17794/A Wing and a Prayer

A Wing and a Prayer
Date of Scene:	28 April 2024
Location:	Back Yard
Synopsis:	AJ and Patty meet up with Dr. McCoy Fun was had with bouncy shields!
Cast of Characters:	Patty Sloan, Henry McCoy, Allen-James

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Patty Sloan has posed:
The sun is setting on the Mansion on this spring Evening. Things are mostly quiet. Sure there are students running around and carrying on. Still many of them are inside and winding down for the evening.

Today is the first day that Patty is back to her training regimen. She has already run half of the Lake and then flown back. In fact she just landed from that part of her training. Now she is cooling down. Standing in the backyard, she starts doing the Yoga moves she was recently taught. Carefully she tries to stretch to the muscles that she is simply not used to stretching. She just keeps moving and doing the different poses as best as she can. She is clearly new to it. In fact, as she does one of the moves she winds up stumbling and fallong on her face. Quickly she flutters her wings and stands back up to try again.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank had spent most of the day underground, in his lab. Too much Science Stuff, as Robert would invariably call it, made Hank a very dull boy. And we couldn't have that, now, could we? So Hank made sure he was decent - shorts and a lab coat, check! - and proceeded to bound his way out of the Mansion and to the great outdoors in modest-for-him leaps of ten feet or so per. "Gangway!" he shouted joyously before he landed just before the doors to the backyard and then stepped through, the picture of poise and control. And then stopped dead to watch the yoga.

Allen-James has posed:
    AJ himself is in the back of the mansion already. He's wearing his own shorts, and frowning as he looks out over the pool. "Ten steps." he says, as he braces himself for another cold dip in the pool well before he wants to. He sighs, and takes a rushing step forward and.. steps onto the air, hard. A glowing circle forms under his foot.. and shoots him upward at an awkward angle.

    "SHIT!" he yelps, and kicks out again with his other foot, shooting himself into a spin, which, by pure luck, is straight down at the water, "No, NO AR.." SPLOOSH. Like every other time, he lands in the water, and swims swiftly to the edge of the pool, shivering as he pulls himself out and pulls a heater towel around himself, warming up as he shudders, "I'm never going to get this right. Oh. Hey, Buffalo." he says with a smile to Patty, and his eyes grow wide as he sees Hank emerge into the back yard in his blue furred glory.

    "Uh.. Hi. Awesome look, man." he says with a smile, seeming to actually mean it.

Patty Sloan has posed:
Patty continues trying to get the the right poses down. She manages to stay up and get the pose this time. She holds the pose, stretching her body and then finally she releases. Turning her attention to the Blue man, she smiles and waves. "Hello Dr. McCoy." She greets as she stretches. "Good to see you. I was hoping I might run into you. I had some quest...ions." She pauses mid comment as she looks over at the yelling AJ and sees him go down into the water. She winces. "Hey are you alright?" She laughs, "Buffalo? Really?" She laughs a little bit more.

She smiles, "Oh I guess I should introduce you to Dr. McCoy here. He is one of the Teachers slash Professors here at the school. Dr. Henry McCoy."

Henry McCoy has posed:
"At your pleasure, sirrah." he said with a flourishing bow towards AJ. "And it is good to see you as well, Miss Sloan. Yoga, was it? You'll have to forgive my interruption of your efforts - pray, continue, while I see to the boy who seems determined to validate good ol' Sir Isaac via his efforts." And with that, Hank started to walk over to the pool, painfully aware that he was big, blue, and fanged and clawed. No startling the children, Henry, that would simply not do. "Are you all right? I'm Doctor Hank McCoy and as Miss Sloan mentioned, I'm a member of the faculty here. Do you need medical assistance?" he asked courteously.

Allen-James has posed:
    Allen-James smiles to Patty, "Well, given the number of /wings/ around here, I couldn't keep calling you Wings, now could I? So, if Jay is KFC, you get to be Buffalo, and we'll just have to figure out something for all the rest of them." He rubs the towel over his head as he dries himself off some more and chuckles.
    "A pleasure to meet you." he says, giving a smile to the befanged man. "I'm fine though. Trying to get to where I can run on my shields. It's... tricky. I can walk slow, and not trigger the rebound, but if I move too fast, it shoots me... well.. whatever direction the shield forms at. Which may be good, but right now, it just flings me around without me being able to control myself. It's like the world's worst springboard, because I'm not great at perfectly controlling the angles I set my feet at yet.." he explains what he's doing. "And, given that we lack a foam pit, this is the next best crash site. Trust me. Way better than practicing it in the city was." he says with a smirk, as he tosses the towel back over a heater that he has pulled out here just for this purpose, letting it dry. "It should only take me about ten steps to get across the pool." he claims. He's measured.

