5910/All work and no play make Balm something...

All work and no play make Balm something...
Date of Scene:	11 April 2021
Location:	Level 3 - Spare - The Roost
Synopsis:	Outsiders casual time; Phoebe is filling her time while she's not attending school, Conner needs a chair -- but not one that can handle five hundred pounds -- and Laura gets to play common sense filter. What else are friends for?
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Laura Kinney, Conner Kent

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Maybe it's a bad thing that Phoebe did not pursue going back to in-person education in Gotham.

    The highschooler healer was sitting in the middle of notebooks, hand-written notes, stickers and post-its in various colors surrounding her, a college-appropriate anatomy and physiology book opened, bookmarked in several places to her left, and a stack of metaphysical study books checked out from the Gotham public library network with legal notepads with notations (along with several Sanskirt translation texts and theoretical anthropology books) stacked behind her.

    Her hair was done up in braids again, and then pulled back to make sure none of them would get in her face. Her lips are pursed, her dark eyes looking over notes, and then moving her left hand over one of the books she plucks it up.

    The problem with the situation may be that she is micro-organizing -- each of the notebooks with notes and sticky notes and stickers and colored tape are concerning the anatomy and physiology of various teammates in combat and post-combat healing circumstances. Sticky notes are color-coordinated from 'does not need help' white to 'make sure they take time to recover' yellow to 'YES YOU NEED TO SIT IN THE MEDBAY' red to 'ohgodwhy' purple.

Laura Kinney has posed:
For most people it's pretty tricky knowing when Laura is around. Her training so deeply ingrained that even though she's free from the Facility it's unlikely some of the habits they instilled in her will ever change. So that even in places she should feel safe and at ease she slinks around like she's in enemy territory. Barely making a sound as she slips from shadow to shadow.

The first sign most people have that she's nearby is the telltale inhale of someone sniffing the air followed shortly by a polite cough.

She's dressed in her idea of casual attire. Dark greys and faded black clothing, ideal for blending into the shadows, that's easy to move in. In this case a t-shirt and some yoga pants. The lack of shoes suggesting she's on her way to or from a workout.

Conner Kent has posed:
The Roost happens to be too large for the small team. Why would Tim take over a building this large? Maybe he plans to turn the Outsiders into an army? Or is just he trying to out-room Batman's Batcave?

There is a trophy hall (mostly empty) and rooms and room full of spare furniture. Conner is pretty sure some team members have been lost there forever. Maybe that is where Roy Harper went. He just needs a new office chair for his room, though. Because he sat down a bit too strongly in the old one and... it was not Kryptonian-proof.

In his defense, this rarely happen anymore (he went through a lot of furniture when he had a place in Hawaii).

And looks like this is were Phoebe was hiding all this time too. That or... she took over a room to use as her office. "Hey, Phoebe. Fancy meeting you here," he greets.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe is getting better at figuring out when Laura's around. Which means she mostly just assumes one of the smaller, quiet, deadly people on the team are around at any point.

    She raises her head at the sound of sniffing, and gives a cockeyed smile to Laura, giving a nod to the dark-clad girl, pausing to lift her arms and stretch her arms up, arching her back.

    Phoebe herself is wearing a white T-shirt with the outline of someone with a lot of puffy hair, and script reading 'HAPPY LITTLE TREES' accross the top, and a pair of soft pajama pants. Casual indeed.

    And while Tim may be trying out-room the Batcave, she was thankful for the extra room. Mostly because that means no one got mad if Scout ran amok in the room for a little bit.

    The aged dalmatian is not in this room. Phoebe was more set up on the floor with her work around her rather than on any of the spare furniture in the room.

    "Hey Laura, hey Conner. How goes?" she states -- and quietly closes one of the white-sticky-noted notebooks, with red cover and bay laural in bloom on it and one of the yellow sticky noted books, blue cover with a basset hound sticker.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney slips into the room with a shrug. "I have not made any significant progress on any of my recent investigations," she informs. "But on the other hand I have also not had to engage in active combat either." That's probably Laura speak for 'it's been a quiet week'.

She gives Conner a nod of acknowledgement too and then begins padding around the room.

