xp_logs | Miles and Bobby, later Topaz

Miles moves into the mansion and meets his new roommate, Bobby Drake. They hit things off quite well.

Ganke's mother had kindly lent Miles's family the use of her car so Río and Jefferson could drive him up to Xavier's School. Miles was still a little surprised that he'd managed to pull this ruse. He'd kept being Spider-Man a secret for nearly a year, and now he had mutant Hogwarts added on top of that. But they'd bought it and here he was.

Miles fake-struggled to carry his bags up to the dorm to which he'd been assigned, a show put on so they couldn't see how strong he really was. He gave them one final hug once they got up there, with a promise to visit home in a couple of weeks, and then they left him. And had he actually been alone like he'd thought, then moonwalking into his new room wouldn't have been as embarrassing as it turned out to be.

Moonwalking was pretty cool, it's true, but it wasn't what Bobby expected to see at all when he looked up at the sound of someone opening his door.

"Uhhhhhhhh," he managed, frowning slightly. "Is this some kind of telegram thing, like a singing telegram only, y'know." Bobby gestured at Miles' feet. "Dancing instead?"

Well, damn. Miles spun on his toes and froze. That's one way to meet your new roommate. "I'm sorry you had to see that," Miles said. "I usually save the moves for when I'm not going to totally embarrass myself. So don't hold that against me, por favor."

"Dude, no worries, totally." Bobby replied, waving his hand at Miles. "Water under the bridge. But, sweet moves aside, what are you doing here again, exactly? Oh, and I'm Bobby by the way."

"Miles. Mucho gusto. I just transferred and this is the room they gave me. Hope you don't mind." He picked up the large duffel bag and suitcase to bring them inside, and set them down by the empty bed. Bobby's half of the room looked like the welcoming center of an ice hockey rink. Posters and magazine clippings of the New York Islanders decorated the wall by his bed, which was covered with a blue and orange comforter.

Oh no, Miles thought. Was he rooming with a jock?

"Nah, it'll be nice to have a roommate," he said, hopping up from where he'd been sitting on his bed to go shake his hand. "Nice to meet you, Miles. Do you mind if I call you Milesy?" Bobby asked randomly. "So, where'd you come from? And what is it you do exactly? Oh, and most importantly: do you like hockey?" He fired off his questions in rapid fire fashion as he threw himself back down on his bed again.

Not a jock, then, judging by how he talked. Maybe just a sports nerd. An entirely different species, but one that Miles could appreciate. "Seems awfully wordy to add another syllable like that. I'm from Brooklyn, my powers are . . . complicated but mostly I shock people and blend into the background, and, uh, I don't know? Not really much of a sports person besides the Mets, I guess. And what about you? Besides the hockey. That one's clear."

"Oh man, seriously? I'm from Long Island, and fuck yeah, go Mets!" Hockey was his first love but he followed baseball as well, and would've been dismayed had his new roomie been a Yankee fan. "You can shock people? That sounds awesome, and disappearing too, like a ninja? Nice, Milesy, niiiiiice." Bobby might've been misinterpreting that but it seemed pretty damn cool regardless.

The enthusiasm was contagious, and Miles found himself grinning, too. Until a couple of weeks ago, a total of 3 other people knew he as a mutant. But now he had the freedom to actually reveal it (just not to his parents and the whole spider thing had to stay hidden, too). He stepped back so he was against the wall and seemed to melt into it. A very close examination could reveal his general form, much like the heat shimmer of the Predators, but he was otherwise invisible.

"Yeah, I guess it is pretty damn ninja."

"DUDE!" Bobby yelled, jumping to his feet. "That is AWESOME." He ran a hand through his hair, eyes wide and not blinking at all as he tried to distinguish Miles' outline against the wall. "Oh man, you totally are a fucking ninja, that is so badass!" He walked closer and just shook his head, it really was an amazing ability to have. There were so many cool things you could do with a power like that, and Bobby's mind was racing just thinking about them.

