Log: Matt and Topaz go to NYC

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Matt drags a slightly reluctant Topaz to NYC with him over Spring Break with the promise of 18 miles of BOOKS.



Tugging his jacket on and slipping his cane in his back pocket, Matt headed downstairs to see what was going on. He was going to New York City and he wanted company if anyone was interested. If not, he was still going, he felt the need to head home and soak in the hustle-bustle of life in Manhattan. Coming across Topaz first, Matt smiled. "Topaz! Beautiful, lovely Topaz! Do you have plans?" it was spring break, there shouldn't be any serious plans.

No surprise to anyone, Topaz was on her way to the library when she heard Matt calling her name. She turned to him, biting down one sarcastic comment in favor of another. "Yeah, my calendar's just full of things to do." But a small smile tugged at her lips all the same. "Where're you off to?"

"New York, come with?" he offered her the most beguiling smile he had. He might've looked a little manic. Whatever. It was spring break! "There are book stores there. We can go. I know a REALLY HUGE ONE!" It had 18 miles of books. He knew Topaz would like that. Hell, he would too!

She opened her mouth to say no - she'd been avoiding leaving the mansion grounds for anything less than a mandatory requirement since the Slendermen (and she'd be the first to admit that). But Matt was clearly very happy about the idea, and going with him was probably better than sitting around wishing it wasn't spring break. Still, it was a surprise for Topaz to actually hear herself say, "All right. Lemme go grab a jacket." And she turned to run back upstairs.

That was surprisingly easy. Huh. Matt hadn't expected that. "And money!" Matt called after her. He had cash, but not enough for them both! He would carry her books though, to be a gentleman. He was pretty sure Hope would like that, even if she wasn't coming.

"And money," She agreed before disappearing up the stairs. The suite was empty when she walked in, and she hurried straight to her room, dropping her bag and on the bed and pulling her jacket on, grabbing the money she kept in the back of her desk and shoving into her pocket. Was she actually doing this? Apparently. She headed back downstairs where Matt was still waiting. "Ready."

"Woot," he unfolded his cane, adjusting it so he was holding it properly and not like he was about to get in a fight. "I gotta remember to be blind," Matt grinned unashamedly, "Let's just let someone know we're running away to get married and we're good," which took no time once they were downstairs. "Oh. Can you drive?" He had intended to take the train in.

"Do you forget sometimes?" Topaz asked, raising an eyebrow. She snorted just a bit at the comment about running off to get married. Still wouldn't be the most scandalous thing she'd done here. "Drive? No, sorry." Though that might've been something to start looking into. Maybe.

"No problem. Me either. I drove once in an empty field. No thanks. I'll leave that to the slightly more sighted," with practice and the right circumstances, maybe he could in a limited fashion, but he was perfectly fine doing it the one time and never doing it again. "And yes. Since I don't need my cane and my powers work in place of seeing pretty well, I sometimes forget," but he couldn't do that in public. "Never thought that would be a problem, right?"

"You drove?" Personally, Topaz wasn't sure she trusted herself behind the wheel of a car. Something about it made her nervous. "What was that like?" She shoved her hands into her pockets as they walked, watching the tip of Matt's cane arc in front of him, . "Hmn. Someone whose life was improved by being a mutant. That has to be a first."

"Once. I begged," Matt explained. He'd been 16 and wanting to drive was a major priority, "It was in a driver's ed car in an empty field where there was pretty much no chance for me to hit anything, ever. And I didn't go that fast. But it was kinda terrifying having that much power," kinda like being a mutant for some people. Matt had a lot of power in his own way, but it wasn't destructive at all, "I guess? I mean, I got a home, school, out of jail, off drugs," twice, "and stopped getting chronic migraines. All from coming to Xavier's. So...yeah. And am a lot less blind than I was. Still blind in a lot of ways, but not so most people would notice. So yeah, improved."

"That's...pretty cool, though," Topaz said, her hands in her jacket pockets. The Ashdowns had very much been public transit people for everything that wasn't within walking distance - Topaz had been in a car all of four times in her entire life. It seemed like a nerve-wracking experience to actually drive. "God bless Xavier's." There was a dry tone in her voice, though it wasn't completely sarcastic. Clearly it had done a lot of good for Matt.

