547/Coney Island Wandering

Coney Island Wandering
Date of Scene:	15 March 2020
Location:	Coney Island
Synopsis:	Cullen and Bobby go for a walk down at Coney Island and grab a couple of hot dogs and talk.
Cast of Characters:	Bobby Drake, Cullen Bloodstone

---

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby had sent a text to Cullen that just said, "We're going out to do something normal. Sort of normal. We're going out. Meet me at the coffee place you like on campus."

And once they had gotten coffee, Bobby had explained the plan. They were going to go down to Coney Island and wander the boardwalk. Nothing was really open yet because nothing really does until Memorial Day weekend. But that doesn't mean there aren't shops and restaurants that linger all year. And the boardwalk is nice when it warms up just enough, as it has on this sunny spring day.

"It's Spring Break," he says as he walks along, sipping his coffee. "But I wasn't going anywhere so.. I figured I needed to get out of the house and at least not be studying."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
Cullen seemed skeptical at first of just going down to the boardwalk to wander around, but he does seem to be enjoying himself. He's sipping at his coffee, which is actually his second so far, but who's counting. "Well, I was just moping aroud the dorms anyway trying to figure out something to do." He grins just ever so slightly. "It was between writing a paper due next week and throwing things at a wall. The wall was winning."

The weather actually has him out of his sweater and in a long sleeve t-shirt instead, and in charcoal grey rather than black. He does have a spring wardrobe.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Or losing, depending on how hard you were throwing and what you were throwing," Bobby points out as they stroll along. It's sunny, which is nice. It warms the skin even if the breeze off the water is brisk. The sound of the water coupled with the steady sound of footsteps on the boardwalk beneath their feet is kind of soothing in its way. Bobby grins and turns around, walking backward a bit. He's got on a pair of jeans and a bright blue t-shirt with a picture of a rain cloud and the sun hugging a rainbow in the center. He has a light windbreaker on, but nothing to stop the chill. But then, he doesn't need it either. "No papers due next week but I do have some assignments I could catch up on. But I'm making myself.. just not."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Well, at the time you texted it was a tennis ball and the answer is not very hard. I do want my security deposit back after all." Cullen shakes his head. "Just get to feeling cooped up sometimes and dorms are pretty much empty for break." He watches Bobby for a moment then shakes his head. "You're talking to Columbia's king of slacking, I'm not going to judge you for not working on assignments." He says with a mild tone and a raised eyebrow. "But, I guess it's also good to get out once in a while and just.. be."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Well, I remember you said you liked doing just.. normal stuff. So.. lo.. normal stuff." Bobby spreads his arms wide, encompassing the quiet boardwalk. There are a few joggers jogging along its length and there are some people eating at Nathan's, grabbing hot dogs. But it's pretty quiet. The rides aren't currently operating, but they loom in the distance. He grins and says "Do you really slack as much as you say that you do?" He seems idly curious.

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Normal things are nice. The world is weird enough without seeking out weirdness." Cullen runs his fingers through his close cropped hair, which really doesn't do anything to it other than flatten it down to spring right back up. "I mean, you know, sometimes you just want to feel like everyone else." He shrugs, covering his expression with a sip of his coffee. His eyes do slide towards the hot dog stand as his forward stride slows slightly. "Maybe I do, maybe I have a reputation to maintain so I act like I do."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Yeah, because weirdness /will/ find you whether you like it or not," Bobby agrees with a faint smile as he wanders along, turning back around so that he's walking forward so that he doesn't back into anything. "Yeah, I mean, not that I know what it feels like to feel like everyone else, I guess. I was pretty young when I started feeling weird and weird stuff started happening around me. So I don't really remember ever /not/ being.. weird." He glances over in the direction of the hot dog stand as Cullen slows and grins. "Dogs?" He begins to move in that direction, seeming more than willing to stop by and grab a couple.