This guy's excitement over Miles's abilities put even Ganke to shame, and Miles couldn't help but a laugh a little. He faded back into focus and leaned against the wall, trying to look as cool as he felt right then. "How 'bout you, though?"

"Me?" Bobby asked, coming down from his freaking out over Miles' abilities. "Oh, I guess ice is my thing." He shrugged and demonstrated, looking over at a glass of water that sat on his desk and freezing it solid. "But back to you, man, can you do that with like anything? I mean, what if you were standing in front of a mirror? And ooh, can you make yourself look like other people too?"

"Wait, bro, hold on. You can't just pretend that's nothing." Guy was an IRL Frost Mage and he pretended like he was just some lame old Druid. What nonsense. "Light just goes through me, I think, so I don't actually look like anything and you don't see me in a mirror. But there's gotta me more you can do with that. Cones of Cold and Blizzagas and water bending."

"Hell yeah, I can do snow, totes, and just about anything out of ice," Bobby replied, waving one hand overhead and causing fat snowflakes to fall to the floor, while forming an ice katana - in keeping with the ninja theme - in the other hand. "but cones... oh, like ice cream cones? I can't make ice cream, I wish I could though. That would be almost as cool as being a ninja." He sighed, then blinked. "We have ice cream downstairs, though, and we should totally get some. You can even, like, sneak us some ninja style!" Not that they had to sneak anything, but it'd be their own covert mission.

Miles actually gasped when Bobby fabricated the moisture into a sword. He'd witnessed feats of superhuman strength and agility and perception, and a man with flight-capable wings, but this might have been the most amazing display he'd ever seen. "I'll sneak up the entire freezer if you show me more stuff like that," Miles offered. It wasn't even really hyperbole; it might be worth revealing the full extent of his abilities if he got to see more of this magic.

"That, my new friend, is a deal." Bobby grinned and, with a flick of one wrist, playfully flung a few snow shurikens towards Miles with a chuckle. "I think you and I are gonna get on just fine, Milesy. Just fine." With that he headed to the door and waved for his new roommate to follow him. He had to show him where they kept the ice cream, after all.

~*~

Later in the day, Miles takes a little self-guided tour of the mansion and meets Topaz who, to her credit, doesn't freak out when she meets the kind-of-reincarnation of her former New Mutant teammate.

Miles had already received the mansion tour twice. But now that he was finally here, he could explore on his own. And in true nerd fashion, he found himself in the expansive library. There was something fun and exciting about the sight of huge walls lined with full bookcases, even though Miles had joined the 21st century and kept all of his books in electronic form on his StarkPad.

He wandered down an aisle and picked a book from the shelf at random, just to see what this collection included. Flight Patterns of Mid-Atlantic Seabirds. Fascinating. What was that about fun and excitement?

It had been weeks since they'd arrived in this new universe, and Topaz had all but barricaded herself in the library. She left for classes and to sleep and sometimes food, but that was about it. Dealing with whatever the world outside had become was proving to be far too complicated - the library had become her safe haven again.

Besides, someone had to take care of the place now that Ms. Smith was gone.

She'd been wandering the stacks herself, putting away stray books and trying to keep track of what was missing (mostly just something to fill her time with, she'd already finished her homework), when she turned the corner and saw someone standing there. Miles. Not Miles. But Miles. Shite. Topaz took a breath, steeling herself. She hadn't known Miles very well in the old world anyways. But seeing another person with his face still threw her. "Hullo." Act normal, act normal, act normal. "Need help with something?"

"Yeah. Why does this book even exist?" He held out the book so she could see the cover before he put it back on the shelf in its right place. Not like it probably mattered if it was on the other side of the library. Who'd even be looking for it? "I'm Miles. I just joined. Uh, registered, I guess." No X-Men yet, he'd been explicitly told.

"I don't know why the books exist, I just take care of them," Topaz said, shaking her head. "I'm sure there's someone out there who cares. Out in the world. Somewhere. I'm Topaz."

