xp_logs | Matt and Topaz (Backdated)

Matt goes to see Topaz in the box - and more importantly, feed her. Backdated to August 5th.

Coming armed with a book, his ipod and spaghetti dinner, Matt carefully entered the box where Topaz was destressing and hopefully relaxing. The box wasn't the most relaxing place, "Hey, we've gotta stop meeting in here," he said, greeting her and setting the things down carefully. All but the food he carried in his backpack. "Heard you had some excitement," or terror. They were often the same. The weirdness from the other day was apparently not some sort of terrorist plot though and was actually a demon plot. Not a lot of difference in Matt's mind.

That depended on one's definition of relaxing. Someone had brought her laptop down for her, so she'd been online for a while, reading about the spin those government guys had put on everything that had happened. But there was only so much she could read about the events she'd witnessed, so eventually she'd given up in favor of trying to read. But concentration wouldn't allow for that, strangely enough. When Matt walked in there were little lights bobbing along the ceiling. Topaz looked around as he entered, waving a hand to extinguish them. "Hey. Yeah, guess you could call it excitement. You weren't in the city when it happened, were you?" She knew a few Xavier's people were, though as far as she could tell no one was worse for wear. That was hard to judge from her current place, however.

"I was here," Matt replied, "which was a stroke of good luck it seems," a rare occurrence sometimes. "How're you doing in here?" obviously she was bored and wanted some entertainment, which was perfectly fine with him. His brain was psychic static, which worked out well for Topaz most of the time. White noise was easy to tune out. "I brought stuff. Hungry?"

"Yeah, it was kind of a mess." An errant thought wondered how the Shades would have pinged on Matt's radar. Topaz shook it off, shrugging. "Bored, mostly. But after what happened last time no one wants to let me out in the mansion until my shields are actually fixed so I'm stuck here until Haller gives me the all clear. Oh well. You mentioned food." She got meals of course, but she hated asking the doctors for anything extra. Bad enough she was down there at all without making a nuisance of herself.

"Yeah, well....you wanna go into normal-world without shields?" was she crazy and stupid? That wasn't Topaz. "Here," he pulled the plastic cover off the plate, "I made it. Eat and don't be stupid," there was also garlic bread, all still warm. "When your shields are back we'll go do something our speed. Like a petting zoo."

"It's not so much that I want to go out without shields," she said thoughtfully as she took the plate and sat down on the edge of the bed. "More just I can't stand bein' stuck here. Believe me, I don't have some secret desire to completely burn out my mind." Been there, done that. Hadn't enjoyed it. She picked up the bread, taking a bite. "A petting zoo? I feel like no matter how safe that sounds we could somehow find a disaster there." Trouble seemed to follow everyone around here.

"Ah, but there is one important difference," Matt held up a finger importantly, though the picture was marred slightly by his fork in hand, "I am an X-Man. I am not a New Mutant. Therefore, no trouble. All will be fine," famous last words. Ha! "Anyways, petting zoos are awesome. Fluffy animals!"

"Right." Topaz snorted. "Because the semi secret quasi-military team in the basement never attracts trouble." Just because he said that, the world would probably end. That was the next logical step after demon attacks anyways, wasn't it? "But for fluffy animals I guess I'll risk it."

"That's the spirit!" Matt grinned, pleased. "We won't invite anyone else though. It's only groups that tend to attract the crazy. One and two alone don't as much. So statistically, we're doing better than we could," math wasn't Matt's strong point. "So anyways. How long are you stuck in here anyways?"

"It does seem to be the group that attracts the trouble, I'll give you that." Although Topaz certainly attracted enough trouble on her own, but most of that was her own fault anyways. "A day or two. Just long enough to wind me up and have me bouncin' off the walls. It's not as bad as last time though, I didn't completely burn out." Thank god. That would've made waiting to get back here a lot more unbearable.

"You ready for school to start back then?" Granted, they had another month of break, but he was ready. This was his first summer without a heavy summer load and it was dragging. He had a couple internet classes, one of which was already finished, the other was winding down. "Or any other plans?"

"Definitely. Summer's clearly dangerous, they need to stop letting us out of class." She paused to spin some spaghetti onto her fork, taking a bite. "What about you?"

Matt shrugged, "Nothing, other than helping Cecilia with stuff for Elpis and things like I've been doing. And my aerial stuff. Nothing exciting though," this was turning into a reasonably boring summer, minus the recent excitement. "You're a nerd, you know," said the pot to the kettle.

