Logs:Monsterhearts

Monsterhearts
Dramatis Personae Naomi, Shane	2023-03-16 "Okay but if I want you to lie to me?"
Location <XAV> Back Patio - Xs Grounds
This patio is expertly laid out for relaxing singly or in groups. The section nearest the back door is a more or less conventional veranda, the mansion's eaves--supported by elegant white wooden columns joined with matching railings--extending out to shelter the long porch swings, rocking chairs, and a chess table from the elements. Down the stairs or the ramp from this is a fan-shaped expanse of slate flagstones populated by clusters of deck chairs and picnic tables, always changing in number and arrangement, and stone planter boxes bursting with seasonal flowers and ornamentals. The centerpiece is an elegant pavilion with a hot tub open for use year-round, even if the transition in and out may prove chilly in snowy weather. Xavier's back patio is assuredly not a parking lot, but then, the tiny chopper currently coming in for a landing is not exactly a normal vehicle, either. It looks like some strange cyberpunk interpretation of a motorcycle, sleek and shiny in blue and chrome, glowing metal circlets humming where its tires ought to be -- and the fact it is descending from the sky means that none of Xavier's well-tended garden or lawn was harmed in this illicit parking job. Atop the bike, one equally tiny rider, dressed in a sleek blue-gray gabardine jacket cut to accentuate the unusual angles of his unique physiology, a pale chambray button-down, dark gray trousers, and black engineer boots, his helmet decorated across its visor with a broad grinning-shark visage. The hoverbike's quiet hum cuts off as it glides to a precise stop beside the hot tub. Has Naomi seen this vehicle before? Perhaps, but certainly not in motion. Her eyes are wide, jaw dropped open, head tilted up as it descends from the sky, history homework abandoned on the patio swing in her rush to sit up on the veranda railing for a better view. Sometime after the vehicle has actually stopped does Naomi seem to notice she is staring — a dark flush forms under her scales, today a bit duller in appearance than usual. She leans back, sticking one hand in the big pocket of her blue-gold Xavier’s hoodie, swings her jean-clad legs as casually as she can to dismount into the grass below. Tries really hard to look casual as she approaches Shane, failing to achieve nonchalance with her greeting of, “That’s so cool how does it fly?” Shane is just pulling off his helmet -- beneath, his own wide sharp-toothed grin might as well be a mirror of his helmet's. "Shit, magic, as far as I know. My sister built it, she's a fucking genius. I think it's got some of the same kind of repulsor shit that Iron Man suit uses." He doesn't sound particularly confident, but not particularly embarrassed by his lack of knowledge either when he adds, amused: "Mostly my contribution to developing it was falling off a lot. Safety testing for these things was probably real close to a Darwin Award." He hooks the helmet onto the bike's handlebars and hefts a duffel bag out of one of the panniers. "You want a ride sometime, I'll take you up. Not really sized to, uh --" His wide black eyes are peering up at the teenager, "...most people but that matters less once your feet don't have ground to drag on." “Woah,” Naomi says, leaning down to inspect the wheel wells with no apparent concern for the possibility of Wild Repulsor Blasts. “I would love a ride I always wanted to fly like Ms Munroe does though —“ she straightens up, her green eyes still wide when she looks at (down at) Shane again. “— how many times did you fall off I don’t have, uh, full armour?” She’s looking with a small frown from All Of Shane to a patch of dry, flaking skin on her arm, her other hand rubbing at her scaled temple self-consciously. “I’on wanna throw off your balance.” "Uh more times than made our Pa happy," Shane says with a small cringe. "But it's totally safe now. The bike itself, I mean. Guess any vehicle's only as safe as it's driver --" His smile stretches just a little wider. "-- but I'm real damn good." He glances to Naomi's forehead, the gills at the sides of his neck fluttering briefly. "Do you shed?" This question doesn't come with any of the disgust or fascination that might accompany this question in many other people. "It help to have like -- a mister? Some bomb moisturizer?" He's unzipping a side compartment of his duffel bag, plucking out a little silver spray bottle that he waggles questioningly in the air. "I'd look like some kind of undead monster by lunch each day without this on me." "No I don't --" Naomi's reaction stops as suddenly as it starts, blinking at the little spray bottle. "Sorry," she begins agains, the venom that was just in her tone now gone and replaced with faint shy embarrassment, "I -- yeah. Not like, everyday or nothing, I try to keep'em shiny but every now'n'then they just gotta." A helpless shrug. "Go. All at once. I ain't tried misting 'em." She's looking at Shane's skin now, back to the bottle. "Do you shed if you don't --" Naomi mimes a spray bottle in her hand, index finger twitching down to spritz. "Probably not the same way you do," Shane says with a pensive wrinkle of his hairless ridged brow. "I mean, my scales don't like -- have a seasonal refresh. But like, being out of water for long is not great for us, I just start cracking up like goddamn Death Valley or some shit, it's not great." He offers the bottle out, brow lifting. "I can make you more if it helps. It's like... rosewater, aloe, some algae, real hippie shit but it's helped." Naomi takes the bottle, treating it far more delicately than it probably needs. Spritzes her forehead twice, the dry patch on her arm once, then tentatively tries to rub it into both places. The dullness doesn't completely disappear on her scales, the solution seeming to form anew moist layer on top of them more than settle underneath, but Naomi seems pleased with the sensation anyway, there and then on her arm. "I had -- have? -- real bad dry skin 'fore all this came in, I'onno if that kind of skin cracking is more like yours but that sounds like it hurt just as bad. Thanks," she adds, passing back the bottle. "Not a lot of folks 'round here I can really ask 'bout skincare, so. Is that why you park here?" She's eyeing the hot tub now. "Like. jus' in case you dry out?" "Oh that's just 'cuz I'm lazy and this is close to the kitchen," Shane replies cheerfully, tucking the bottle back into his bag. "Hot tub chemicals aren't much fun either. B and I used to just sleep in the lake when we went here. There really needs to be like a -- monster welcome packet, all the health and fashion and culture advice that the Fab Five are never going to teach." He glances down to his bike, then over toward the patio and the abandoned swing. "Anyway sorry I didn't mean to blow up your homework spot. You ready for break?" Naomi's eyes are wide as she nods. "Maaan that would've been so good, my brother been like this forever but these was new new when I came up here I been trying so hard to figure out everything." She shuffles back, glances up to where her open textbook is flipping pages in the breeze. "Oh it's fine I ain't been focusing anyway. I guess kind of? I only got a couple things happening in it though, so mostly imma just. Study in the hot tub I guess?" "That's gotta be its own kind of rough. We were born like this but getting used to a whole new -- everything..." Shane shakes his head with a small huff. "Even more reason for our own. Fucking. -- shit, I guess magazines are kind of dying. How To Be A Monster Podcast?" This does not sound like a particularly serious suggestion. "Way worse places to study, that's for sure. Hopefully there are at least some cool people staying through break? You all want a break from here, Evolve is always --" This time the slant of his grin is a little wry. "Y'know, like, one of the only options in town. Kind of a sad selling point but it's what I got. We are starting up a monthly youth night at the club if that's anyone's speed." Naomi's smile is scrunched with amusement. "Tiktok," she says, veeeery seriously, "is where it's at. Podcasts are for millennials." Her eyes light up at the mention of Evolve. "I been by, I really like that one fancy hot chocolate, but I ain't ever been upstairs." She's considering this a little longer, chewing at the inside of her cheek. "What kind of youth night, like, ice breakers, or dancing, place you could bring a date kind of thing?" "Am I a millennial?" Shane's big black eyes get improbably wider. "Shit, I don't even fucking know." He leans against his bike, claws idly drumming on the handlebar. "Kind of the same vibe the nightclub already is, but without the booze. Could definitely bring a date, if -- well. Do they like dancing?" "Ain't you?" Naomi sounds unsure now. More uncertainly, "Ionno, I think so, we never made it to the last dance here. I like dancing, but..." This trails off, Naomi's eyes dropping down to her shoes. "I dunno if you keep up with what us kids can do there's lot more of us than there are X-Mens. But, uh, what I want and what other folks want can be a little --" Her hands flutter in front of her. "Ionno. Confusing tricky complicated. If I'm not paying attention." "I might be a millennial, I definitely can't keep up with -- wait, you mean your --" There's a lazy waggle of webbed fingers in Naomi's direction, "not like, TikTok dances." Shane shakes his head. "I don't try to find out 'less people want to tell me." He's looking at Naomi steadily as she looks down to her shoes. "Have seen a lot of complicated-tricky-confusing, though. Is