us out in case we lose electricity? Or is it entirely unrelated?" "There's already architecture classes." Flicker shrugs a shoulder. Rocks back a step at the tiny spray of snow kicked up. "So long as it's a structurally sound mountain --" He turns his head, looking back at the mansion. "Nah. Think we'll be fine on power. Unrelated. Had a --" There's a faint hitch in his words, mechanical hand dropping heavily to his side. "Uh -- meeting. Well, Hive did. I'm waiting. I do like Snow Patrol, though." "Yeah, that's the problem with the school, there are almost too many classes to keep track of. Just had to stick to my specialties at some point, otherwise, I might not get good at one particular thing -- or get overwhelmed. Then again, I'm half tempted to stay another year just to fulfill some of my more diverse interests." Rasa rubs snow off hir mits as they start to get a little warmer without the submergence in new cooling snow. "You should stay for snow patrol. We can maybe listen to Snow Patrol, eat chocolate and build a bonfire. We can experiment with larger snow structures and see if we can build a non-safety hazard fort for a good snow ball fight tomorrow." "Stay here another year? Uh --" Flicker blinks at this, his eyebrows raising. "I mean, if you want to, but that seems kind of..." He shifts a little awkwardly from one foot to the other. Shakes his head. "High school's a terrible place for learning, is all. Like if you're really interested in basically anything, the world outside high school will teach it to you /better/. What are your interests?" He gives Rasa a quick smile at the invitation. "I'll be here through the night at least. So far my only plans are a lot of cocoa." "I said tempted. Half-tempted, even. I Just... well, I'm submitting college applications and running fast up against my eighteenth birthday and well, waiting for replies. You know. Moving on and idealizing my time here, in relative mutant security. Plus there's just so much stuff I could still do here, you know. Like architecture classes where I can learn to build the better snow-shelter." Rasa gives a nervous little shrug and changes topics. "I'm working on computer science and linguistics. I'm no B, but I'm slowly mastering the Russian language and coding stuff. I'm also pretty heavy in literature classes. I love reading and learning about cultures from their writings. I feel like I probably should have dove into Spanish and would like to get better at ASL, but yeah, like you said, the outside world. Can learn so much there." Flicker's lips press together, his head turning aside. He nods slow and a little mechanical, not relaxing again until he's taken another sip of cocoa. "Definitely better for learning languages, anyway. Where are you --" He cuts himself off with a blush, an apologetic shake of head, a stiff rub of his mechanical against his chest. "Uh nevermind you're probably getting that question a million times a day. I swear I got more stressed out by everyone constantly asking me about my college plans than I did about the actual application process. -- The outside world," he adds, brighter, "will also teach you about awesome snow forts, though. There's a battle planned in Central Park for after the storm. Teams and everything." "Wow. Teams and everything? Is there a mailing list for that? I mean, it's probably a huge coordination effort." Rasa inhales deeply, trying to keep the mood up. "Yeah, I might be stressing out a little, but I'm not getting all that many people asking. I think some of them are reticent to ask, given that I'm..." Ze gestures to hir face, still a snowy shade. "I'm ah, applying to Columbia, Georgetown, New York University, SUNY... and MIT, because it might be nice to go somewhere with someone I know, but I'm not really holding my breath. I mean, I have good grades. I just don't know if the registration question will come up. Kind of staying local too, but that's just... well, I don't know. I could go back to Chicago. Maybe I'll add that to my list." Ze finally gives up and frowns. "I'm... I apologize if I have been upsetting. I'm just sort of blurting shit out. How is university life?" "There's a Facebook group. I'll ping you there." Flicker shivers again, arm wrapping tighter around his chest. "Nah. You're not. Upsetting, I mean." He tucks his thermos beneath the crook of his arm, fingers flexing and clenching before he picks it up again. "Stressful." He says this with a crooked grin. "Been in the application race, too. Well, applications were all in fall but there's interviews and --" A quick shake of his head. "Med school. And I /am/ registered so -- who knows. What that will affect." Another shrug. "Northwestern's good. I applied there." "Did you want to go inside? You aren't nearly bundled up enough for a blizzard." Rasa looks the older guy over for a moment and gestures inside. "Hot cocoa is amazing and cures a lot of wintery woes, but doesn't really fix everything." Ze gives him a little smile and starts side stepping inside. "Oh, well. Hm. I don't know. I'm hopeful that you've already got a good track record at your undergrad to give you a good recommendation for your continued education. Plus, actual interviews. They'll get to meet you and see how wonderful you are and talk with you and hear how wonderful you are." "Yeah..." Flicker's mechanical hand lifts slowly, touching stiff fingertips against the scarred side of his face. "They'll meet me." He smiles again, warm and bright in answer to Rasa's, starting towards the door when ze does. "Right. Cold. I kind of forgot. It was just pretty out here and then there was Godzilla happening -- but maybe it's time to thaw." "Once you start smiling, no one can see that anymore," Rasa replies quietly, glancing at his face. "Or, well, I don't see it anymore." Ze sighs and stuffs hir hands in hir pockets as ze starts trudging inside. "It's gorgeous out here. Snow's pretty amazing. I just wish it wasn't so cold." Flicker's cheeks color, a tinge of darker red in their already somewhat wind-chapped ruddiness. "Thanks." Soft, but warm. "I don't mind the cold. It feels -- clean. Besides. Just temporary. And in summer," a flutter-blink of shifting motion pulls him inside after Rasa. "There's always sandcastles." "And you were saying that the whole snow-structure thing couldn't be done in without snow. Sandcastles, brilliant." Rasa flashes another smile and continues inside.