Patty Sloan has posed:
"Play Pool!" Patty smiles happily. "There is a pool table here. Learn your angles by playing pool. Doing that will help you get better with your angles. And I can think of worse nicknames so than Buffalo." She laughs playfully.

Patty turns her attention to Beast. "I umm I need to figure out a way to hide my wings when I am out in public. Up until now I've used belts to tie them down but that is a problem. It actually hurts me to do that and I don't wanna hurt myself." She gestures to her wings and extends them." She then smiles. "Oh umm Sorry. I was just finishing up with some Yoga. Its my first time doing it so I am still learning to do it. I was told it would benefit me in strengthening my lower body and make me more flexible."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank nodded to AJ. "Well, without any sensor equipment it will be difficult for me to assist you in your endeavors. But practicing above the pool displays a certain wisdom." he told AJ with a friendly, only mildly befanged smile. Then he turrned back to Patty. "Your wings are beautiful." he told the girl with total sincerity. "But I can also completely understand your desire to conceal a part of yourself to avoid enflaming the bigotries of certain individuals." he said. "I can probably arrange an image inducer as a temporary measure while we work on your flexibility of your wings." he said with another smile. "I'd be homored to assist however I can." He then made a mental note to track down Warren's old harness - perhaps something could be adapted to achieve the goal with less-to-no discomfort.

Allen-James has posed:
    Allen-James laughs, and motions at the pool, "I am playing pool." he jokes with a smirk. "More seriously... I need to adjust the angle of my feet. It's more like... acrobatics than just angles. I did acrobatics as a kid, but this is a different skillset than that, even. I have to adjust how I hold my legs and feet, to set the shield in the air, and adjust the angle of it then shove off it, and it'll increase my speed if I do it right, like jumping on a springboard." he waves at the remaining glowing footprints over the pool at odd angles.

    "What I really need to do is learn, like, parkour or something." he says with a laugh, "But I really think I could get this down if I just.. practice for a while." He bounces on the tips of his feet as he moves near the massive pool again. "OK. Ten steps. Wish me luck." he says, as he prepares to try again.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank decided to sit down next to Patty and casually, with no stretch or prep, tucked his left foot around his right ear casually. But he was also keeping an eye on AJ, fascinated as always by the biomechanics of mutantcy. "Do you know anything about how your mutation works, sir?" he asked, realizing that he didn't catch the boy's name.

Allen-James has posed:
    LEAP, step, STEP! Allen-James hurls himself out over the pool, and his first step is good, for all it shoots him forward further than he expects. His second step shoots him more to the left than he probably meant to, which introduces a twist, as he tries to get his foot under himself for a third step, which... shoots him directly at the pool, "AH, SHI!" SPLOOSH! his curse is cut off.

    He pulls himself out of the pool again, and flops down in front of the heater, grabbing the towel and warming himself with it as he dries himself off, and quells his chattering teeth.

    "Anything? Sure. I produce some sort of energy which forms into repulsive shields, when I focus it out through my skin. My initial manifestation formed a full globe around myself and five other people. Two adults, three other kids." AJ speaks like a nerd relating findings from a study.

    "I haven't been able to duplicate that feat. I can form a shield up to about the size of a door.." he waves a hand, painting a circle in the air of glowing orange energy, marking it out and then pulling his hand away, leaving it there, glowing in the air. "It can take a bit of punishment, and it reflects energy and force directed at it back again. If it gets overwhelmed, it explodes, hard enough to damage things in a pretty big area around it. If you hit it, and don't destroy it, it absorbs some of the energy to maintain itself, and gets a little stronger. I can emit these panes of force from any part of my body, I just prefer to use my hands and feet, cause it's easiest to control them that way. I can move them around up until I 'release' them, then they stay in the air till they run out of energy."

Henry McCoy has posed:
"Curious. Well, now that I'll be spending more of my time here in lovely Westchester, if you'd like I've got some equipment that might shed some insight into the hows and whys of your gift. Yours reminds me of someone - mulitple someones, actually. A comparison might add some insight." he mused. "But I'm blathering while you're trying to train. My apologies." he said with a gesture. He also made a mental note to ask Miss Grey if she'd be interested in aiding the boy - some of the things she did telekinetically might be adaptable to the boy's gift. "And I do apologize for being so rude. I don't believe I caught your name. Unless, of course, you'd prefer to be addressed as "Hey, you!" in which case I'd be more than happy to accomodate you." he said with a small laugh.

Allen-James has posed:
    "Oh, I'm sorry." Allen-James stands up, so that he can flourish his towel like a cape, "I am Allen-James... Vincent... Ramses-Denholme.. The fourth. Please, call me AJ" he says, as he rattles off his snooty name. "Yes. From those Ramses-Denholmes." he says with a bright smile. "Though I haven't... well. Let's just say I'm not welcome at home." He gives a sharp, bitter laugh, though he doesn't actually know if that's true or not. Some day, he'll have to find out. But today, just like all the yesterdays before this, is not that day.

