ArchivedLogs:Petersplosion

Petersplosion
Dramatis Personae Peter, Hank, Kai, Kris, Rasa, Ivan, Sophie	2013-05-23 OMG EVERYONE IS VISITING PETER IN MEDLAB.
Location <XS> Medical Lab - B1
Gleaming and sterile, the school's medical facility is all cool science in contrast to the mansion's old-world old-fashion. All stainless steel and antiseptic tinge, the room is filled with the quiet whir-click of the various implements that comprise its medical equipment -- all state-of the art. The hospital beds are curtained off for privacy when they have patients, and in one of the alcoves there is a small operating theatre visible. More heavy-duty equipment is visible in the lab in the back, where the securely locked cabinets keep sensitive equipment out of the reach of teenage fingers. The Xavier Med-Lab has JUST ACQUIRED +1 PETER. He is in bed, next to Ivan, and -- well, if there was any concern that Peter was thoroughly, unalterably, and completely /broken/ by his experience, it is probably dispelled by the fact that Peter is ceaselessly /chattering/ at Ivan. That being said, there /is/ something -- a little off about the boy. Before he /left/ Xavier's, he was fleshy pink; now, his skin is an unusual shade of sleek, glossy black -- with just a hint of a metallic blue /shimmer/. He's also covered in a network of freshly applied, brand-spanking new bandages - on his torso, one of his arms - and two metal casts on his fingers, forming a 'V'. He's /finally/ wearing his glasses, perched crookedly atop of his nose - along with a pair of sweat-pants and a white T-shirt (that has a picture of Boba Fett and Darth Vader posing in for Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction), in suits and with guns drawn). "...he can do the thwippy thing. With his /tongue/, Ivan," Peter explains, demonstrating - the thwippy thing - with his arm. Extending it outward, as if to /grab/ something. In the distance. "He was going to ride on my back and /thwip/ the ceiling and we'd /swing/ out it was going to be. So. /Sweet/. So sweet, Ivan, the sweetest thing. But then everyone /saved/ us so, bleergh." He sounds. Genuinely /bothered/ by this. Further back in the medlab is a curtained off portion of the medlab. Those who've been in here since this morning would probably know Professor Suresh is asleep back there, passed out from utter exhaustion. Ministering to his flock of injureds however, is Dr. Hank McCoy. He moves about, clipboard in hand. He's barefoot, glasses perched in the fur on top of his blue head, wearing khakis, and a button up shirt with tuft of blue fur /pfuffing/ out where the top button is undone. The haggard doctor is generally looking pretty ragged around the edges, having definitely been up all night tending to the people needing tending. He's also been rattling around up and down the length of the medbay /looking/ for something, muttering something about his glasses. Ivan, somewhat similarly to the natter-habit of his best friend, is unaltered in his ability to listen to Peter without fail. He's pulled up a chair next to the bed, dressed in a simple white shirt and boring jeans and converse sneakers, and his eyes are... Not. Leaving. Peter. He does what he does BEST. Which - okay, second best, after accidentally creeping people out with spiders - is STARING. Even four or five different tiny spiders (of the jumping spider variety) sitting on his shoulders have their attention /locked onto/ the same subject. It is entirely possibly that if at this point Peter should manage to disappear /while Ivan is looking/ at the chitin-covered teen, he may literally /explode/ into a swarm of angry bees. This is the level of his attention paid. Kris brought MUFFINS. Chocolate, raspberry, AND blueberry. A whole assortment! Why muffins? Because they're slightly easier to pull off than cupcakes and don't require her to worry extra-hard about frosting. She's got a box of them in hand and is chattering quietly with Sophie. Seeing Peter all bandaged and 'cast'ed up makes her pause... Why? "Wow. That... brings back all sorts of memories." At least she doesn't feel the need for exposition. "Why do I get the feeling Ivan's, like, this close to exploding into a swarm of angry bees?" She's actually wearing a shorter, knee-length plaid skirt with black tights and a pink 'Jem and the Holograms' t-shirt that is rather form-fitting. "Sophie, looks like we're going to need the extra baked goods... Did you bring anything to drink? Peter! Ivan! Hungry?" Sophie brought CUPCAKES. All vanilla, but with frostings of various red-berry'd flavors. Strawberry, cherry, raspberry, delineated by varying shades of pink. Frosting. She isn't the best at frosting either, but didn't mind taking up the mantle in Kris's stead. Chattering equally quietly with Kris, she stifles a little giggle at that comment regarding Ivan + bees, but the sight of Peter does cause her to. Pause a little. Sophie's wardrobe today consists of a sequined pink skirt, and a black Dark Side of the Moon shirt. Rainbowwwws. "Nothing really goes with baked goods except milk and milk isn't really something you want to carry around." Ew, room temperature milk. But to move on to the matter at hand, she blushes a bit as she looks over to Peter, smiling rather sheepishly. "H--Hi, Peter. Um. I know I haven't seen you in a while but I feel like something's different." Peter stops nattering an instant after Kris and Sophie arrive with muffins and cupcakes. Just, /staring/ at them. Not the girls; the /confectionaries/. There might be a tiny twitch of his mouth, a spasm of his nose. "Ohhi -- um, hi," he responds to Kris. "Ummaybe. Mm? Oh, /different/ yeah, I," he lifts up his hand, fingers clasped in metal, "broke my fingers. Also I got tons of badass scar--OH," he says, sitting up in bed, looking suddenly -- surprised. Apparently, he keeps /forgetting/. "Rightright the /chitin/ yeah that's, um, kind of nnnnnew..." Back to cupcakes and muffins. Peer, peer. "You know," Peter says, and now he is looking up to Kris and Sophie with big, wide, puppy-dog eyes, "what they /didn't/ have in Mutant Fight Camp? Muffins and cupcakes." This might... be accompanied with just a /slight/ lip-quiver. Maybe practiced. "Alright people," Hank says, giving up on the hunt