"Well, I won't claim it's perfect," Matt caught her tone. Genosha, Slendermen, etc, "But it beats jail and drugs and all that. And it's rarely dull for long."

"Oh, no, I didn't mean - never mind." She wound her fingers through her hair, tugging lightly. She knew Xavier's was the last place most people had to go (herself included). "I wasn't trying to put it down," she finally said.

It really was a last chance place for most people, that was just reality. "It's okay," he assured her as they got on the bus for the train station, "It's pretty different from England," he offered.

Oh if only he knew. "Yeah I was never kidnapped by other-worldly beings when I was there." Just dragged into a magical vendetta and almost killed. "It's different, yeah. That's not completely bad, though." After all, she'd never had friends in England.

"Well, there's the bad with the good," Matt wasn't going to claim Xavier's was perfect. "So what're you reading now? Exhausted the library yet?"

"Think I'm gettin' close." This Topaz could talk about without too many reservations. "Just finished As I Lay Dying, one of Faulkner's books." It'd been morbidly fascinating. And a sort of fantastic look into the human psyche. "What about you?"

"I need some new stuff," Matt admitted, "I just finished Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six," it was good, but he didn't get why Tom Clancy was so popular, "There's a video game based off it," not that he could play it or Topaz cared. "I don't think I've read that one by Faulkner. Didn't he write Of Mice and Men?"

"There's a video game based off a book? They really will do anything for money, won't they?" She shook her head. "It was pretty good - kind of morbid, but with a title like that it's kind of to be expected. And...I don't think he wrote Of Mice and Men. Can't think of the author right now, though..."

"I'm not sure which came first," Matt admitted, "It sounds morbid. Was it good?" Morbid wasn't always bad after all.

"Well...I enjoyed it." Which wasn't saying much, really, when all was said and done. "One of the characters went completely mad and tried to burn down a barn, and his family had him committed."

"Always fun," Matt commented, getting up at their stop. He knew just how to get to New York like this. "I guess is harder to go mad these days. Or at least, you have to do more than that to get committed."

Topaz got up with him, following his lead and at his mercy. "Can't be that hard, run around enough saying you hear voices in your head and that'll probably get you somewhere. 'Course, makes you wonder how many telepaths have been accidentally locked up." Speaking of morbid.

Very morbid and also very true, "We have the best conversations," Matt noted as they purchased train tickets from the machine. Matt had plugged earbuds into a slot that gave instructions for him. "And probably a lot. I bet Dr. Grey would know."

"I don't think I want to ask," Topaz admitted, pulling her ticket off the machine. "The answer would probably just be depressing. Glad you enjoy our conversations though." They were never boring, that's for sure.

It was apparently morbid books or him trying to get her to do stuff in the gym, so...definitely not boring. "Let's go before we miss the next train," Matt took her arm and led her through the station, exciting onto the platform as the train pulled up.

"Comin', I'm comin'," Topaz said as Matt pulled her along. He certainly was enthusiastic about this. She would've felt bad if they missed the train because of her.

There would have been another train, that was the nature of these things. Settling into the seats, Matt folded his cane up, "So anyways. We should work on gymnastics again soon. I bet you can do a layover on the mat with a little practice," he was thrilled to teach her things, though the trampoline remained her best area.

"A layover?" She repeated, tilting her head. "Sure, I guess. What is that, exactly?"

"It's a sort of flip, kinda. You can do it fast or slow, which you're better at slow, so I think once you get the hang of it, you'll do fine. You're flipping pretty well on the trampoline, so it's time to move off that and onto the mat," girls and guys did different things for gymnastics, but he could still teach her this much. Guys had floor routines too, even if they weren't as popular as girls.

"I...really don't know about that." Flipping on the trampoline was one thing, at least that helped her bounce so she could get up higher. But flipping on the mat?

"You can do it. You didn't think you could flip at all when we started. Now you can do two kinds of flips," it was progress.

"Maybe." It still made her nervous. "If I break something I'm holding you responsible."

That was fair. "Dr. Grey will put you back together, Humpty," Matt assured her, amused.