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I wasn't that young.. well.. maybe.." Cullen rubs the back of his neck. "It's more my whole family is weird, except my mother. I just grew up surrounded by it, and I dunno, got jealous of people with normal families and dads who had boring normal jobs." He squints a little at the hotdog stand then finally nods. "Sure, my treat." He inserts before Bobby even has the chance to offer to pay, and said in a way that brooks no argument.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Mine .. wasn't. They kind of freaked out, a lot. They.." He pauses and takes a breath then lets it out again. "They don't even remember that I have abilities. I'm out.. here.. but back home? They don't know. I have to pretend, hide everything, and it's kind of rough." He shrugs his shoulders. "It's easier to just stay out here these days. I talk to them every once in a while." He opens his mouth, but Cullen cuts him off before he can protest and so he just closes it again, and with a shrug of his shoulders, grins. It seems as though he's not going to get a fight out of Bobby over a couple of hot dogs.

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I'm sorry, that must.. suck. I think we both could have used, I dunno, somewhere in the middle?" Cullen drains the last of his coffee and pitches the cup in the bin as they get in line. Though at the moment it's not terribly busy and they're at the front quick enough, "Chili dog and lemonade, and whatever he wants.." He saids with a nod to Bobby, pulling out his credit card from his wallet to have at the ready to swipe. "I call mom once in a while, I think Elsa is better keeping in touch than I am."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Yeah, somewhere in the middle probably would have been good," Bobby agrees with a faint smile. He lingers a little behind to finish his own coffee and toss the cup before catching up to Cullen in the line. "One cheese dog and a coke, please." Bobby says as he leans in to put in his order and then steps back again. "My folks have my brother around to keep in touch with. He's.. normal."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
Cullen wrinkles his nose a little. "Sorry, leave it to me to bring up the depressing topics." Bless fast food and its ability to be ready almost right after you pay. He grabs the tray and motions with a nod to one of the further out picnic tables with a view of the not-running-but-still-something-to-look-at rides. He usues the walk over as a lull in the conversation to try to come up with a new topic. "So what else do you do other than go to school and avoid assignments?"

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Hey, depressing topics are normal stuff. Family drama is normal stuff. So it fits with the normal stuff of the day," Bobby says, trying to lighten the mood a little with a grin. He follows over to the picnic table and settles himself into a seat opposite Cullen, reaching for his cheesy dog and coke, taking a sip from his drink then laughing. "I mean, I don't always avoid assignments -- just on Spring Break." He shrugs his shoulders. "Other than that? I read a bit, and go ice skating, hang out with friends, try to protect other mutants, help teach them a bit how to cope with their powers, especially ones who have a hard time controlling them, tutor in Math, draw a little."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Normal? Yes, but also, well, depressing." Cullen takes a seat and picks up his lemonade for a sip. Never mind it might still be a bit cold for lemonade, he seems to enjoy it. "Maybe I should hire you to help me with calculus, it doesn't seem to want to penetrate my brain. Though this semester might be a loss, and I'll need to take is again later." His eyes flick to the side, though he's smirking slightly.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"You don't have to hire me. If you want help with Calculus, I'll help you," Bobby says with a shake of his head. "I don't charge people for tutoring." He takes another sip of his coke and then bites into his dog, trying to keep the cheese from oozing out in every direction and having some marginal success even if his fingers end up cheesy and he has to lick them clean. "If this semester ends up being a bust, let me know when you have to take it again and I'll help out." He pauses, and then says, "And I'm uh, a member of the X-Men. That's.. kind of not a secret either. So obviously I'm kinda involved with all that stuff." Kinda. He smiles and then shrugs. "So.. what about you? What do you do when not epicly slacking at Columbia?"

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I'll take you up on that. Though also might be the teacher. My current teacher is a bit of a dried up old bore.." Cullen chuckles softly as he picks up his dog for a bite, not having much more success at keeping himself clean than Bobby did. Cullen just nods at the X-Men thing. "I used to kind of be on a team. Well, it was a school for people with abilities, and we would do some missions and things. But I kind of left that behind after.." He shakes his head. "There was a bit of a messy incident, and we went our own ways after graduation." He takes another bite of dog, washing it down with lemonade. "I like camping, hiking, going shooting, karaoke." He throws that last one in there like it's no big deal.