for his glasses, and approaching the growing crowd around Peter's bed. "Let not overtax Peter while he's recovering. Just keep the volume down, for everyone else's sake as well." Hank gives a friendly tip of his head back toward to the curtained off portion of the lab. "Peter - take it easy on the sweets. We still need to run more tests on your changing biology. But I suppose 1... or 2 couldn't really hurt." McCoy smiles indulgently, not really able to hide just how happy he is to have the boy back at home. Er, school. No, HOME. Very little changes about Ivan. His head tilts ever so slightly at the arrival of Kris and Sophie, but his expression does not pull itself out of neutrality, nor does his-- somewhat eerily good posture change. He is /busy/. Making sure Peter does not /vanish/ again. Listening to his every word. But then! At Peter's tone changing into a decidedly more /cupcake-wanting/ direction? His attention snaps to Sophie. Rather blankly, yet utterly expectant. As if to say CUPCAKES. TO PETER. STAT. DOCTOR MCCOY SAID HE COULD. Kris blushes as she is chided... but quickly nods anyway,"Sorry, Doctor. I'll keep it quiet." Then she's skittering over to Peter's bedside, muttering,"... Or four.. or ten... Or you know... whatever." She sets her muffin box down on a small stand next to the bed and looks away from it pointedly. "If large numbers of cupcakes should just happen to fall into your mouth..." She pulls out a muffin, and holds it out to Peter,"Chocolate?" Then she's taking a good look at Peter,"The chitin? Looks good on you. Are... are we drawing on your cast and stuff, or do we just... fuss over you? I've never been the one visiting someone else before." She taps her chin thoughtfully and examines the boy at length,"I like it. Makes you look kinda like a badass..." She extra-hushes the last word,"... chicks dig scars. Come to think of it... so do some guys? When you get better, let's trade scar stories." The boy praised his scars, so she's gonna wanna see 'em. "Sorry, mutant /what/?!" Sophie sort of. Stops. For a minute. Before remembering cupcakes, and-- she moves to Peter's side, opposite Ivan so she isn't crowding too much, and carefully sets cupcakes on Peter's lap. Pointing out the different frosting colors she explains, "Strawberry, raspberry, cherry," and then finds herself a chair to pull over. She's being quiet! Really! "I, um, I totally get it if you don't want to talk about it--" and here she's side-eyeing Ivan, like one might eye a watch dog. "--but we don't really. Like." And here, while she is still /quiet/, she starts running her words together at a mile a minute. "Have any idea where you were, I mean for a while we sort of figured you just wanted to get away for a while but then you weren't answering anybody's texts and you always answer texts and someone found out you hadn't been at your aunt and uncle's place then Megan found your webshooters at a police station so we thought you were in /jail/ but after that we had no idea and what HAPPENED?" Pause. "...If you're okay with talking about it." When Peter wants to be, he's /fast/. Like, 'whoa-what-just-happened?!' fast. In an instant, that chocolate muffin is just - GONE. It's like a magic trick; one second it's there, the next it's disappeared. What happened?! Peter - cheeks bulging, three or four crumbs beneath his mouth - certainly doesn't know. "Choohcohhchate?" Peter repeats, tongue mangled in an attempt at speaking. SWALLOW. And then -- WHOOSH whoosh a strawberry cupcake disappears. A few /pink/ crumbs now on the bottom of Peter's lip. Blinking owlishly; innocently -- brows rumpling. Like he's trying to figure out himself what keeps happening to the CUPCAKES AND MUFFINS. After a few more swallows, Peter just starts /going/. "MAN I don't have scar /stories/ I just got /one/ and it's, basically, MUTANT FIGHT-CAMP. I got bit by sharks, beat up by lizards, and stung by a /tree/ it was, totally /ba-nay-nay/. A bunch of /cops/ kidnapped a bunch of mutants and put them all in mutant fight-camp. Like, making us fight each other? And selling /tickets/ and putting /bets/ it was so brutal oh man I had to fight the SHARKTWINS and they were STARVING." This is all related with... just complete, casual glibness. Like it ain't no biggy; mutant fight-camp's just where Peter went last Tuesday. Moving about, trying not to impose too much into the reunion, Hank can't fully suppress his sigh at Peter's glibness. But then, they'd have to talk anyway after everyone left. Best to let the boy be a /boy/ after all. He also makes a point of not noticing the two entirely wolfed confections. He just grins to himself, shakes his head, and moves about checking the equipment plugged into Peter's bed. The stare Sophie throws Ivan is missed entirely, because by the time it happens, the bug-controlling boy is already back to looking at Peter again. Yes. Eat cupcakes. This is acceptable. And better than /disappearing/. His hard stare begins soften just slightly as his dorm buddy continues talking, though, brow furrowing in what is most likely concern. His hands fidget with the hem of his shirt, before-- gradually, he just... leans forward and closer to Peter until his forehead hits the side of the bed. Thnk. He has never been /that/ good at showing concern. This'll have to do. Slump. The spiders on his shoulders migrate upward just an /inch/. Their ride may have lost sight of their target but they persevere! Kris just sort of casually 'accidentally' nudges the tray of baked goods closer to to Peter's bed. Just in case. Don't want them to fall into the floor... instead of Peter's open mouth. "You eat... very fast." She points at a patch of Chitin, and says,"It must've been useful to have that. Oh, how ARE Shane and Sebastian?" Pause. "Sounds very traumatic. Are you okay?" Well. One day she'll learn tact. "Did you just say ba-nay-nay? I do not know this word. Sophie, what is 'ba-nay-nay'? Is it another Musketeer? That stuff keeps cropping up everywhere." She turns to approach Hank a moment later, and asks the man,"How long before he's up and about? Anything we can do? I think I'm o-negative if..." Calm-looking or not, she's nearly biting her nails with nervousness. Peter's explanation just gets a looong stare from