Dori and Vic, Thursday afternoon

[x-victor.livejournal.com]

Dori shows up to give Vic part two of the Xavier's tour, and a challenge is laid.



It was mid afternoon and Doreen figured by now Vic and Johnny would be awake and she could bother them and kidnap Vic. Their suite was on the guy side of things and she knocked on the door. Giggling at the sign.

"Vic? Are you up? I'm giving you another tour and you're totally late!"

The door opened to reveal a very bemused (and awake) Victor, book in hand. "Late?" he asked stuffily, raising an eyebrow.

"Late," Doreen said with a nod, Monkey Joe sitting on her shoulder, "I mean, it was supposed to start twenty minutes ago, but you know how these things are."

He scratched the back of his head, pretending to look confused. "I dunno how you do things round these here parts," he said, affecting a nasal twang--which was not at all difficult with his cold--"but round abouts where I come from, we tend to warn folks about impending tours."

"Just come on," she said, with a laugh, reaching out to grab his arm, "There's still lots of stuff to see!"

He laughed and let himself be pulled along behind her. "So. Is this the sooper-sekrit part of the tour, where you show me where all the awesome things are hidden?"

"Oh my gosh no! There's some really dangerous stuff around here and if we got caught I'm sure Mr. Logan would hurt us!" Doreen said, her eyes wide, "If he wasn't here," it was hard to tell or not, everything smelled like him, "I totally would try though."

"Dangerous stuff?" Vic frowned. "Like what, they have a garbage squid or something? And who's Mr. Logan?"

"Yeah! There's a lot of cool stuff here and no they don't have a garbage squid, but wouldn't that be awesome? But then they'd have to have the trash compactor too, which they totally should. But I bet they could set that up in the Danger Room, from what I've heard. Isn't that an awesome name for a room?" Doreen said, going on a mile a minute, "And Mr. Logan seems okay, but he's like really, really scary."

Vic blinked at the ongoing chatter. "Oookay...Is he one of the teachers? And what's the Danger Room? Is that where we're going?" They were in a part of the mansion that he hadn't seen yet, although as big as this place was, that wasn't hard.

"No, you can't get in there without a teacher," Doreen said, "Oh yeah, that reminds me! Mr. Beaubier told me I should ask Mr. Summers about programming skiing! I should do that. I really like to ski. Have you ever been skiing?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Illinois is really flat, at least the part I'm from. We went on a youth group trip to Galena once, but that was about it. Their big hill is probably a bunny hill at a real skiing place. Where did you go skiing?"

"My family went to the Alps one year, but mostly just to Colorado and places like that," Doreen said brightly. Then she sobered up, "I haven't really been in the last two years though."

"We should get Mr. Beaubier to take us sometime," Vic suggested, not sure what was behind the change in Dori's tone. "I'd like to try snowboarding."

"Yeah we should!" Doreen said perking up, "I didn't know he was in the Olympics until your Dad brought it up. That's so awesome. Well, the fact that he was in them, not the fact he lost the medals." She said, on reflection and stopped, "This is the most important room ever. It's the kitchen."

Vic grinned. "I left a trail of breadcrumbs here the first day. But I haven't seen much past it, and I'm still trying to learn where everything is."

"I can smell the food here, so I never forget where it is. I'll always fill you in on when someone is baking a cake if you want. Most of the time now they know to make extra for me," despite her size, Doreen and Monkey Joe could literally pack the food away.

"Maybe just save me a small slice? I have to watch my girlish figure, you know." He patted his abdomen. There was some truth to that; his sticky pads could only hold so much weight.

"Don't worry, that's generally all that's left," Doreen said simply.

"Yeah, it sounds like trying not to get fat is the exception to the rule, from what I've heard." He shrugged. "I suppose I'll never have to worry about temptation. So. What's next on the tour?"

"You know... I haven't thought about it. What did you see? I mean, I know where the Danger Room IS but I can't get in there without an adult," Doreen said, pausing.

