96/Talking To You Is Easy (If You're Dead)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Talking To You Is Easy (If You're Dead) | |
---|---|
Date of Scene: | 24 February 2020 |
Location: | Backyard - Xavier's School |
Synopsis: | Nobody gets a black eye. |
Cast of Characters: | Douglas Ramsey, Roberto da Costa
|
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
A cold February has finally bled over into the warmth of the Early Spring - it's warm enough that the itch to get outside can be overpowering. Fortunately, as grand estates often tend to, there's an old pavillion out in the gardens that has an ancient stone fireplace in it. Doug's got a fire burning that's shedding some warmth, and he's... borrowing the Internet from somewhere. Possibly the US government.
The laptop he's working with is sitting open on a low table, forgotten about for the moment, as he sits with his knees up, arms wrapped around them and he stares into the fire, almost as if he's looking for something. The gold circuitry on his right hand shines, reflecting the firelight.
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
If the sound of Brazilian trap music and the blue Maserati appearing in the garage this afternoon hadn't given it away, Roberto was back at school after a bit of time away to find himself and get a grip on his new and improved abilities.
Now that he'd basked in the glow of his classmates warm welcome, Berto slips out onto the grounds for a walk, wearing an unbuttoned wool coat and a Brazilian nattional team jersey underneith. He's just drinking in the familar sites of the campus when he spots the fire and the student sitting at it working on the computer, because of course he would be. Still, Berto drifts over, his Jordans crunching on the gravel of the path. "Hey, Doug," he says with a bit of a smirk. "Welcome back." Though it's clear by his tone he's heard the stories out of Genosha and he means welcome back to more than just the school.
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug tilts his head, and then looks up. He lets out a slow sigh, and then absent-mindedly reaches out to snag a chair, turning it obligingly toward Berto. He glances back to the fire, and then reaches down to grab a thermos. He unscrews the cap and then pours out a cup of coffee into the lid, before obligingly offering the rest of the thermos.
"It's uh. Folgers." He says. "I wasn't really thinking about coffee." Then he lets out another sigh, and says, "...It's been awhile, hot-shot." He glances up for a moment, and then grabs his computer to check on his project.
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
That smirk of Berto's gets a little wider at Doug's sigh, mission accomplished, clearly. Though the hospitality gets a nod of thanks, as he straddles the chair backwards and takes the thermos raising it to Doug before taking a sip.
"Yeah, how long now? Two years when you got that Genosha gig?" he asks him. There's an easily readable tick at the mention of Genosha, given what happend it's understandable and of course Berto being Berto he does his best to cover it. "I'd ask how that turned out, but..." he lets that trail off before frowning and reaching into his coat for a flask. "Want some?" he offers paying hospitality back with hospitality.
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug looks up and then says, "I don't usually touch the stuff. Load me up." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm still trying to process it all, it's a lot to take in. The death toll looks to be hovering close to 16 million. Over 95 percent of the population was wiped out overnight."
"I'm compiling a database with what info I can gather about the Genoshan citizens so that there's some kind of testimonial that can't be just... swept aside. Also, these people had families from all over the world. They need to be notified."
"I figure once I'm done with that I can have a nervous breakdown because I *should* be dead. But here I am."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto gives Doug a healthy pour into his coffee then opts to drink a swig right from the flask himself. Doug's news earns a sharp curse in Portuguese, "I'd been keeping away from the news, I didn't want to..." he frowns. "Sixteen million?" he asks him. More curses follow. "We need to... we should..." he can't find a plan of action that sounds anywhere near sufficient, though it seems Doug has found one all the same.
He breathes a little easier after all of that, "Yeah, yeah, you're right, I didn't think about that, those people there's got to be something to remember them," he says taking a breath again and trying to focus his thoughts. "Anything I can do to help?"
As to the rest, he nods, "Yeah, I don't even know what that must be like man, but I feel you there, you're good though right, like physically," mentally was a whole other strory.
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Well, they sweated whatever that mystery gunk Sinister injected me with out of me, that required a session with Mister Dialysis Machine, but other than that I seem to be pretty okay. Well, minus the swaaaanky new arm."
He spreads techno-organic fingers, and then says, "Just giving up my humanity, a little piece at a time."