Sophie. She's sort of. Mostly flabbergasted at how casual he's being, but given that he was just in MUTANT FIGHT-CAMP she's not going to admonish him for how he chooses to cope. "I, um. Holy /shit/." This, coming from a girl who never swears. SRS BZNS. She leans back in her chair a little, running hand through her hair, and just. Lets out a quiet sigh. "Well you seem, um, okay. Despite that. I guess?" She's genuinely not sure if this is an act or if the Amazing Spider-Lad has actually managed to already /recover/. Nudging Kris a little, the question is met with a bit of a forced grin, but she shakes her head. "He just means it was ridiculous. Um. Ivan? You can-- you can have some cupcakes too, if you want. If they don't all fall into Peter's mouth." Peter just kind of, well, /reaches/ for Ivan - as he thunks. A little ripple of worry, but not a /lot/ -- apparently this expression of Ivan's is something Peter is very familiar with. A chitin-coated hand descends to pat Ivan on the back of his head. There, there. "It's okay, Ivan," Peter announces, "I /totally/ survived a double-shark-attack." He makes this announcement - well, quite /GLIBLY/, frankly. Another cupcake - WHOOSH. Gone. Jesus is he even really /chewing/ these things!? "Shane and Sebastian are totally okay," Peter says. "I think they're in the lake -- a lake. They do better in water. Man they are -- I mean, I guess /nobody/ is totally okay I mean they kept us in /cages/ for like three weeks but -- but if anybody can handle this they can," Peter continues. Then, to Sophie: "Oh /man/ I was, like, /totally/ -- when they took me out of there I was kind of a wreck, I mean, I think -- Kurt? He said I was hyperventilating and I couldn't even /walk/ I just, had a total meltdown. Um." There's a flicker of something else in Peter's eyes, briefly; maybe something a little nervous and /panicky/. But he quickly suppresses it by devouring another muffin. SNATCH chewchew swallow. Other hand - with the broken fingers in that set of metal casts - gently patting Ivanhead. "...a bunch of stuff happened, I guess. I mean, the fighting was. Probably. The least worst. Bit." Hank can let a lot go by when Circumstances are taken into account, but cussing /right/ in front of a teacher is too much to contain entirely. He manages however to limit his reaction to just clearing his throat, and an indistinct eyebrow raise. He's not expecting her to apologize, just to rein it in. Reaching across the bed, Hank picks up the box of sweets without preamble, and sets it on the little table at the foot of Peter's bed, out of easy reach. At least he'll have to work for them this way. "No, thank you." Comes a heavily Russian-accented mumble from Ivan's thunked head, apparently content with just staying right where he is, muscles tense as Peter talks. Back to quiet he goes, now that manners have been dispensed with. Two of the jumping spiders on his shoulders/back bounce-a-jump onto Peter's broken finger casts. Hello. Kris wrinkles her nose a little bit and tries again,"Doctor?" Then she shrugs and turns from Hank back to Peter,"That.... That I get. This probably doesn't mean much since we don't know each other well, but I get it, so... I know guys don't like talking about things, but if you ever need to... talk about it, I mean... We're all kind of a big family here." She watches the sweets whisked away, a suddenly hungry expression on her face. Didn't make any for herself. "The fighting is when you have the most control over your life." She peers at the jumping spiders closely, and suppresses a titter. Now it's time to make a shocked exclamation at Sophie's potty-mouth! "SOPHIE." Sophie blushes a little at Dr. McCoy's admonishment, clearing her throat all awkwardly to cough away an errant frog, then slownods at Peter. "Yeah, um, I guess that'd be. Sorta. Yeah." She really has absolutely no common ground to draw from, here, so she's kind of floundering. Kris's little admonishment is given a rather petulant /roll of the eyes/ and a defensive, "Sometimes it needs to be said, okay! You swear all the time, gosh." This may or not be true. But regardless. "So, uh, Peter, anyway. Um. I don't know how long you're gonna have to stay down here but there's.. a dance? Next Friday? And like..." Crap, it sounds like she's asking him out. Abort, abort!! "...well it'd be cool if you can come. It's been boring with you gone and obviously everyone's been pretty bummed out so I mean... like. It'd be cool if you could help. Liven things up. If you're feeling okay by then." She's blushing pretty bright red at this point. "Uh... oh yeah, talk. I mean -- thanks," Peter tells Kris, and then the metallic blue sheen of his skin shifts, turning -- a metallic /violet/, like a hologram that just had its angle shifted. "I think -- they were mentioning, um, getting me a counselor -- I mean I already -- /talk/ to one. But probably, making sure I..." When those sweets are taken away by Dr. McCoy, Peter /might/ give him a brief 'HEY' look. But, he otherwise does not com--OH hey look another cupcake just vanished as McCoy lifted up the tray HM someone better catch this cupcake thief FAST. At the mention of a dance, Peter -- well -- /blinks/. "Dance? Ohman, ohjeez, I didn't even -- we have /dances/ here?" This, apparently, is something Peter didn't even know about. "Man I--I've never, like--" The shade of violet persists, rather /deeply/. "--I guess if I can like -- I need crutches to walk right now. Maybe I'll be able to, walk without them, by then? I /hope/ so..." "And to answer two questions in one, knowing your metabolism Peter, I imagine you'll be up and about enough to /attend/ the dance," Hank says, giving an honest assessment. Apparently he's oblivious to teen hormones whizzing around the room. "Although I doubt you'll be doing anything more vigorous than a slow dance, young man. We'll just have to see." Kris wrinkles her nose a little bit,"If you want, and the doctor agrees, I can give you the name of mine. She's crap with gender identity issues, but I've been with her since I left the Philippines, and she's good with post traumatic stress." She sees the sheen changing... And sort of just stops. Maybe it's an embarassment or upset reaction." She takes out her cellphone