    "And no, please. I love to talk. I need time to warm up after every dip, or I'll freeze myself solid." he waves an arm expansively towards the school. "I've heard there's another student who makes reflective shields a lot like mine. Some day, maybe I'll meet her." he says with a chuckle. "I've been keeping busy trying to catch up with high school equivalency tests." He continues rubbing the towel over himself, warming and drying himself again.

Henry McCoy has posed:
"Academics, I am obligated to say, should be foremost in the priority chain." he laughed. "AJ." he said, giving voice to the boy's name. "The power is not tremendously uncommon and there's several different variations and derivations. Assessing which one yours falls under - if any of them - might be instructive." he mused. He untucked his foot fround around his head and surged to his feet. "If you'd be willing, I'd like to try something." he said, shedding his lab coat to reveal an fairly jacked physique under a thick coat of blue fur.

Allen-James has posed:
    Allen-James laughs amiably, and shrugs, "I'm afraid school wasn't very present where I was living." he admits, then cocks his head, curious. He wipes his legs off, and tosses his towel back over the heater, returning his attention to the blue furred man.

    "Most certainly. What did you have in mind?" he asks, as his eyes glow a little orange with his excitement. Without the towel, it's easy to see he's nearly skin and bones, with an uncomfortably thin look to him now that he's easily seen.

Henry McCoy has posed:
"If you'd be so kind as to make one of those stepping-discs you've been using." he asked. "I'd like to try something to gain a little bit of hands-on data." The boy's physique - or lack of one - hadn't gone unnoticed but time, exercise, and an adequate supply of calories and macronutrient supply would take care of that for him. Not the first time he'd seen malnutrition among mutants, likely not the last time either.

Allen-James has posed:
    "MMmmm. Well, let me ask something first." he says, motioning out over the pool, where several footsteps glow over the water. "Does it need made with my foot, or would you accept me making it with my hand? Second, where would you like it?" he asks, "I can place it pretty much anywhere would be most convenient for your testing." he points out with a chuckle.
    Once those questions are answered, he will wave his hand, or step a foot, wherever Beast would like one. Stepping slowly, it's not hard for him to make gentle, careful movements to avoid being shot off at random. But it's easy to see that this is far too slow of a conveyance method for him to use say, when getting shot at.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Place it wherever it's easiest for you." he said agreeably. and then waited for AJ to do so. Then he moved forward at what was _for him_ a sedate pace. To AJ, it probably looked more like a lunge. Hank was attempting to step up onto the disc - see if it would support his weight, what it felt like under his prehensile foot. Might lend some insights as to how and what it was made of.

Patty Sloan has posed:
Patty quietly listens. She doesn't say anything. She simply listens and flutters her wings and flies upwards for a few minutes before flying back down. She smiles happily watching AJ and Dr. McCoy interact.

Allen-James has posed:
    The disc, of course, does support his weight. It can support quite a lot of weight. The disc is stable up until the force of a bullet hitting it, it'd take a quite heavy impact indeed to break the disc.
     But it also reflects force exerted upon it, so, the harder Doctor McCoy steps upon the disc, the harder it exerts force back at him, likely flinging him back off if he's not able to cling to it somehow, and even then, it would be difficult, as grasping at it also exerts force, which is nearly entirely reflected..

    AJ steps well back from the disc, just in case Hank's lunge proves to be enough to break the disc, not wanting to get caught in the blast radius if it does. He shoots a wry smile to Patty. "You wanna jump off one too?" he asks, "Bet I can boost you way up in the air to fly down from.."

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank laughed - _laughed_ - with delight as the disc flung him upwards. "Newton's third law!" he shouted with excitement, showing off a tad his incredible natural agility by spinning in midmair before landing on his _hands_ on the disc. Which then obligingly threw him back up into the air again. Then he deliberately didn't land square on the disc, using the off-balance push to do a somersaulting dismount onto the grass. "Ta-daa!" he said, and then clapped for his own performance.

Patty Sloan has posed:
Patty snickers. "That's alright. I can actually do that with my own power." She flutters her wings and the sound of rushing wind can be heard as she is launched very high into the sky. She gently glides down and then sets down. "I'm still a little scared of flying that high but it is really exciting. I have always been scared of heights."

She then looks at Hank playing, yes Playing, on the shield. She laughs a little bit before she speaks up. "Oh Dr. McCoy. There is one other thing I need to ask for help with. This one's got four wheels and needs a lot of TLC. I am horrible with cars and this one I know has a power steering leak and such."

