xp_logs | Kyle & April | Welcome Wagon

xp_mayhem posting in

(backdated) April's an X-Man and Kyle pulls "Welcome to the team" duty.

The monitoring and comms room for the X-Men was very well-used. Yes, it had the bank of computers and screens, a dozen devices to monitor broadcast traffic, the security monitors for the mansion and even an old-fashioned shortwave radio mostly being used as a monitor stand.

It just also had minifridges, a full coffee pot, a microwave, the kind of swivel chairs you would see being used by professional video game players, a space heater, a portable air conditioner, a stack of notebooks and a container of mismatched pens, and an entire stack of snacks of all kinds.

It also had a Kyle Gibney, arms full of black leather standing just outside the open doors. "Yo, I pulled your tour duty. You wanna check out the cool jacket first, or steal my best bag of turkey jerky? It's pesto this week."

"Ooh, did you get it from the place in town? I wouldn't mind trying a piece after we do the... cool jacket thing?" April took in Kyle's full arms. "Kinda hard to eat jerky with your hands full, dude." She'd worn comfortable clothes on Pyotr's advice since she wasn't sure what they were doing, a tank top and leggings that she frequently worked out in.

"Yep. Turkey's one of the ones I can't make work right here so I usually buy it." Kyle handed over the jacket first. "Jacket, armored pants, uh, you get gloves and boots but.' The boots were by his feet. "Look, I barely wear mine, I kinda figured you might skip them too, so I kinda didn't bother finding laces or double-checking sizes. None of your Danger Room runs have had you in shoes, so I made an educated guess."

April scrunched her face. "I could ask Forge to figure out something that lets the sticky quality bleed through the shoes and gloves?" Her voice pitched higher at the end, uncertain even though it was a mostly rhetorical question. "Typically no though? I mean, yes for travel if needed, but I've got decent boots for that unless there's concern about them being lost. Same for gloves." She pulled the jacket on easily, noting that it fit really similarly to her motorcycle jacket, with a slightly different zip. She did a few twists in it, stretching her arms out and up before tipping over into a backbend. It didn't ride too much, and it wasn't constricting. "This'll work fine."

"Yeah, nobody's real picky about making people wear the whole thing, or adding stuff." He patted the black bandanna that was currently holding back most of his hair. "I mean half the time I don't zip up, I'm legit not sure I've ever worn the gloves, I'm not even sure Scott ever gave me any." Kyle tilted his head, clearly thinking. "Yeah, couldn't tell you if I even got any. Oh, important shit." He pulled a little box off the main desk. "Comms. They're the cute little x-logos we all have, there's places to put 'em on your jacket, or on the belt of the pants, or both. Tappy controls if you need to comm like, someone in specific, but also voice but also like, some smart shit, so if you need to, you just yell and it starts broadcasting to everyone."

"And they all get a little bit of personalization, I've noticed," April accepted the small box, opening it up and peeking at the small buttons inside, replacing the lid and sliding it carefully into a jacket pocket. "I'm guessing a little paint won't hurt them, but the better question" - and here she gave the loop on her left ear a twist, letting the small sound reducer fall into her palm - "is whether or not I can get them working with these, or if I can hear my comms clearly with them in. They reduce background noise, but close conversations and other noises are still perfectly clear."

Kyle grinned, and pulled a pair of flexible headphones from his pocket. "They work with just about anything. They interface with Maya's hearing aids, they work with these, and mine kinda do the same thing yours do, but, like, less." He paused, opened his mouth a few times as if to explain something, and then shook his head. "I should get an upgrade but a friend made 'em and it's one of the last things I have of him. Weird universe shit, I mean if anybody's gonna understand I guess it's you. And yeah, paint won't hurt 'em, Kane's are maple leaves which never stops being funny to me, Scott used to keep a spare in a visor, JP's are some weird plastic shit that doesn't conduct, I think everyone's are a little custom."

"Yeah, I get it." April slipped the loop back in, smiling a little wistfully. "I had one set with me when I came through, but they were just like... the good stage quality ones, and I couldn't find them here. I ended up asking Forge to improve on them the first time we met. He hadn't even been here an entire day yet." Her smile widened into a grin. "I'm glad it shouldn't be an issue, though, because I'm still trying to reverse engineer these and don't want to start over if I have to ask him to improve them."