briefly to begin texting. It's brief and sudden, and then she's looking at Sophie like she grew a third eye. She leans over to murmur to Peter,"You don't have to dance. We'll get you dressed up, and find you a chair, and we'll find you some nice flowers to present. Every girl and 'boi' is gonna be, like, totes gaga over you, just wait." Then she's turning to shove Sophie with a gentle sort of push,"Sophie, don't over-excited peter." Right, the blame game. "Also, my swearing is always ladylike and appropriate." Pause. She turns to Hank,"Can you get full blood panels with this equipment, Doctor?" Shaking her head briskly, Sophie holds her hands up in a sort of defensive posture. "No, I mean-- I'm not trying to push you into it or anything!" She's been having-- assertiveness issues, lately. "I mean if you can't then don't try to force yourself, obviously, it'd just be cool." Dr. McCoy's assessment is answered with a bit of a relieved smile, and she nods a few times as if in agreement. "Yeah, see, so. I mean like, being a wallflower is cool too, right?" Sophie's phone buzzes, but she notably does /not/ answer it. She instead, just gives Kris a bit of a /look/, and whispers, "Seriously?" Pretending that there aren't two people right in earshot that can hear her do so. Let's just. Play pretend. "I'm not trying to over-excite him, I just. Kinda. I mean it isn't like I can really talk about battle scars and stuff and plus I don't want to make him /relive/ everything and the dance is something /positive/, ok?" GOSH. Peter produces a sheepish grin. Lifting a hand -- the one /without/ the metal casts, because that one is busy resting on Ivan's resting head. "It's -- okay. I, um. It's okay," he tells both Sophie and Kris, flicking a glance at Dr. McCoy, then back down to his legs. "I mean, I'm not overexcited it's /fine/ I've just -- never been to a dance before. Man I don't even think I've ever /danced/ before. I can -- try I guess I mean, yeah. The counselor I'm seeing -- she's pretty good, I like her, it'll be. /Fine/ everything'll be fine," Peter announces. He's /still/ currently a shade of metallic violet, but -- he doesn't seem to be suffering /for/ it. "Can I run a-" Hank almost seems offended at Kris' question about blood panels. "Of /course/ I can run a panel, Ms. Achre." He says grinning, his mouth full of sharp teeth, probably not realizing how that might come off. "Did you have a course of treatment in mind?" Hank is happy to turn this into a biology lesson. His question isn't even sarcastic. It doesn't mean he'll /follow/ her suggestion, but he's openly curious about what it might be. Kris narrows her eyes at Sophie... then sticks her tongue out at her to show her displeasure like a mature young adult should. She looks back over to Peter, though and nods,"The offer stands. I'm glad you're getting what you need." She pauses to peer at a patch of Chitin, then says,"It's just so... uh..." She looks over at Hank, then says,"... uh... gosh-darn pretty?" Then she decides maybe calling attention this? Not the best idea. "Ivan really missed you. We all did, Peter. We were super-worried about you." A moment later, though, and she's re-addressing Hank, actually blushing,"I... I wasn't talking about for PETER. This was more of the... personal variety, Doctor." Cough cough. She blushes, and then says,"I'm seeing a new endo and I can get treatment faster and cheaper if I can get a complete blood-work, including T-levels." BLUSH. "But since you brought it up... I read arachnids usually have copper-based blood... you ever wonder if that would show up as anemia on a blood test? How would you treat arachnid blood-loss?" Because Peter is kinda lookin'... uh... spidery. "I'm starting to think I'm the only kid here who's ever been to a school dance." It's-- entirely possible? Regardless, Sophie makes the remark in good humor, though she can't help but let a little strain show through in her tone. "You don't really have to /dance/ it's really just. Sorta. Wiggling back and forth and hanging out with people, you don't have to actually /dance/." She shakes her head a bit and. Yeah. No dancing! At the dance! Sophie is tempted to reach out and grab Kris's tongue but that might be. A little less than mature. So /instead/ she just nudges the other girl again and hisses, "Later!" Gosh. And now Kris is getting all medical talky with Dr. McCoy, so Sophie pulls her chair a little more out of the way, a leetle weirdly closer to Peter, and just rests her elbows on her knees. "So anyway like. Since the semester's almost over and stuff, were you planning on doing school over summer? I have to catch up since I came in late and it'll be nice if the school's not, like, totally empty." "Man I do /not/ have hemolymph -- you know it's blue? I mean, that's the color it turns when it oxygenates," Peter adds. "Trust me I've /seen/ my blood recently it is totally /not/ blue. Although," Peter adds, now suddenly /peering/ at the ceiling. "That /would/ be kind of cool, I mean -- I dunno how it would work but--" A flicker down at Kris as she mentions his chitin; again, it shivers between violet and metallic blue. "...ohyeah, uh, people keep telling me that, I mean. Not that I /mind/ being told, but--!" Peter blinks at Sophie. As if just /realizing/ something. "...ohGod. Oh/GOD/. All the homework I've--oh, MAN oh man," he says, /clutching/ his head now. "I totally bombed my math assignm--you think they'll--" He looks up to Sophie, a flutter of hope in his eyes. "--maybe... turn it in late?" Yes, he's serious. Hank blinks as he considers Kris' situation. "I- Well yes, I've been looking into a number of these permutations regarding mutation in general. Kris, I wonder if you wouldn't be better off consulting with me, rather than a regular endocrinologist. They may not know how to modify their methods to account for your mutated cells." Hank glances around the room and mentally reminds himself about patient confidentiality. "Why don't we set up a time to meet?" Whoosh - out comes Hank's digi-clipboard, aka his xPad. At the same time, he reaches out and squeezes Peter's foot through the bed sheet. "Don't worry, Peter, you'll be given a chance to make up your work, of course. /Extenuating circumstances./ And a