Now Topaz just blinked, absolutely bewildered. "...Huh?"

"'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,'" Matt quoted. Everyone knew Humpty Dumpty.

She still wasn't quite following. "And...who's Humpty Dumpty?" This might have been part of the reason she avoided people. Not a large part, but still.

Oh, whoops. Guess not everyone knew Humpty Dumpty. "It's a nursery rhyme," Matt explained, "'Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.' Usually, Humpty is a giant egg."

Ah. Yeah, she didn't know many nursery rhymes. And even fewer in English. "Why is Humpty Dumpty an egg?"

Good question, "No idea," Matt replied cheerfully. "But I know a great book for you to read. It's this weird....mystery? Sorta. Anyways, it's funny. And very British," which he hoped would be a good thing.

"Very British? All right." She wondered what something had to do to be classified as "very British." But she was interested now. "What's the book?"

Anything British tended to count, but when the humour was distinctly British, it was 'very British.' At least according to Matt, "Uh....The Big Over Easy," he replied, "It's a Nursery Crime book."

"Huh." Topaz pressed her lips together. "Haven't heard of that one. What's it about?"

"It's this mystery novel, the detective has to find out who dunnit, but the characters are all from nursery rhymes and are constained to those personalities and actions, including the detective. So it's really cool how it all weaves together. There are a few other Nursery Crime books, but I haven't read them yet."

"That...actually sounds really interesting." And it did, too. Different, and possibly a little more whimsical than she was used to, but...there was nothing wrong with that sometimes. "Does the mansion library have it?"

"No idea," Matt replied cheerfully, "I got it through the Braille library," the school library had Braille books, but it was a limited selection focusing mainly on school related things. Matt got most of his fun reading through the national Braille library.

"I'll have to look," Topaz murmured, more to herself. "Sorry, I probably should have realized that," she added, rubbing the back of her neck.

Matt stood as the train pulled in to the station in New York. "It's fine," he replied, "I mentioned 'playing blind' earlier," he unfolded his cane purposefully, "That's what I meant. You forget."

"Yeah." Topaz stood to follow him, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets as they walked. "Are you from the city?" She asked after a moment, realizing she really had no idea.

Huh? "Hell's Kitchen," Matt replied proudly. The same neighborhood as Layla actually. They'd known each other in passing as kids. He wasn't sure of Topaz knew that though, "Manhattan's my old stomping ground. Never left the city until Xavier's," now he'd been all over the world. Sorta. He'd been to Genosha. And the beach and a few other places.

"Really?" She couldn't imagine growing up in New York. Not that she knew much about the city, but what she had seen had been a bit...overwhelming, to be entirely honest. "That must have been...interesting."

"About as interesting as London, I'd guess," Matt replied, heading up the stairs to the street and adjusting his grip on his cane. Now he whacked people with it without worry or abandon as needed to get them to move. Shins were amazing. "After growing up here, I can handle any city."

"I never spent much time in the actual city," Topaz admitted, a small smirk pulling at her lips as she watched Matt whack people. "We lived a bit out of the way. "School, that's about it."

Whack-a-mole was never as much fun as this. "Really? That sucks. There's so much to do," not that he'd done it, but there was a lot to do for options, "Well, other than the bookstore what do you want to do?"

"I didn't really get out much there." Or here, for that matter, but that was another story entirely. "I dunno. What do you recommend?"

"Bookstore. And dinner. Chinese or Italian? Or pizza?" he was kinda feeling Chinese, but that was up to Topaz. "I'm pretty sure we can keep ourselves out of trouble at the bookstore well enough," hopefully, they had braille books and not just audio ones.

"I feel bookstores are one of the few places you really can't get into trouble," Topaz agreed. "You choose the food." She didn't really have a preference. Anything would be good.

Matt could think of a few ways to get in trouble at a book store, but you had to really try and be intentional. "Alright, well it's a few blocks away so we'll go and see what we see and then eat when we get hungry. Chinatown isn't too far away and I'm kinda feeling good Chinese."

"Sounds good," Topaz agreed, shoving her hands into her pockets, her eyes casting a weary scan around them. It wasn't really that she thought there was going to be a disaster every time she went into the city. She was just...careful.