"Cool. I mean these are engineered to hell and back but I guess if anybody's gonna improve on them, it's Forge." Considering who had done the last major re-design of them, kind of, Kyle thought to himself. "Lets see, what else. You've been in the Danger Room nine billion times already, I don't need to do the speech. Comms and monitor rotation, you'll get a schedule for that, we trade shifts a lot though like, Clarice moves hers, I move mine when I'm teaching, sometimes the X-Force people will take a shift when they're bored." He paused. "I think that's mostly when one of them wants to talk to one of us though. Uh. You get to read all the boring reports now, and not just the scary ones. Oh, the big plane. You get to learn how to fly the big plane, or at least land it safely."

"I am admittedly excited about the big plane," April agreed. "And, y'know, getting back out in the field. The break to finish school was nice, but I've been going a little stir crazy without concrete things to do." She undid the zip on the jacket, hanging it on the back of a nearby chair, and slipped her shoes off, then plucked the pants out of Kyle's hands. "Ought to try the pants on too. If they don't fit over these leggings, they're not going to be a field fit," she said as she shimmied them up her legs. The fit was snug, similar to the jacket, so she dropped into a deep lunge. "They'll be fine once I get them broken in a little," was her judgment on the overall fit. "Guess I'll be taking these and the jacket into the Room with me so I get used to wearing them while trying to fight?"

Kyle nodded. "Yep, and there's a scanner thingy, once you get them broken in, do a couple scans." He picked his own jacket up off the back of the other chair, and showed April where the shoulder seams had extra give, and the elbows were reinforced. "So between the like, smart Danger Room brain thing, and the scanner machine, you can usually get them tweaked where you still have to break them in a little but not near as much as the first couple of sets." He laughed. "If you're anything like me, you'll go through a bunch. I get a month or two out of a set of pants and then something gives. Usually the knees, just cause of how I fight. Ass once though. Split my pants in the middle of a Danger Room run."

"Better than in public, I guess." April decided to leave the pants on, go ahead and start breaking them in. "I know I'll probably want extra give in the shoulders too, maybe a little around my elbows because of how I extend and stretch for the webs. Probably reinforcement around my knees? I can't tell you how many times I've landed against a building with my knees first. It's a good thing I'm durable." She'd ask Pyotr what sort of paints to use on her comm units, but she had an idea for the design.

Kyle ticked things off his fingers. "Gear, 'Bird, comms, logo.... what's left?" He tapped his fingers and thumb together a few times. "You'll get thrown into more group Danger Room stuff but you know that, you get a code name, which you get to pick don't let anyone tell you otherwise..." He gave a genuinely embarrassed grin. "For a minute there was a whole trainee name policy, and we ditched it because it .. was not a good look."

"My sister and I... we were always Mayday and Mayhem. That's a small part of home I can keep, and I don't have much of that." April gave him a sheepish smile and a small shrug as she said it. "Besides, I like being considered a bit like an agent of chaos, because going toe to toe with people that want to cause harm is usually chaotic. And it tells people exactly what they're getting into with me."

"I'm into it. Doesn't really say what you do, nice and short, fun to yell." Kyle agreed. "Okay I think that's all the stuff on my list, besides like, passwords, those are in your email." He dropped into one of the chairs, and let it roll backwards and spin a little, and then re-oriented himself. "Questions? Requests? Any gossip you really want?"

"I assume we don't have the same no fraternization rules that a lot of places have, given the whole... living together, danger from outside thing? Keep it professional on missions, try not to let relationship drama become team drama?" April's statement was half remark, half question. "Also oooh, gossip. Tell me the good stuff. I also have so many questions about how smart the Danger Room is, but that's just personal/professional curiosity."

Kyle nodded. "No issues. We've had people on the X-Men be married to each other before." He tapped at his forehead, thinking. "Gossip. Lesee. Yes, the picture in the locker room is my ass hanging out of a robot. Kane can be bribed with beer to re-arrange early morning Danger Room slots, Scott can't. Alison will absolutely turn any run she's in into a musical, and right now the running betting pool is who is gonna crash the Blackbird simulations first, me or Sooraya."

"Oh no, I like being an obnoxious morning person at Kane first thing in the morning. It's the least he deserves for being such an asshole at the controls." April gave Kyle a sunny smile. "And as long as Alison doesn't expect me to do more than clap or tap in time, I don't care. Can't sing worth shit, though, and I'm not a very good dancer. You'd think, with the agility and grace, right? But no." She shrugged, then continued. "As for crashing, better bet is who stops crashing first, and I'm not putting money on that."