He looks up at Roberto, and says, "...What was it we said to each other the last time we spoke?"
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto, frowns, "Hope they got it all," he says nose wrinkling in disgust. "Though doesn't sound like fun time," which might be the understatement of the year. His eyes fall on the new arm, "Wow, they did a whole number on you," he says. "And doesn't the Professor say it's what's inside that makes us what we are?" he asks, "I know, I'm quoting Xavier, but man you don't seem like you need to be carrying more worries than what you've got on your plate, man."
He shakes his head, "Nah," he answers about the last words he said, which from Berto usually means he doesn't want to say, "Betting you do, huh?"
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug steeples his fingers over his mouth. "Well I remember what *I* said." He says. "I figured you'd never want to speak to me again. At the time, I was okay with that. What is it about us where we just can't seem to get along for more than a minute?"
He says, "It just kind of... sprouted while I was in Sinister's lab. It's fully functional... completely amorphous, just like Warlock. I'm still experimenting with what I can do with it."
"Right now, all I have is worries. Whoever's responsible for this is going to come finish the job, and they've got enough firepower to wipe out sixteen million mutants without sweating it. And I'm also angry." He casts his head down into shadow, and closes his eyes. "But, one thing at a time. Let's start with 'I'm sorry for the things I said to you two years ago, and I hope you can forgive me.'"
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
Berto takes another swig from his flask, and says, "I remember," he admits. "What both of us said. And I dunno what it is man, you're very punchable, and I'm going out on a limb here and guessing I come off like a dick a lot of the time," the words were meant lightly but all the rest going on made them sound moe grim.
"That's... worrying," he says. "Sure that hand works for you?" he asks with a nod at the arm and a wary look.
"No clue who did it?" Berto asks about Genosha. "And yeah, angry, about sums up my feelings," though that was about Genosha and not about Doug. He gives the other mutant a look, "Seems dumb holding onto a grudge when so many people are dead. so, yeah, you're forgiven and I hope you can forgive me too," he transfers his flask so he can extend that hand to Doug. "Start fresh?"
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Well they had access to giant super-Sentinels." Doug murmurs, "So it's someone with a lot of money and a manufacturing base. It's hard to keep things like that hidden for long, so I'll find it soon. I just--" He sighs, "I need to figure out the best way to..." He buries his face in his sleeve for a moment.
He glances back at Roberto and then pauses, before he reaches out to grip Roberto's hand. "...I guess I am pretty punchable." He admits. "It's the hair, I think."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
Berto nods, "Great, even bigger sentinels," he says. "But then like you said, making something that big is damn near impossible to hide. Combine that, with the kind of hatred you'd need to decide to wipe out 16 million people, the list of places and people can't be that long," he reasons. "When you find them, let me know right, I don't want the teachers locking us out of this."
Doug ducking into his sleeve for a moment gets a concerned look from Roberto. "What's up man?" he asks.
Before they both left the school, Roberto would have agreed, then went on to list all of Doug's punchable qualities. Today though he shakes his head, "Nah, hair's fine I'm probably just a dick," he says shaking Doug's hand.
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Yeah, I don't know if I need to march up to Scott and tell him I want a big-boy uniform or what I'm supposed to do. I just know I have to do SOMETHiNG." Doug squeezes his eyes shut. "It's... a lot." He says. "And I'm holding it together but I'm worried at some point here I'm gonna... not be."
He glances up at Roberto and says, "You're a hot-headed, self-aggrandizing jackass and a big obnoxious showboat. However, you're also more intelligent and compassionate than you ever gave yourself credit for and you're good at getting ahead of people. You know how to push people's buttons to get the kind of reaction you want. I can't do that, and I can literally read people like a book." The techno-organic hand is... a lot like touching Warlock, actually. It's smooth, hard but with some give, and warm to the touch.
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
"Sort of feels like that sort of time, right? Like we're just a bunch of assholes if we let them keep us on the sidelines, I mean what was all that training for if not for this?" Roberto agrees. Then gives Doug some space when he pulls himself together. "C'mon boy genius, even I know what happens then, that's when the team steps up and gets your back. Xavier got us all got together for a reason, none of us have to do it all on our own."