note from me. That oughta do it." Kris nods emphatically at Peter,"That probably would be. Does that mean your blood would go all... hydraulic is the word? Hemolymph. Why does most blood taste like pennies even though it's iron-based for most humans and mammals?" Pause. "Peter. You're some kind of smart aren't you? Well, don't worry... Kidnapping gets you, like, a month minimum to do makeup." She eyebals Sophie, then, and pokes her tummy in vicious retaliation. "Okay, okay. More baking later?" Then Hank is being super-doctory and all. "I... Well... okay. I just consulted with this one that Mister Jackson suggested. I haven't made any commitments yet. I bet my parents would love to have it handled in-house." She chews her lower lip a while, and finally asks the man,"When is good for you? I... uh... I only have remedial tutoring classes so my schedule can take a pounding if it needs to. I didn't realize you were... that kind of doctor." "Ahhhh, crap, sorry I was-- trying to think of something that wouldn't-- I didn't mean to freak you out! I'm sure they're giving you a pass on it!" Cue simultaneous teen freakouts. But then Doc's pretty much confirming that, and she nods vigorously. "See?? Like. /Totally fine/. It isn't like you like, arranged to get /kidnapped/ so you wouldn't have to do your /homework/--" She pauses, frowns. "You didn't, right?" Stern look. /Might/ be a joke. She levels that frown on Peter for another moment or so before her expression softens again, into a somewhat more natural smile. "I really am glad you're back. Like I said, it was getting to be kind of a drag around here. Haunting the school isn't as rewarding without Peter Attenborough hunting me down, y'know?" Information gets around the school in weird ways. Some people are told directly that their roommate is being brought back from scary, terrible places. Some people go to class and hear gossip that things are happen. Some people, well, one person in particular, decided to stay /in/ class rather than waiting with nervous energy for certain events to happen, and then finished classes and took extra good notes for people who didn't go, and went back to hir room and then got ready for this INEVITABLE moment before finally showing up at the door way and STARING at the crowd gathered around one bed in particular. SOMEONE is picking up habits from hir SO. Rasa makes hir way slowly into the room, with a deliberate pace, almost like an individual approaching a ceremony of great import. Ze is wearing black swishy pants and a couple different tank tops with a hooded sweater over the top, zipped half way up. Hir skin is a gray silver, with swiirling bronze and darker black, names of people missing bubbling to the surface, but mostly question marks seem to appear. When ze first lays eyes on Peter, there's some searching, hir irises shifting shades from silver and bronze to black, nose crinkling up just a little as ze squints, just trying to make out that face in its brand new skin. Lips are pressed firmly shut, but when hir gaze falls upon Ivan's face, it shifts quickly back to Peter. Then, ze is standing there, staring. STARING. Gloved hands reach out and grip the railing at the foot of the bed. HELLO. Still nothing said. Peter looks -- extraordinarily /relieved/ when he is informed that he will /not/ be failing his math assignment on account of MUTANT-NAPPING. "Oh, okay," he tells Dr. McCoy, producing a heavy sigh. "I mean, jeez -- /jeez/ that would -- just, /buh/." A flicker to Kris at the mention of super-smart! His dark metallic carapace, again, shifts and slides between violet-and-blue. "O-oh, I'm not -- uh. I have no idea why blood tastes like -- I mean. I just know, some stuff, about /bugs/--" When Sophie brings up 'Peter Attenborough', Peter -- produces a crooked grin. And then: "/WELL/. Have no fear. I will -- once I'm up and about, I will whip this place up into shape and /reclaim/ my throne as Prank /King/--" Oh. A wild RASA approaches. Peter cuts himself off, rather suddenly; he watches Rasa's approach with -- maybe, a bit of a wide-eyed apprehension! Currently, Peter is clad in a white t-shirt with a funny logo and sweat-pants; he otherwise looks pretty healthy (though he is notably /not/ getting up from that bed). "Oh... oh, Rasa. Uh." Peter lifts his hand to wave at hir. It's the one with two metal brace-casts on his fingers. "Hi. I'm, uh. Not dead." Sheepishly. "Ah well," Hank begins, referring to Kris' doctor issues. "If he was recommended to you by Professor Holland, I'm sure he's reliable. Then again, he may not have the genetics background that I do, which I think may be the key to making a smooth tr-... which may be important in your case." Nice save, Hank. He notes Rasa's entrance with a friendly nod, and then says, "Email me to make an appointment, Kris. We should speak soon." He turns, "And Peter, half an hour or so, and then send your friends out. You need to /sleep/. I'll leave you all on your own in here if you promise to keep the volume down, ok?" Hank turns his gaze on everyone present in turn, the Am I understood clearly, look, and then chuckles to himself as he heads back into his office at the end of the medlab. Kris peers over at Sophie, then at Peter. COULD he have tried to avoid his homework- Naaah. "Sophie! How could you ask that?" Because she was totally thinking it. Seeing Rasa walk in, she clears her throat, and addresses hir,"Um... Hi. There's cupcakes and muffins. Peter isn't allowed to have more, but noone said you couldn't, so..." She smiles at Peter though,"Of course you're super-smart... You made those... shooty-things and you're clever and stuff. Remember the portable bee hive? Classic Peter." Nodnodnod. "Thanks Doctor, I really appreciate it... I'll see you for a... uh, checkup soon!" Sophie barely manages to mask an eyeroll at that 'Prank King' moniker. "Good, we need someone to like, hold off Bobby Drake. He's getting to be a menace." Though she says it good-naturedly. And then turns to greet the new arrival with a little, slightly awkward wave. "Hi, Rasa...?" The staring is. A little off-putting. And she swats Kris again. "I was /joking/." Way to blow her cover! When cupcakes are mentioned, though, she points to the table where Dr. McCoy had moved