"Oh look who's talkin'." There was a teasing note in Topaz's voice as she took another bite of the bread. "At least I'm in good company."

He grinned, unashamed, "So, you wanna keep doing the handstand classes and stuff in the fall?" he asked, "I'm signing up for a few ropes classes and things, You should come, too," it was fun and worked better for the less athletically inclined Topaz because it wasn't quite a team sport.

"Handstand classes I'm in for, but don't ropes involve bein' off the ground?" She wasn't afraid of heights per se, but she was certainly aware of how high off the ground she was at any given time. It wasn't a fear so much as a healthy respect for the fact that falling too far could kill her.

"I mean that I'm going to continue ropes classes," Matt clarified, "You'd probably like them, but you'd need beginner. I'm intermediate now. You could continue floor work regardless. Maybe stretching and flexibility?"

"I'll do anything that keeps my feet on the ground." She actually really enjoyed gymnastics, but anything that brought her up into the air was a big no. She'd watched Kurt on the trapeze a couple of times. Definitely not.

Slurping up the last of his spaghetti noodles, Matt nodded, pleased, "Cool! I'll get you off the ground one day, but there's no hurry. It's just so much fun! Warren took me flying once, it's such an amazing thing! Could you imagine if we could fly?"

"I'll stick with walkin', actually." She wasn't a huge fan of anything that took her off the ground, even for a moment. Teleporting was on that list too. "But if you ever happen to sprout wings I'm sure you'll have a grand time."

"And do what? Fly into stuff?" Matt asked, covering his eyes with his hands playfully, then opening his fingers as if peering through them. His powers probably wouldn't let him fly into things if he could fly, they didn't now as he did short distances via trapeze or ropes and things, but at the same time, they weren't really designed for something like that either. At least, not without a lot more training. Winds at that height and speed could work against his hearing, "You could at least learn to drive. The bus gets old eventually."

"Oh, I am learnin' to drive," Topaz said as she finished off the bread. "Didn't I mention that? I've been takin' lessons with Mr. Dukes since he started teachin' here."

Making a face, Matt stuck his tongue out, "I officially hate you," also, he didn't know what to do now that he wasn't pushing her to try something new. "Good for you."

Topaz grinned, resisting the urge to return the action - both because it was slightly childish and because it would have been useless anyways. "It's actually a lot of fun. I didn't think it would be but I figured I'd need to learn eventually."

"I've been thinking about trying to learn on a motorcycle. I dunno...." there was no way he could legally get a license, which was a problem if he ever got caught, but that just meant not getting caught. "I drove once and no thanks. But I can't ride the bus all the time. Or get rides from people."

"Yeah, explainin' to cops that you have super sonar might be a bit difficult," Topaz reflected thoughtfully. "Well once I get my license I'm good for drivin' you around. Just let me know."

Matt shrugged, "Hey, at least I know the procedure for getting arrested and all that. And I'm pretty sure driving without a license is a lot less horrible than the other stuff I've been arrested for," though he would be an adult and really, he didn't want to get arrested again. He just played cool like it was no big deal. It was a big deal and he had promised himself and his father that he would stay out of trouble. "Or you know, don't get caught."

"Suppose as long as you look like you know what you're doin' and you don't speed you'll fine," she agreed. "Although that does present an interestin' dilemna of how you're gonna read speed limit signs."

Sucking in air, Matt flopped back on the floor, "And you just figured out the biggest issue," he agreed with a sigh. Running a hand through his hair, he stuck his tongue out again, "Can't read the speed limit signs or the speed gauges on the bike. I guess I could get some sort of bluetooth hookup to tell me that, but....yeah."

"I'm sure there are ways to get around it," Topaz said. "Someone here would probably have an idea." Impossible wasn't exactly a word at Xavier's.

"We'll work it out. I guess I should get a bike and learn to ride first. Which requires money and a teacher so.....baby steps," gotta walk before running after all. "So, anyways. Hopefully you're not so bored now."

"There are at least five bikes in the garage. I'm sure finding a teacher wouldn't be a problem." Topaz finished up spaghetti, smiling. "I am. Thanks for comin' to keep me company."

It seemed like most of the time they spent together, at least when it was chatting like this, was in the box. It wasn't true, Topaz wasn't in here THAT often, but it sometimes seemed like it. "Anytime. We're box-buddies, right?" that didn't sound right. Oh well. "I'm mental static and the box blocks everyone else out, so it works out pretty good."

"Box buddies has a good ring to it." Topaz smirked. "Maybe we can get t-shirts."