Yeah that compassion and intelligence was showing and so Berto tucks it away with another swig of his flask.
There's a smile for the description Doug gives of him. "Fair," he says before frowning about the good parts, shifting uncomfotably. "Yeah well you're an egg head, know it all, who can usually see through my bullshit like it was made of glass," he says. "But you're one of the smartest most together guys I know. Like tracking down these sentinels, I know you got this, it's not even a question, just be a matter of time."
He shakes that hand without drawing back at the strange feel of it, though that it feels a lot like Warlock makes it easier to take without an outward reaction. He smiles and looks down at the hand after they've both let go, "Wherever that came from got to admit it's pretty good."
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug murmurs, "I used to lose sleep terrified I was going to turn into a monster. This is... somehow even stranger." He closes the hand and re-opens it, and then proceeds to rapidly transform it through a series of geometric shapes, the techno-organic matter moving like liquid. "I can even do complex moving parts." He says, demonstrating by holding it up and transforming it into a podium with a miniature helicopter on it, its blades slowly turning. He shakes it back out and into his hand.
"So do we just walk up to Scott and tell him we want to be X-Men?" He scratches his temple, and then takes another swig of that boozed-up coffee.
"...I had a lot of friends there. None of them made it."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
"Whoa," Roberto says when he sees the arm go through its weird transormatons. "I was going to ask if it does any cool stuff but then I figured it was just an arm, but wow, shows what I know." He shakes his head in disbelief as it turns into more complex shapes. "What's that feel like?" he asks.
Roberto caps the flask and slowly screws it back on tight as he gives Doug's other question some thought, though his lost comment about lost friends makes up his mind for him, "Yeah, we go to Scott, and we don't ask for us, we ask for the whole class, I mean to give them the choice, and if that request comes from both of it's going to make a bigger impact than if it came from me and Sam. Nobody'd expect the two of us to agree on anything let alone this."
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"It's a little like tensing a muscle. I relax, and it goes back to being an arm. Maybe that's just because that's what I subconsciously expect to be there. Warlock didn't -- doesn't have a set form. He's just whatever he wants to be at any given moment. I can't quite manage that. But then again I also don't think it'll melt into a puddle if I get upset. Ups and downs, right?"
He raises an eyebrow at Berto, and mutters, "...I know, right? We're in the middle of a civil conversation without Sam or Dani refereeing."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
"That's a little trippy," Berto says with a shake of his head, but he could follow the logic, even if the idea of not having a set form bent his mind a little. "Can see why it would take some getting used to." He glances at the thing again shaking his head. "The weird shit we've seen since we came here right?"
Betro barks a 'Heh' of amusment. "Think this is what personal growth feels like?" he asks Doug, wryly.
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"I don't know, Kirby Dots," Doug says, "Maybe. I'm not sure I like it. Punch me or insult my honor or something so we can get back to a more comfortable paradigm."
He drains the rest of that loaded coffee and then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "...Magnum's on Netflix."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
"Me neither, easier when we're fighting," Berto says with a ghost of a grin on his face.
The offer is met with a raised brow, "Yeah?" he asks as he offers Doug the thermos to go with the now empty cup. "Guess we better go watch it now before Scott drums us out of here for getting in his grill, huh?" He glances at the mansion and then to Doug, "Yeah, let's go."
- Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug gets to his feet, and says, "...I bought a house." He rubs the back of his neck. "I mean it's not as swanky as The House," He points at the freaking castle that is the school, "But it's nice. It's in Maine, on the coast near the border with New Brunswick... I'm pretty happy with it. I was actually planning to come back, see..."
Then he cants his eyes up. "I heard that there's a new Super-Hero in Training academy..." He pauses, and then suddenly starts to laugh. "Sorry," He downright giggles, "...Bad acronym."
- Roberto da Costa has posed:
"Nice man," Berto says at first confused at the reveal but smiling a little when it's compared to The House. "My dad doesn't have a place this nice." Though as Doug trails off Roberto prompts him, "Yeah, comng back to that house though right? Not here?"
Burto joins in the laughter, "Naw I think you got the acroynm just right, it's like I've always said., everyone wants to be us. C'mon,"he says leading the way to The House. "You can show me pictures of your place when while we watch Magnum and talk about S.H.I.T."