them. "Oh, yeah, cupcakes and. Muffins. The cupcakes are fruity like-- like the ones Megan brought to the meeting that one time." Rasa is quiet a little longer. Ze slips off hir gloves and stuffs them in the front pockets of hir shirt then regrasps the railing on the bed. The hands on the railing turn blue, a little fuzzy, and then they regroup and divide funny, leaving only two fingers and a thumb of a slightly larger size. Ze bends hir arms a little and then leaps up, landing on the railing with some borrowed grace. Now that all four limbs are in sight, it's plain to see that hir feet have shifted as well, and there is actually a long, blue tail curling out from under hir shirt. Ze eyes Peter for a moment longer before crawling onto the bed as well, hands and feet on either side of his body, moving closer to his head. "For fuck's sake, Peter. Fuck." There's ... JOY in hir voice, eyes squinting happily, lips finally pulling back in a grin. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, Fuck." Apparently, this is meant to express coherent thought, something along the lines of, 'Jolly good! You've returned! you've been missed! How are you? Can I get you anything?' but all that comes out is a long line of expletives and finally. "Can I hug you?" There is, for a moment, a /narrowing/ of eyes at Sophie, as Peter speaks -- perhaps in a voice that attempts to be far deeper than what Peter can genuinely manage -- harkening back, indeed, to Peter's brief encounter with the Latverian Monarch, Dr. Doom: "Tell me more of this... 'Bobby Drake'." But /then/. There is a Rasa. With blue -- limbs? And funny looking fingers. And a tail. And -- wait those are KURT appendages what -- WHY IS RASA. CRAWLING TOWARD HIM AGH. But, Peter doesn't seem /afraid/; at least, his /danger/ sense isn't tingling, so -- he's more just shocked and confused and /baffled/, kind of shrinking back into the bed as if he were about to /scuttle/ away from Rasa: "Wha--aaah, RASA what are you--RASA you're bl--yesokay. You can -- yes just be /careful/ I have stitches ALL OVER me under this shirt." Widening her eyes a bit, Sophie just sort of stares at Rasa. "--Jeez, Dr. McCoy got all mad at me for sayin' the s-word, he'd probably put you in hairball detention if he heard that." The sight of distinctly Nightcrawler appendages has the girl sort of backing her chair up in surprise, that wide-eyed look apparently not in a hurry to vanish. And for a second she's not sure if the metamorph is /angry/ or-- okay, no, that's more. Glee than anything. Still a little weird. "Heyy do you guys want like, some time alone or anything?" It's hard to tell whether she's joking or not. "I can like, email you, Peter. About stuff. Or visit later. If you two want to catch up." Eyebrow-waggle. Rasa looks down at Peter's torso, as if eyeing it will tell hir were the wounds are, then slooowly lowers hirself down, arms dropping to elbows, then leaning the shoulders closer to Peter's chest, not really hugging him, per se, but definitely initiating physical contact in a gentle way. Ze doesn't even rest all of hir shoulder/chest weight on him, just enough to let him know ze is there. Surprisingly, Ivan doesn't seem stirred by his 'person's antics. Ze even ruffles his hair when ze has a hand close to him. "Hi, Peter." CUDDLE. "Wh--n--Nonono," Peter tries to tell Sophie, hands -- /flinging/ up, but then stopping a moment later as he realizes that Rasa is directly over him. HANDS FREEZE. "It's not like -- she -- ze -- iswithIvanIthinkzejustmissed--" And now there is a RASA hugging/cuddling him, Peter's eyes wide as saucers. The shade of violet goes to /dark/ indigo. "Uhhi... Rasa what -- hello. Are you -- okay? SOPHIE UM." A frantic glance over at her. Like, he is suddenly worried that if she vanishes, Rasa will make this even /weirder/. Still, Peter reaches, with a very ginger hand! To plop his palm on the back of Rasa's shoulder. Not the other hand though, because BROKEN FINGERS. Looking at Peter a leetle bit awkwardly, Sophie just sort of. Rubs the back of her neck, with a sheepish smile. But to her credit she doesn't go running off, as threatened; if nothing else she knows what that look is. But she does! Stand up, and kind of. Look around like she's suddenly interested in the decor of the medlab. One finger is lifted, and she silently mouths the words, "Be right back," whilst strolling over towards the door to Hank's office to meet back up with Kris for a moment. Assuming that while she has left the immediate /area/, Peter is probably safe if she doesn't leave the /room/. :o Kris pokes her head out of Hank's office at this point, eyeballing Sophie,"There's private medical stuff goin' on in her-" Then she sees Rasa on Peter, and so she sort of asks, quietly,"Is zie seeing Peter? I thought zie was seeing Ivan... Or is zie seeing them both? Romance is hard to keep up. Did you know they where dating before you asked Peter to the dance?" A billion embarassing questions. At least she's keeping them relatively quiet. Relatively. Rasa feels the push and reverses the motion, lifting off and backing away slowly, perhaps a little bit of hurt puppy showing in hir face. "I..." Lips press into a firm line and all of hir skin goes dark. There's a quick glance toward Ivan, who remains unperturbed and then back to Sophie and finally at Kris as she starts speaking. Ze lets out a breath and moves back to hir precarious position on the railing of the bed, at the foot, hands gripping, posture hunched, tail twitching back and forth low and unhappy. "I am sorry. I got a little excited to see you. I probably shouldn't have done that, but... I ... um. I kind of went feral for a while. Not always good at remember what is over the top right now." And then ze lowers hir feet to the ground. "I am sorry." And here is Kai. The boy slips into the medlab quietly, clad in jeans and a red hoodie, with actual SHOES on his feet. He's walking slowly, carrying something carefully under his arm. It looks like a clear box of some kind, with wood shavings in it. Between the box and the shoes, Kai is reduced to a sort of toddling walk as he looks for a particular patient. When he finally finds it, however, he is unprepared for others to be there, and he hesitates a