Vic considered. "I've seen the kitchen, and I know there's a tv room around here somewhere. Someone mentioned something about a library, but I haven't found that yet."

"Oh! I know where that is, follow me!" Doreen said happily walking in another direction, Monkey Joe chittering on her shoulder, "There's a lot of books."

That got a grin out of the green boy. "I would kind of hope so. Otherwise it would be a pretty sad excuse for a library," he teased, not unkindly.

"You like libraries? I like comic shops and places like that, but big books can be okay in small doses, I guess," Doreen said as they walked.

"Libraries are awesome," he said with no small affection. "I bet you just haven't found the right book. Or maybe you'd like short stories better?"

"I guess. Do you read comics?" Doreen asked, turning around and walking backwards.

Vic shrugged. "Not really. But I'm willing to learn. You should show me the comic book ropes."

Doreen blushed a bit. "Really? Yeah, I could do that. I like Batman. Superman is okay. Do you know who the Teen Titans are? You're green, like Changeling, who used to be Beast Boy."

"Nope. I know Batman and Superman, and that's about it." He smiled. "But I'm all for green superheroes. Is Changeling cool?"

"Yeah! He's very, very cool. He's one of the cooler Titans. Though Robin is also neat, and so is Impulse I really like superheroes. So, you know, there's superheroes here! Julian - he's a friend of mine from back home - told me about it and it's really neat and I am so going to be one when I'm old enough," Doreen said, still a bit of a shade of red in the cheeks. Monkey Joe was giving her an odd look from his place on her shoulder.

"Yeah? Is that one of the electives here, How to Be a Superhero 101?" Vic teased good naturedly. "Because that might be pretty cool. I'm guessing you can't take that at most schools."

"Yeah, it pretty much is! I think it's neat. They go out and help people who need it and things. They even have a jet! I'm going to join as soon as I can! And no, I couldn't take it at my old school because there wasn't a class like that and they never ever let me do anything in gym anyway," Doreen said.

That earned her a sympathetic smile. "I know the feeling," he said, waggling his sticky fingers at her. "It's amazing how your abilities make you such a freak, but then someone totally loses their mind at the notion that you might have an advantage in gym class and makes you sit in the bleachers. It's like, the one advantage your mutation gives you and they won't even let you have that." He stopped himself, then sighed. "Sorry. I get kind of frustrated some times."

"No, no, I get it completely. I was always on the bench at gym because they didn't like that I could do a lot of things better. I mean, I can jump really far and high and stuff and no one liked it. Of course, I also lived out in Beverly Hills and after I looked like this no one, other than Julian, really even talked to me anymore so it was even worse because I couldn't have fun in gym, you know. I like basketball, do you like basketball? We could play sometimes," Doreen offered.

Vic grinned. "Basketball's great, yeah. We could play right now, if you wanted? Unless you think we're in danger of being run over by the airplane."

"Yeah! Sure! Did you want to see the library first?! I would love to play basketball, I worry that I can beat a lot of people too easily because you know, of how I can jump and I beat Julian a lot which is really funny because he was on the team back home until they kicked him off for being a mutant," she said, "which won't happen here even though there really aren't any sports teams, which is kind of sad."

"Let's go to the library first," Vic said, laughing. Dori was kind of adorable, even if she was kind of a spaz. "And you'll have to bring your A-game with me, missy. I'm not gonna let you off easy just 'coz you have a tail."

"Okay, we're almost there, in fact, we're here right now, the library!" Doreen said proudly, "And my tail means I rule. So hard."

Vic let his eyes wander the library appreciatively. "Not bad, not bad." He gave the girl a playful nudge. "You're on like Donkey Kong, Dori. I've got moves you've never even seen before." Probably because she'd never seen anyone with several feet's worth of tongue play basketball, but hey.

"Ditto," Doreen said, "I can slam a ball from the other side of the court. It'll be so much fun."

"Oh yeah?" Vic cocked one eyebrow. "This I gotta see."

Doreen giggled and blushed again. "I will totally show you. And I will totally kick your butt."