it the kind you can work out by like -- making sure you and your date are on the same page about shit? Or more tricky than that?" Naomi's eyes are tacking over to the hoverbike, still very much trained in the downward direction. "...more tricky. More like, uh, making sure I ain't dragging folks onto a page they ain't wanting to be on?" The ridges of scales between her brows heighten. "Cuz if I did, they wouldn't be able to tell me, they wanted a different page, in the book." "Oh -- ohh." Shane's gills are opening again, a much slower flutter, this time. There's a brief odd flick across his eyes, clear eyelids sliding sideways shut and then open again. "But if you are paying attention, you can control it? Do they know?" Naomi's arms curl around herself. She nods at the last question. "Mm. When I'm scared or something though its real easy to just -- do without thinking about? But normally I just look a freak without doing the Thing." Glances up in time to catch Shane's blinking, with a widening of eyes that isn't quite surprise. "Like ain't nothing happening right now, promise, Spence could tell you I got a -- tell. People know after, usually." "Huh?" Shane looks briefly confused at Naomi's reassurance -- and then apologetic. "Oh shit -- no, I -- didn't think you were, I just --" His head shakes, together with a small hitch of his shoulder. "The first guy I ever loved could really fuck with your head." He winces as soon as he says this, correcting again: "-- Fuck, that makes it sound like I'm having some trauma-flashback, it wasn't like that at all. He was great -- is great, we're still close. It was a lot to navigate. That's for sure. Couldn't always tell with him what I wanted and what his powers -- y'know. Tricky. Complicated." Another slow flutter of gills, another quick-flash blink. "In a lot of ways more for him than me, even. I knew what I was getting into. I trust him with my damn life. I think getting comfortable enough for him to trust himself was -- harder. Your person, they know and they still want to date you, right?" Naomi leans lightly against the hoverbike -- should she be doing that, it's unclear, but it's more of an anxious lean of support than casual -- as Shane talks. She's looking up now, though, not quite making eye contact but generally focused in the direction of Shane's face, eyes widening as he continues. "Oh-oh, so you been -- you been on the other --" Wherever this sentence had been headed, Naomi doesn't get to. "Um. They know, and they trust -- say they trust me, and they seem like they wanna, but I'm still --" Her hands squeeze at her arms. "I got all up in my own head 'bout it." Shane nods, slow. "Yeah. I mean -- that's -- understandable, it's a lot to work out." The hoverbike is, at least, remarkably stable for its small size. It does not seem to be in danger of accidentally repulsing Naomi. "I'd just be fucking lying if I told you there was some easy way to navigate this shit and we worked it all out and things were magical." Though here his smile returns -- not broad and toothy like before but smaller, kind of wistful. "... it was sort of magical but ultimately I was the one who fucked that up, not his powers. But -- it was up and down, you know? There were times we screwed up and shit got messy. But honestly, I don't know a relationship on earth that hasn't had friction to overcome or -- times people hurt each other and had to work through that. It was always a thing, but it wasn't the only thing or even the biggest thing. Meant there were places we had to be real careful, and places we had to talk to each other a lot more than we might have otherwise." He shrugs, turning his webbed hand upward. "And some things that were actually pretty straightforward. Like one night of dancing." "Okay but if I want you to lie to me?" Naomi's not quite smiling, but some comfort has returned to her face enough that this, probably, is a joke. She's taking in the rest of this slowly, nodding, finally coming to some sort of conclusion with "... dang why all y'all Hollands good at advicing? Is it the cookies I think it's the cookies." Now the smile does fully return, along with her ability to support herself on her own two feet. "When did you say youth night was gonna be? I think I'm thinking too much about one thing. Two things. Maybe I should think more about going dancing." "Well, my Pa did raise me, so I got the benefit of getting a lot of good --" Shane only hesitates a beat here before finishing, "-- cookies. Maybe it rubs off." He's straightening, too, picking up his duffel bag now to sling it over one shoulder. "Dancing is great, you should. Gonna do the fourth Friday each month. Think that's next week. If you make it out, lemme know how it goes, yeah? With them and with the dancing -- I'm ancient now so I could use some feedback from The Youth."