brief moment before he steps forward with a wide (the widest to date) smile on his face. "Peter!" (He's pretty loud, too.) "You are home!" The shade of indigo that Peter has turned has now spread /entirely/ down his chest, and is starting to creep out from the corners of his shirt's sleeves up along his arms; this is in response to Kris' return and the series of questions that follow -- particularly the bit about asking Peter to the dance WAIT WHAT. "I'm /not/ seeing--" And then Rasa, with hurt puppy and -- "Oh no it's--" Peter almost /flails/, trying to give Rasa's shoulder a reassuring /squeeze/ before ze retracts, back to perching on the railing. "It's okay it's just really--" Still indigo. And then, there is KAI, with a -- clear box? Wood-chips? Calling out? "KAI hi!" Peter desperately flails with his one good hand. "YES I am home HELLO Kai oh my /God/ I am never leaving again," Peter announces, /mopping/ his face with his hands (even the broken-fingered one). "Get mutant-napped for a month and everything goes totes BA-NAY-NAY." This is, guys. It's Peter's new thing. 'Totes Ba-Nay-Nay'. It's gonna be, like, his 'EAT MY SHORTS'. Or 'AY CARUMBA'. Sophie shakes her head hurriedly at Kris. "No, no, she's just uhh-- excited." There's a bit of an awkward smile there, but otherwise she just sort of. Shrugs. "I figured I'd give them a minute to, uh, reconnect." And then she's swatting Kris again. "I didn't /ask him/ to the /dance/! They aren't seeing each other, yeesh, gosh!" And then she proceeds to drag Kris back over to the general Peter area, flopping back down in her seat and-- Oh hey, it's Kai. "Hi, Kai!" Looking to Peter again. "But then people bring you cupcakes! ... Not that. I am suggesting you get kidnapped again. 'Cause that's terrible but. OH you haven't met Megan! She pretty much makes cupcakes, like, all the time. I think it's a compulsion." Kris just sort of stares at Peter when he says 'ba-nay-nay'. "Peter. I do not think this phrase means what you think it means." Her eyes swivel to Kai, and she announces,"Kai! Peter is home! And he's staying!" She eyeballs Sophie,"Well, if they're not seeing each other, then why DON'T you ask him to dance." She moves off to reclaim the box of cupcakes and muffins. Once she has them, she returns and opens the top,"Cupcakes, muffins anyone?" She smiles widely... and then winks at Peter. Apparently she's cool with disobeying and feeding him MORE SUGAR. "I'm not supposed to be making you feel bad, Peter," Rasa chides lightly. "I'm supposed to be expressing how much you were missed and with what affection you are greeted home. I'm certainly not supposed to make you feel creeped out and wanting to crawl out of your skin." Ze frowns and looks over at the other teens, exhaling and shaking hir head. Kai gets a fuzzy, bronze Kurt-hand wave from hir, in lieu of adding another welcome to the din of the room they are /supposed/ to be quiet in. "Please, do not feel bad for having a need for personal space." There's a pause and then, "We were all looking for you." Kai's excitement is evident by the way he hops up to Peter's bedside, flinging an arm across the other boy's chest as best he can, with the railing and the box under his arm. It only lasts a brief, warm moment. A drive-by hugging. "I am glad you are home," he says when he straightens back up. "Everyone has been very worried." He offers finger-waves to the others before his attention returns to Peter. He studies the other boy's skin and injuries carefully, tilting his head a bit. "You are cricket-colored all over, now." "Naw I'll -- yeah the cupcakes are cool," Peter tells Sophie, "but the fight-matches were -- actually kind of terrible," he says, wrinkling his nose. "Oh /man/ I bet -- the police have my webshooters, /crap/. Megan?" The sight of Kris with more cupcakes causes Peter to -- instinctively snap his hand out and curl his middle finger and ring finger down to his wrist, making a THWP gesture. He even makes the noise -- 'THWIP.' -- with his tongue. Nothing happens, though. This makes him sad. "...did I mention," he tells Kris, with BIG WIDE PUPPY EYES, "how they never let you have cupcakes in mutant fight camp?" Yes, he did. But he's mentioning it. /Again/. "Oh man Rasa it's fine," Peter says, waving his hand, "I just -- wasn't /expecting/ it is all, like. When we got out. The twins kind of just DRAGGED me off and hugged me, along with Anole -- oh man you're gonna love him he is -- hopefully he'll come -- oh /man/ you were? Um. Looking for me?" Violet-indigo. "...thanks," shift, PEER at his wrists. "A--careful!" Peter squeaks at Kai, but quickly returns the hug in turn, albeit a bit more gently. "I have, like -- /tons/ of stitches under this shirt basically I am /all/ clawed up it is like /Frankenstein/ under here they had to gimme /mad/ stitches. Yeah I'm -- kind of -- chitin-y," Peter admits, glancing down at the back of his hand. Shifting back to violet, now. Sophie sort of. Stares. At Kris. Eyes widening, expression increasingly just more and more incredulous. Face /probably/ turning red. "Can we have /one/ day without coming back to this conversation?!" is hissed, and she just keeps /staring/ for a minute before returning attention. To Peter. "Oh, right, yeah, you don't know her. Um. Megan actually showed up like.. the weekend you went missing." Another sort of blush, there, and her hands sort of start getting fidgety. "We actually sort of had a meeting to try to figure out how to find you, 'cause some of us were concerned about people not looking hard enough." She nods towards Rasa. "It was Rasa's idea. We were gonna like, go to the city in groups but then the teachers found out and they put the school on lockdown and /ugh/, it was all a total mess." She opens her mouth to say something else possibly teasing to Sophie, or may to push more baked goods on Kai and Rasa... Who knows. What IS obvious is that right in the middle of helping herself to a cupcake, she gets an eyeful of Peter making sad puppy eyes at her. Her face INSTANTLY flushes to its full flushiness, and after swallowing, she makes a high-pitched, wounded,"Aaaaawe" sound." She shoves the whole box of cupcakes in Peter's direction before his stare can weaken her further, and nods,"A few of us