"Presumably some of the items stored here are from the buildings original use?" she muses. "I can't imagine that the Outsiders budget extended to this much spare furniture..."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Busy with finals, ugh," complains Conner. College finals are kind of hard for a guy that went high school for perhaps two months (virtual reality high school does not count). He has been also super-heroing more lately to try to find N.O.W.H.E.R.E. so his sleep times are scarce.

"I need a new chair for my room," he comments. "I know I saw some a few months ago. Just can't remember where." And at Laura's comment, he has to add, "he is rich enough to have a super-tech jet for the team, I think the team has a big budget. Then again, maybe it is Batman's money."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Got into a minor scuffle with someone in line for coffee yesterday, does that count?" Phoebe replies good naturedly to Laura, and she motions to her various study items.

    "I'm studying up for... a bunch of different things. Updating my medical notebooks, looking to test out of an honors A&P course so I can get a credit for it while I'm expelled. If I keep up like this, I'll be able to maybe apply for colleges in six months for spring semesters." she wrinkles her nose "... which I'm sure will affect what social life I have."

    Which isn't much of one.

    "... did you break your chair?" Phoebe asks, looking up to Conner, and she gives a wry grin.

    "Some of them are kinda brittle. I broke one in mine last month."

Laura Kinney has posed:
"True, but logistically speaking it'd make sense to store excess items in a back-up location," Laura points out with a nod of her head at the piles of things. "After all if we lose this site all the resources contained within would be lost too."

She continues to prowl around the room vaguely sniffing at the boxes. It's not as if that'll help locate any chairs, but it never hurts to check for bugs and bombs.

"A and P? Anterior and posterior?" She blinks. "I am not familiar with the term... Surely if you asked Tim he could arrange for you to finish school elsewhere. An expulsion is nothing that a modest donation from a well known Gotham family couldn't sort out."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Dunno... most of the time we use the secret exists," points out Conner. "I think we are not supposed to bring in or out stuff. We have spare parts for everything and... and anyway, I am not looking for a mainframe, just an office chair," he glances to Phoebe. "I know, right? Brittle and not easy to put back together." He clearly buys too much from IKEA.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Anatomy and physiology -- part of the requisites for pre-med education." Phoebe replies to Laura as she brings one arm accross her chest to stretch it, and then does the other arm. She frowns at the idea of asking Tim for money.

    "... the thought crossed my mind, but I'm pretty much already getting free room and board. I give AHAB a shopping list and it gets delivered. He lets Scout live here while my mom finishes up recovery. I'm sure I could ask Agent Tampabolos too and he'd make arrangements, but then I'd be in debt to a SHIELD agent." she remarks with a frown. "I don't like feeling like I owe people. Tim already got me to where I am with the Outsiders."

    ... plus medical care, dental, access to an amazing computer system, armor, a bat-tech domino -- really, she couldn't ask for more.

    She gives a grin over to Conner. "Pretty sure there's a spare mainframe down in the main subterrainan storage. I was poking around down there for some cables to see if we had any older connectors. She closes another notebook, red cover with happy little robins on the front.

    "I ordered one of those 'big and large' chairs because I have a tendency to sit cross-legged in them, and regular ones are too narrow. Maybe a five-hundred pound rated one would stand up a bit better?"

Laura Kinney has posed:
"Oh. If you need any help I can probably tutor you," Laura offers, glancing back over her shoulder as she opens up a random box filled with.. nothing exciting. "My training included the complete memorisation of the human body and all it's various nerve clusters and weak points. And while that training was mostly intended to improve my efficiency at killing people it can be put to other uses."

Ahh the old Kinney family nursery rhyme. The head bones no longer connected to the neck bone.

"No chairs in here," she notes before moving to another box. "Don't think of it as asking Tim for a handout. You are asking him to invest in skills training for a member of his team. Why would he have any reason to refuse? It's only logical we train to improve ourselves."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Yes, there is one," agrees Conner, having seen it not so long ago. "This reminds me, your mom and you will need to move to a new place soon. Ask for help if you need some, Gotham transport companies are all run by the Mafia," he might have heard Tim talking about that at some point.

"Anyway, I am going to do a quick search through the sub-levels and if it fails order a new chair by the nets," he decides. "Five hundred... no, I don't want to know. I am not that heavy anyway. Laters... I am going to skip movie night this weekend. I have to finals on Monday. I am doomed." He walks out grumbling.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... it's honestly more for the fact that I sit crosslegged. I do not weigh that much..." Phoebe frowns, and she glances back down at herself and self-conciously pokes at her stomach. There's not a lot of give.