"Cool name. Are you the librarian here?" She certainly didn't look like one. About forty years too young, to start. Unless that was part of her powers. There was always a lot about mutants in the news, and though he'd never heard of eternal youth, it was a whole lot more believable being able to read minds.

Topaz had to smile a bit at that. "No, just a concerned citizen. The last librarian...left. I'm just taking care of things on my own until they replace her."

"Cool cool. So does that mean you're also a student? I have to say that this whole 'live in a big secluded mansion and then go to the local magnet school' deal sounds kind of weird, but it's a hundred times better than where I went back home, so."

She relaxed a bit, glad he'd already moved on from the last subject. "Yeah, I am. For now, at least. It's my last year. I've been here for a while." Relatively speaking.

"Do you go into that Danger Room place a lot?" Miles asked, perhaps a tad too excitedly. That had been one of the things that hadn't left his mind since his first visit. "Mister, uh, Summers showed me it. But he hasn't told me when's my first time to go in."

The excitement was rolling off of him in waves. Topaz raised an eyebrow a bit. "We use it sometimes for powers training and what not. Always supervised though, I think you have to be unless you're one of the teams. Depends on your mutation too, I don't see the inside of it much unless it's physical training." There wasn't much to be done with empathy in the Danger Room.

There was probably a lot that Miles had to learn about mutant culture and etiquette, but Summers had said that it wasn't rude to inquire about other mutant's abilities, so Miles felt confident going ahead. "What do you do, then? Something not physical?"

"Empathy." She paused for a moment before adding, "And magic. But that's unrelated."

Miles narrowed his eyes in a Fry-like manner. "You say 'magic' like it's no big deal. But. Really? You can do magic?"

Topaz had to smile a bit. She did love this part. Mutants, that was fine. But magic? That was where the line was drawn. "It's not like Harry Potter or anythin', no wand, but yeah. I can do magic."

"Harry Potter has the dumbest magic system, anyway. Never explains where it comes from or why you need wands or . . ." And Miles had probably revealed more of himself in those 5 seconds than he ever intended. He coughed. "Mistborn was way better. So, uh, how does that all work then? Can anyone do magic?"

If Topaz had a nickle for every time she heard that exact same speech from Amanda... "Not anyone, no. It requires a bit of a natural disposition to it. There are few users around. Or...a couple at least." No Billy. No Megan. No Nico. Right.

"That's too bad." It would really save his wallet if he could conjure webs instead of having to synthesize the web formula all the time. "I guess it makes sense you're working in the library, then. That's like the place for wizards."

"Probably better that way, honestly. Be a disaster of every single person was capable of magic." Topaz almost shuddered a bit that. Even the thought was frightening.

"I bet. Raining spiders and potatoes everywhere." At least that's probably what would happen if Miles got his hands on a Staff of Power +2. "My powers aren't that exciting. I shock people by touching them, and I can blend in to what's around me. Still cool but not, you know, magic cool."

"Potatoes have happened," Topaz said without thinking. "It was funny for the first day. Not so much a week later." She nodded as Miles spoke about his own powers. "Sounds slightly more useful than potatoes or spiders, at least."

Definitely useful, especially when combined with a super-spider bite. "Slightly," is what he said out loud, though. "Enough to keep away from jerks who just want to talk about how bad M-Day was and all that happened after that."

Topaz winced a bit at the mention of M-Day. "Yeah, that's...a mess. Just be careful who you threaten. Seems to be the collective luck that you'd threaten a bigot."

Miles pointed to his face. "No more different than any other day, mutant or not. Really the only different thing is they're afraid I'll eat their babies instead of steal their wallet." But his tone of voice suggested he had a good humor about it.

That got him a bit of a smile, strange as it was. "Fair enough. Always good to keep that in mind though, never know when fear of cannibalism will come in handy."

"Something else to add to my arsenal to scare people. Well, I think I'm going to head down to the kitchen and get some dinner. It was nice meeting you, Topaz."

"Yeah." Dinner. That was probably something she should consider. But oh well. "Nice meetin' you too. Good luck with things here."