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake grins a little at that and says, "Yeah? I don't know, most of my profs have been pretty good. I've had a few that were snoozes, but nothing too bad." He folds his arms and leans against them a bit, occasionally reaching out to pick up his dog and carefully navigate it and its drippy cheese without making too much of a mess. He listens as Cullen says that he was part of a school, too, and that has him grinning a bit, though it fades slightly at the mention of an incident. "Sorry to hear that. But.. cool that you're here, now." He grins "I like karaoke. It's pretty fun, and camping, hiking. I'm not really much with a gun, though."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Dad started teaching me how to shoot almost as soon as I could hold a gun, it was always my specialty and my main way to fight before I figured out how to control.." Cullen rolls his shoulders. "Well, control might be too strong a word. Borrow.." He tilts his head to the side and nods. "Borrow." He smirks a bit. "You don't need it, you have.." He raises his hands, palms forward, fingers outstretched. "Blammo."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake chuckles a little bit and says, "Yeah. I have blammo. And I can make my own weapons. Or shoot it at people like a gun, sortof. So, I've never really trained with an actual one." He finishes off his hot dog and wipes his hands and face before sipping at his soda again. "So, when I was a kid, I had really bad control and hadn't actually gotten the whole.. ice thing .. down yet. And so I'd just.. sprout fluffy frost all over.. and look like a literal walking frosty the snowman." He smiles a little wryly and runs his fingers through his hair. "It was.. really not .. it was kinda sad."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
Cullen laughs a little. "It, uh, actually sounds kind of adorable? Cuter than a kid who sprouts tentacles anyway, so.." He shakes his head. "I mean, I'm not really one to judge, though I'll admit.. I really hate that Frosty the Snowman song." He shakes his head. "I can tolerate some Christmas music, but that one just really sends me right over the edge." He smirks, finishing off his dog and picking up his lemonade to nurse.

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake grins and says, "Oh, I dunno. I bet all the goth kids would think that's pretty bad ass. I just looked goofy." He takes another sip from his coke. Then he raises both brows. "Uh okay.. I gotta ask. Why do you have it in for the snowman, man? I gotta ask on behalf of my peeps." He grins, totally not serious. Well, serious enough about the question, but not about his "peeps".

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I dunno, I think the chorus drives me insane.. Thumpity thump thump.. I mean.." Cullen shudders. "And they play it so much because there's like ninety bazillion different versions.." He sticks out his tongue, then takes a sip of lemonade. "I just got tired of it I guess. Everyone has one they don't like." He squints at Bobby. "God, if I was trying to mock you with a song, that would be my number one go to."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby Drake chuckles as Cullen goes on to describe his distaste for Frosty the Snowman and shakes his head, grinning as he sips his coke. He smirks though and says, "Uh huh. You and everybody else. I promise I will find one for you that is just as bad and more ear-wormy so that you couldn't get it out of your head if you wanted to." He doesn't sound terribly serious about that though, since he's still grinning. "We should go hiking sometime," he says suddenly. "There are some alright places to do it upstate that aren't too far away."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Sure, I know a few good trails, not too rough and some of them aren't even monster infested." Cullen's humor once more showing in a flat-deadpan that doesn't quite get across if he's joking or not. Though he might not be from the way he just sips his lemonade. "I'm free next weekend? Might still be a bit cool, but that really doesn't seem to bother you much, and once I get moving I should be fine."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"I'm down for good trails, monster infested or otherwise," Bobby says with that little grin that easily plays across his lips, not seeming to mind whether it was a joke or not. "Yeah, cold really doesn't bother me at all. Next week sounds great. I don't have anything going on. Let's do it. It'll be good to get out for a while. Been spending too much time wrapped up in my own head, or getting myself in trouble lately."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I'm not really the person to hang around if you're trying to stay out of trouble." Cullen says with a half-smirk that slowly fades to a frown. "It has a bad habit of finding me whether I want it to or not." He twists his ring on his finger a few times. "But I could do with a weekend hike out in the woods to clear my brain, I'll find us a good trail."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Yeah except I haven't made you yell at me and then explode into the sky in a fireball yet, so I apparently am capable of getting into less trouble with you than some people," Bobby says a little ruefully. He probably means that literally, too, about the exploding bit. He grins though and gives a double thumbs-up. "Awesome. Sounds like a plan." He then asks, "You ever see any of those other guys again? The ones from the power plant? Or the big guy with the scary voice?"