even went into town with Miss Walters to drive around looking for your web shooters. We didn't come up with anything... BUT we did find the most awesome bakery ever and we're totally gonna get you some now." "I think someone found your webshooter signal, at least that's what I thought from the app Kisha sent out to the school, but I was on grounds restriction, so I couldn't... do anything." Rasa maaay be frustrated by this, but ze is definitely holding it in a little. Ze exhales quietly and considers. "I wonder if that's lifted now that you've been found? Probably not." Ze leans in and whispers quietly. "I kind of got in a lot of trouble for going searching. A week's detention and restricted to grounds for an indefinite amount of time." That is how much Ze Cares. "Megan makes very good cupcakes," Kai says, nodding. "And she has pretty wings." He offers a small smile, falling quiet as others talk about rescue plans. Instead, he uses that time to study Peter carefully, tilting his head thoughtfully as his gaze takes in that violet color. "It is a very good color on you," he says suddenly, with a small lift of his eyebrows. Then he seems to remember the box under his arm. "Oh! Peter. I have a gift for you." Then he's glancing at Kris, and smiling a bit wider. "It is actually a gift from Kris, as well." He holds out the box, then. Inside is...a centipede. "It is a Giant African Centipede," Kai explains. "It came with a name, but I am bad at remembering it. It is for you." "Oh man," Peter says. "You had /meetings/, and -- oh man." From anyone else, that might sound sarcastic. From Peter? That sounds 100% sincere. Like this was just MORE EVIDENCE of how much everybody chipped in. No sooner does he say this, however, then does Kris /toss/ the cupcakes into his lap and then -- OM NOM NOM. ANOTHER cupcake just, vanishes. So fast it might be a magic trick. YOINK, swallow. "Mmmnfbakhary?" Peter mentions, a few crumbs dangling on his chin, blinking owlishly. OHWAIT you mean. There are /more/ of these? When Rasa leans in close to whisper to Peter, he perks a bit, and -- yep, still indigo. "Ohman Rasa you shouldn't -- like get yourself in /trouble/, jeez I mean -- they were /kidnapping/ mutants!" And then. There is -- a GIANT CENTIPEDE. Peter, rather than being freaked out, seems -- /interested/! He takes the case, remaining his darkened shade of indigo. "O-oh... oh, /thanks/! I've never had a--well, I've never had /any/ pet--" Peter peers a bit more closely at the centipede, still flushed. "...you don't have to feed it /mice/ do you?" A little reluctantly. Peter doesn't want to kill mice! "Oh, yeah, we should probably. Ask a teacher if we can leave campus now. But Rasa's right, they might not let us so soon." Sophie lets out an exaggerated /siigh/, leaning back in her seat again and. Moving it far enough away that she can twirl it a little. "We really just had. The one meeting, it uhh sort of only took the teachers like two days to figure us out. I think we had a mole." There's a shrug, there. "But yeah like Kris said, Ms. Walters at least took us to the city to look around, there was this cool bakery that's like. Tropical lookin'. It was neat." Nod. "But then yeah sometime when you're feeling better-- I guess maybe we won't be able to do it for a while, but--" she points to Kai. "Kai doesn't know what Slurpees are. We have to fix that. It's like, a moral imperative." Kris peers at the Rasa carefully as if... inspecting... something? Then she's waving at hand at Kai,"No, no. I gave it to you to give to him. So that's really more like your gift. That way you three can share something. I think THAT ONE-" She peers closely at the cage, and taps it,"-is Lady Santoyo. They eat, like, rotten vegetabls and fruits and stuff. If you like... he's safe to hold. I can show you how." Pause. She looks at Kai,"Does that mean Ivan has Baby Santeria?" Then OUTINGS are mentioned,"Oh, yes! And I am told by Sophie and several others I have to watch something called 'Star Wars' as well, so maybe we can do that." "I was following up important leads. I ruled out some very savory characters. I got ... in a lot of trouble. The grounds restriction I have is going to last longer than the rest of the school's ground restriction. OH." Rasa is a little uncomfortable with Kris's peering, but tries to speak over it, until a thought hits hir. "Ivan, here," ze gestures to the young man just sitting there, standing guard, "got restricted to grounds just for being your roommate. They thought he was going to run off like and bee the whole city looking for you, when actually, he was kind of the best of us and followed the rules." Kai nods gratefully as Kris identifies the millipede. "Yes! This is Lady Santoyo," he says, smiling at Peter. "I thought it was best if Ivan had the baby, since he is already good with bugs, and babies require extra attention." He leans forward to tap the plastic lightly. "She is very pleasant," he says. "She has not bitten me once, when I have held her." He blinks at the talk of leaving the grounds, and narrows his eyes a bit as Sophie reveals his ignorance of the magic of Slurpees. "Yes, I would like to try one," he says. "And I would like to go have a pizza, and try the bowling game. I think I may go, if a teacher is with me." When Ivan is mentioned, Kai looks at his friend with a small press of his lips. "Ivan was very worried," he says to Peter, and his brow knits. "He got lost in the bees." "Lady Santoyo. Rotten vegetables," Peter repeats. "Okay. So, I don't have to feed him -- err, her -- mice." Peter blink-blinks at Sophie; kind-of-a-grin quirks at the side of his mouth, as he glances to Kai, then back to her: "Doesn't know...? Okay. Maybe, next week, if I'm -- yeah. And Star Wars, maybe. And... mmf." Peter /frowns/ very hard at what Rasa mentions -- about Ivan getting grounded for being the SAFEST of the Danger Bros. He might be about to HUG Ivan watch out. "...a lot of trouble? I might want to, hear about that, um, later. /Plus/ Ivan getting lost in the bees," Peter adds, at Kai's comment, giving Ivan -- a quick glance. "I mean -- I think I'm gonna have to. Rest soon, but--" AND HERE IS THE THE POINT WHERE DR. MCCOY APPEARS AND SHOOS EVERYONE OUT. Shoo! Shoo! LEAVE PETER ALONE.