Allen-James has posed:
    AJ laughs and claps as well as Hank does some acrobatics off his disc. "Yeah. I'm trying to learn to do that, at speed, with one foot. I think I might need to invest some in super reflexes. Is there a level up program or something? Super serum.." he jokes as he smiles to Hank and Patty.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Now that he's back on the ground, he can address Patty's second request. "I think, somewhere, I may dimly remember how an internal combusion engine functions." he said with a teasing wink. "Should I be possessed of some free time I'd be delighted to run a diagnostic on your car, maybe make some suggestions..." he said, waggling his eyebrows at her. No, Henry, you are _not_ allowed to turn her poor innocent broken-down rusted-out shitbox into Dragula. Besides, that reference would be wasted on the youth. Their loss. Dragula was awesome. To AJ, he mock-scowls. "We reserve the performance-enhancing drugs to the upperclassmen." he said with a straight face, and then broke it with a smile.

Patty Sloan has posed:
Patty smiles and nods, "Thank you so very much. That car is old and needs a lot of love. I just don't know how to do the work on it. I'm not good with cars." She blushes. "If they were uniforms or cosplay costumes, I could definitely manage but I'm just not that good." She looks over to AJ and smiles, "You can train with me if you want. I am trying to get in shape enough to join SHIELD eventually." She smiles happily.

Allen-James has posed:
    "Sooooo, you're saying I need to pass all my tests, and /then/ I get the drugs." AJ returns to the fangy smiling professor.

    He smiles to Patty. "I can try. I'm pretty vastly out of shape." he admits, moving to cover his shoulders and arms with the towel again, hiding how spindly he is, a little ashamed of it, when he's around so many people who are super hero fit.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Hank looked at Patty and then smiled. "Then this shall be your learning opportunity for some basic engineering." he told the woman. To AJ, he just said "You do know that with time, good diet, and proper exercise, you too can get into ..." he said, and then dramatically lowered his voice into a stage whisper. "Superhero shake. Maybe, if you're extra diligent - Hank McCoy shape." he said in that stage whisper. Then, more normally, he mused "Stranger things have happened."

Patty Sloan has posed:
Patty laughs, "Hey don't worry. I will help ya to do it. After all its only a run around the lake. Well I only run about half way around the lake then I've gotta fly the other half so I can train the strength in my back muscles. And then its Yoga now to train flexibility and agility in my lower half so I'm not getting taken down by ninjas." She laughs as she references Betsy who was actually Kwannon but she doesn't know that.

She turns her attention to Beast and smiles to him. "I look forward to that because I really suck when it comes to vehicles. I do actually do well with clothing though. I actually fixed my tops so my wings can be through them without interference. Or having my back out all the time for that matter. I kinda wanna do cosplay someday."

Allen-James has posed:
"Yeah, but that takes so long. I can't even swing a sword properly." AJ complains to Hank. "But, I know. Good eating, exercise.. It's just... frustrating. You know, I was... well.. Let's just say I'm out of practice." he grumbles, and smiles to Patty.

    "I think, if I rest a lot, I may be able to jog to the lake, once a week or so." he admits with a chuckle. "I'm pretty worn out just from trying the air run thing a few times. Swimming is hard, yanno."

Henry McCoy has posed:
"There's a saying about Rome and construction timetables, but I'll spare you." he told AJ. But to Patty, he got a crafty look. "Then perhaps when Halloween rolls around, I shall consult with you on a particular cosplay of my own. There is one character that hirsute blue gorillas can cosplay as. It just takes some hair dye and a new outfit." he mused out loud. "Are you familiar with the game Overwatch? Do kids even still play Overwatch?" he mused to himself.

Patty Sloan has posed:
"I've never played Overwatch but I can. I will check it out and see what character you are talking about. I can certainly help with costumes. Its fun!" Patty smiles looking forward to actually doing some costume work. She looks over to AJ and smiles to him. "I run half the lake and fly the other half every day. Talk about a challenge. Its fun though cause its a really peaceful run and you get to see the scenery."

Allen-James has posed:
    "I also need to learn to shoot, or maybe just get better with a sword again. I lack any sort of offensive skills right now." Allen-James muses, as he sits down near the heater to enjoy the heat. "I don't know. I played it when I was younger." he shrugged.

    "I'm trying to work out though. Maybe I'll try Yoga. I used to do acrobatics stuff, and that looks like the stretches, and stuff in slow motion." he admits.

Henry McCoy has posed:
To help Pstty out he went into his lab coat and dug out his spectacles, placing them on his face then turning to face her in a walking-on-his-knuckles gorilla pose. Then he grinned at her and straightened back up, leaving his glasses on his face. "Yoga is excellent for flexibility." Hank said, being more flexible than most naturally. "And perhaps, if I may suggest, work on building up your strength, flexibility, and stamina before you start indulging in all the ways people have found to cause one another harm, hrm?" he suggested.