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I'm like.. eighty two percent certain that's not something I can do in the first place. And it's not so much as gettting into trouble with me as it is getting into trouble /with/ me." He puts different emphasis on the withs. "Like I'm going to be hip deep in it, too." He shakes his head. "The powerplant posse? No, they were kind of cool though, especially the Leon guy, but I'm sure we'll bump into them again at some point, I mean, I do have his cell."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Yeah, true, I guess I could just text him," Bobby says with a chuckle when he remembers that he has Leon's number from when they met up. Then he says, "No, I mean, that's the kind of trouble I was getting in back at home. I pissed off someone and I have no real idea how to fix it, so I've just.. not been dealing with it at all. Because I'm not sure if I say anything that it's going to make it any better or just make it worse." He grins lopsidedly at Cullen. "The kind of trouble you get into, I can handle."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"I'm sure there's a Hallmark card for 'I'm sorry I made you explode in a fireball,' there seems to be one for everything else." Cullen shakes his head. "Honestly, I've found the best way to make up for pissing someone off, is just to apologixe for pissing them off. Unless you intended to piss them off and don't regret it, in which case.." He shrugs. "I just kind of let it run it's course at that point."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"No, I didn't intend to piss her off. All I said was that I could imagine that the environment she grew up in was very different than the one she was in now," Bobby says. "But she took it to mean that I was saying I understood what it was like for her, which is not what I was saying at all. Anyway.. she then got some other news and exploded and it was.. a thing." He rubs at the back of his neck. "I think I'm just going to let it blow over and just not bring it up again at this point."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
"Normally, this is where I'd make some snide comment about 'this is why I don't date women' but I feel that might be in bad taste." Cullen finishes his lemonade with a slurping rasp from the straw and frowns at the cup. "Probably just best to let it blow over, especially if they're in a really emotional spot, trust me on that one. And if they bring it up, then explain what you meant." He wiggles the cup. "I'm going to get a refill." And then he's up off the bench.

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Kinda," Bobby admits with a faintly wry smile. "I'm not, though.. dating her, that is. I mean, this was someone I'd literally just met for fifteen minutes." He nods though and says, "Yeah. I think that's what I'm going to do. She is. She just got out of a really bad situation and things are.. confusing. I'm sure she'll be alright. She seems to have others she's more comfortable with who can help her out." He smiles faintly and then nods as Cullen gets up and goes to get a refill, letting his attention drift toward the rides in the distance.

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
Cullen returns with his refill, but only half-sits on the bench as if he expects them to resume the walk soon. "Oh, I didn't say you were dating her.." He smirks, then lets out a soft sigh. "Some people.. look for a reason to start a fight or to be angry or to explode. I have to work on that myself, I spent too many years being that way I still knee jerk it sometimes." He grins. "Just because you're a nice guy doesn't mean everyone will like you, just most will."

Bobby Drake has posed:
Bobby nods, and then notices that Cullen isn't really sitting back down, so he gets up and discards his hot dog trash and takes his cup with him, only slowly sipping on his drink, so not quite needing a refill, and begins to walk again. "Yeah, I've.. never been like that. Looking for a fight, that is. Maybe because I spent a lot of time trying to avoid a fight. Not that I'm not willing to fight. I just.. would rather not if I didn't have to."

Cullen Bloodstone has posed:
Cullen falls in next to Bobby, staring down at his cup. "It's, I dunno, some people think it's an attention thing, other say it's a bad with emotions thing. I just think I've just always had a short temper, and I like to fight." He sips his lemonade and turns his gaze on the rides. "Also a good reason for me to leave the teaching to you, I'd probably get frustrated too easily."

Bobby Drake has posed:
"Some people like to fight," Bobby says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Nothing wrong with it. I'm just, not the sort who gets that adrenaline kick from it that makes it appealing. I mean, I do, in the sense that the stress kicks off like in anyone else, but I don't get the high off of it that some others are able to feel." He takes another sip of his coke and chews on the end of the straw as he studies the big silent ferris wheel at the end of the dock. "I like teaching. I think I'm suited to it. I hope I am, anyway."