    "... because before Tim knew what I did, I was a highly independant person who snuck out at night to tend to the homeless because it made me feel important. Now I am homeless and tend to a bunch of superheroes and I feel kinda useless most days." Phoebe admits, and as Conner leaves she re-opens the notebook with the basset hound sticker on the cover.

    The ink in it is red. She looks at it, makes a notation: "Mass is unequal to ability to lift"

Laura Kinney has posed:
"I just sit on the floor," Laura muses. "And I wouldn't worry Phoebe, I do not think you are in danger of breaking any chairs. Not unless they are defective anyway." She closes the box and leans against it. "I would offer the use of one of my safehouses as a residence, but they are not really suited for long term habitation." As well as being filled with all manner of illegal firearms and explosives...

"I am unsure why you would feel useless. If not for you how many kids from that burning building would have died? I probably would have been able to survive combat with the cyborgs alone it wouldn't have been possible for me to do so while also clearing the building."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Yes, your straightforward logic does have a way of correcting the logical part of my brain over the silly emotional part." Phoebe replies in a very dry tone, giving a sidelong look to Laura before she leans back.

    "Agent Tampampolos already put a deposit down on a townhouse for my mom to move to, but I feel like if I were to move back in with her, it'd put her in additional danger. Besides... it's far from my usual routes in Gotham, and I..." she wrinkles her nose. "... the agent already figured out my powers a bit. I don't want to be under constant surveillance for them." she rubs the back of her neck a moment.

Laura Kinney has posed:
"I was attempting to reassure you of your value to the team and the people of Gotham," Laura replies, frowning. "I had hoped that positive re-enforcement would assist with your emotional state. After all it should in theory feel good to know you've saved lives?"

She shifts her position slightly on the box she's leaning against then adds "I don't think you have to worry about SHIELD right this moment. Given that currently the agency is not permitted to operate on US soil and any agents are likely resolving whatever caused the situation. Unless they are in fact truely a rogue agency in which case they'll be leaving Gotham before Batman takes interest."

Her bare foot taps at the floor a few times.

"It is hard to say what you should do. Personally I have found that sometimes leaving those you love is the only way to keep them safe. But it's equally possible if you avoid contact something could happen and you'll blame yourself for not being there to prevent it." She shrugs. "If you want I will install a security system and some counter surveillance equipment in the property? I don't think it would keep SHIELD out or stop them monitoring your family if they wished... But it would at least give you some piece of mind."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Gotham humor. I'm useless until I'm dead, and then I'm a statistic." Phoebe dismissess with a slight smile over to Laura, and then she leans back on one hand.

    "Considering Agent Tampambolus is also the head of Myrmidon Security, I would be hard pressed to find enough security to bypass that, unless you have a heck of an ant trap." Phoebe states, before she leans back, and she looks up at Laura.

    "Thank you, by the way Laura. You /are/ a good friend to have around for the common-sense stuff."

Laura Kinney has posed:
"Even the dead are useful. They make good fertilizer," Laura informs. "Just be careful around any SHIELD agents until they are no longer banned from operating in the country. It would drastically complicate your life if Federal law enforcement decide you might be involved with SHIELD or an agency operated by a SHIELD agent."

She stands up, rolling her shoulders and glancing at the door.

"I think common sense might be unique to each individual.. Many times things which seem obvious to me are strange to everyone else. Not that it really bothers me..." She nods slightly. "I had been planning on some training in the gym, if you find yourself in need of a break from your studies then feel free to join me. Physical activity is an excellent way to clear out an excess of emotional turmoil and mental fatigue."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe does laugh at the fertilizer bit.

    "Just as long as they're buried au nautral and the industrial funeral complex doesn't get them first." she states, and then, looking at all the notebooks in front of her, she gives a nod, and hops up.

    "I'll come down and join you. Been a while since someone broke my shoulderblade." she adds, using one foot to close the last few notebooks.

    They all have stickers on them. Laura is probably canny enough to realize that they all have to do with a mixture of real names and code names -- roses, bay laurel, hounds, robins, a Wonder Woman sticker, one with little bats all over it -- not a name on them. Clever little codifying system.

    "Let me grab a water, I'll be right down."