Kyle nodded his head, horizontally, like he was considering a reply. "Fair, because it kinda goes either way depending on the week. I think right now, Sooraya's got a better record overall, but I'm actually up on take-offs without incident." He paused. "The Danger Room is really really smart, and we're really lucky she likes us. You missed the nanite thing, but that's kinda the only reason anyone got out of the room that day." He patted the console. "She's a very nice holodeck."

"She's a brilliant bit of work," April agreed. "Coding isn't my specialty, but hers is either stunning or the weirdest 'how on earth do you WORK' mash ever, I'm guessing. And the room itself is just... wow. A marvel of engineering, literally."

"I got nothing. I just ask her very nicely to do things, and she listens and I figure that's how we keep the AIs from taking over.." Kyle said. "Oh, oh I totally forgot the best gossip and like, I suck. So, the best bet sheet is... hold on, where is it." He spun in his chair, and dug through one of the notebooks, muttering to himself as he flipped pages. "Found it!" Across the top was "When does Colossus fanboy at Dazzler in training?" and a grid of dates and names. "He's your roomie but you totally get to chime in."

"When does Pyotr not fanboy over Dazzler? That is the real question." April's voice was dry, but she was grinning at Kyle as she said it. "Perhaps when he's playing uh... what's the name of the guy... Neil Something, maybe? I don't know, when he's playing that one on repeat I have my mufflers in and full can headphones over that, and that failing Boris and I go on a very, very long walk." She took a look at the notebook, grinning at the various entries.

"He's pretty good in team stuff, stays pretty professional minus like, star eyes once in a while. Helps that they usually only end up in runs when it's all team or big group, since it's totally different power sets." Kyle said. "Neil? Like, Patrick Harris, the guy from that sitcom? Or Neil Young, which. Dude, we get enough of that from Gar, we don't need it from Pyotr too, sheesh."

"Uh... the one that does that song they play at all the sports events for some reason?" April's statement was more than a question, as the name of the song slipped her mind. "The one with the 'Bah Bah Bah' and people are like 'so good, so good' during it? Folksy stuff. It's not bad, I just get sick of hearing anything on repeat."

"Oh!" Kyle perked up. "Neil Diamond. Wait." He cocked his head, exactly like a confused puppy. "Did Neil Diamond not be a thing in your universe? Oh man, I wonder how different music is between universes. We had visitors a couple of years ago, but I forgot to ask then, and all I know is that K-Pop was way bigger a thing, because BTS was in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

"What's K-Pop?" April looked at Kyle in curiosity. "Yeah, Neil Diamond was a thing, I just forgot his name. Not something my parents listened to. Mom was into punk and ska, for all that she looked pretty... y'know, standard middle age white lady? But apparently it was a thing for her growing up and she never really grew out of it."

"I mean my dad was all classic rock. I think Neil Diamond is like, more our grandparents?" Kyle said. "I for reals think Pyotr's roomies in grad school trolled on him, he knows some old pop culture. Movies my dad likes." He scratched at the back of his neck. "I know I'm forgetting something for X-Men orientation but god I can't remember what the hell it is."

April counted on her fingers as she talked. "Let's see... uniform, danger room, security and comms, bird, hot goss, low stakes betting. And snacks, can't forget snacks." She made grabby hands at the jerky in Kyle's hands. "Obviously the most important thing, everyone finding out what an absolute trash gremlin I am when it comes to food. But, y'know. Lucky enough to be able to eat almost anything in big portions and stay in good shape. Oh, and everyone getting to see Pyotr's face when I indulge my inner gremlin. It's brilliant."

Kyle handed over the bag. "Honestly, the dude turns into eleventy-nine feet of metal I don't get how he's not a trash gremlin. I'm allergic to half the food in the store and I'm more of a gremlin than he is. I've smelled his post workout smoothies, no thanks."

April shrugged, indelicately shoving a piece of jerky into her mouth with a happy hum. Once she'd finished chewing, she replied. "Different mindset. I mean, I'm into working out and stuff, but he really embodies that whole workout culture thing. I'm into 'lemme workout how I can shove that slice of pizza in my mouth' and also doing backflips off the sides of buildings."

"Word." Kyle agreed. "Wanna go eat too much pizza, because I am legit out of X-Men intro speech. Don't tell Scott, I'm sure he's got pamphlets."

April covered her mouth as a burst of laughter escaped. "Pamphlets? Oh no. Definitely time to escape and eat too much pizza."