xp_shatterstar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xp_shatterstar) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
xp_logs2023-07-03 01:30 pm
xp_shatterstar) wrote in xp_logs2023-07-03 01:30 pm
Entry tags:
Star and Rictor - The Beginning of a Beautiful friendship.
Shatterstar and Rictor quickly go from antagonistic to something resembling friendship.
(Backdated to 1:30 July 3)
Rictor had spent most of his time since arriving at the Xavier Institute touring the mansion and the grounds, trying to get some measure of orientation so he could navigate without getting lost. He had mostly given up on that today, though, as he found the lake. Not really much of a water person himself, he was still drawn to the serene landscape and decided maybe today would be better spent here. He had taken off his shoes the moment he left the mansion and stepped onto the ground, so he was enjoying the feeling of the soft grass between his toes when he noticed that one of the trees dotting around the lake had almost shattered, like it had been hit by a particularly violent lightning bolt.
He tentatively poked it, as if it would disintegrate at the wrong touch, but it was a sturdy corpse. And the ground did not feel any more enervated than anywhere else, so it could not have been a curse or fire or something like that. What could have happened?
Shatterstar was doing his usual set of laps around the lake, wooden training sword tied to his belt. He didn't know what it was about being here in this place full of powerful people, but he felt better with it at his side. He came to a stop just short of the shattered tree's corpse. He stared at the other boy examining what he had destroyed. (He hadn't meant to blast the tree as badly as he did in his first week here, but the damage was still there). He flushed red with embarrassment that someone new was examining the proof of his lack of control. It didn't help that the other boy, who he was sure he would have remembered if he had seen him before, was objectively handsome.
"What are you doing?" Shatterstar asked, defensive as he stalked closer to the other. "Who are you?"
Rictor was too intrigued by the tree to notice the vibrations in the ground warning him of someone's approach, so he was startled when Shatterstar called out to him. He spun around and nearly tripped over his feet when he caught sight of the new arrival. The hair, the mark over his eye, the sword? Who was he? What was he?
"I'm, uh, Julio," he introduced himself, "But everyone calls me Rictor. I just got here. And you?"
Shatterstar tilted his head slightly at how Rictor nearly tripped. It wasn't fair he could trip and be attractive. Shatterstar felt gangly and ungainly in comparison. He knew his looks were striking but it had always been in an intimidating way. He glowered slightly, relying on his intimidation factor to guide him through the interaction.
"I'm Shatterstar," he replied and gestured to the tree. "What are you doing?"
He felt on defense around the other man and he didn't know why.
The intimidation factor worked. Rictor involuntarily took a step back, walking right up against the tree. But caught between apparently an armed warrior and a hard place, he decided to return the favor as best he could. The Earth called to him as always, and he nudged it back, sending a trickle of his magic—no, he reminded himself, which just frustrated him further, his mutant gift—back into the ground. Just a little shake, only a few seconds. No more than the rumble of a video game controller.
"I'm just looking around," he declared, lowering his voice an octave in an effort to sound properly manly and aggressive. "The tree was interesting. Is there a problem?"
It was only a small rumble but Shatterstar relied on his balance to keep steady on the ground. What the hell was that? He glared at Julio and bared his teeth slightly at him, more out of reflex than anything else. He knew he had a reason to be on the defense, especially if this boy could take the ground out from under him. Shatterstar shifted his stance to be more balanced, even if the other decided to shake the Earth again.
"Not a problem," he said. "You're just being nosy. You should mind your own business." Shatterstar saw the tree as his, since it was his blast that had destroyed it. He didn't like people being in his things. If Julio hadn't been handsome he might not have felt as threatened.
"Nosy? Oye, güey, I'm just looking at a tree. What happened to it?" Rictor turned back to it and gently ran a hand down the crack where part of the trunk had been split in half. "It's beautiful in a way, ¿sabes? Like an art piece for a museum. I have never seen anything like it before. I can make trees fall"—he remembered the spell going out of control, the earth rupturing, a mango tree crashing and pinning his chiichi as another crevice opened up near her and nearly swallowed her, too—"But they just . . . . fall. There is nothing artful about it."
"I did that," Shatterstar said, face flushing as red as his birthmark. Nothing he had ever done had been described as beautiful. Graceful, maybe, but never beautiful. And this was from the part of him he hated most, the powers he couldn't control and brought him only pain. He loomed over Julio as he moved to place his hand on the cracked wood, hand nearly touching the other boy's.
He pulled his hand away, dripping the training sword at his side, embarrassed to have felt the heat of Rictor's skin. "There's nothing beautiful about it," he grumbled. "It's just something I broke."
That admission made it all make sense. Rictor was embarrassed enough for losing control of his powers 2600 kilometers away from here, so he could understand the mortification of being directly confronted with it every day. He picked up his shoes from the ground and walked down to the path by the lake. "I was walking around to get acquainted with here. Do you want to walk with me?"
Shatterstar acquiesced with a slight nod of his head, tucking some hair behind his ears when it fell into his face. Until Rictor picked up his shoes he hadn't realized he was barefoot. "Do you like running?" he asked. "I do my run around the lake."
It wasn't that he didn't want to continue with Rictor because that would be surrendering but he wanted to win the interaction so he couldn't agree to walking with him right away.
"Sometimes. It's an option for cardio. But if I am going to exercise in the outdoors, I don't want to wear shoes, and running without shoes isn't safe," Rictor answered with a sly grin. "So a, eh, caminadora? The machine you run on in the gym? That's easier. I can also watch a movie on my phone while I run."
He sneered at him slightly. "That's hardly how you should do it," he said and moved as if he was going to move away but stopped and turned to Rictor. "Wait. What movies do you watch?" Shatterstar asked. He genuinely felt knowing what movies someone watched was the best way to know them.
Weird change to topic, but Rictor rolled with it. "Pues, my father loves wuxia movies, so he showed them to me when I was little. Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen is his favorite. He loves those Ip Man movies. I, uh . . . don't laugh? I like to watch románticas. Wait, there's an English word for it. The romances that are funny?"
Shatterstar didn't see it as a weird change in topic at all. Rictor had mentioned watching movies on the treadmill first. The change in topic tracked to him. "Romantic comedies," Shatterstar nodded, relaxing his stance a little as they talked. "I don't watch a lot of that but some of them are good."
"Right. Stories where people fall in love and laugh at the same time are fun. I watched 10 Things I Hate About You on the airplane to New York. That one is so funny. How about you? What do you watch?" He eyed the sword at the other boy's side again and had a good guess but did not want to presume.
Shatterstar nodded seriously, clearly taking in everything Rictor said about movies. "That's a good one," he agreed. "Lots of B-movies. Mostly action and horror. Musicals too though," He added the last as an afterthought. "Anything without a big budget, really."
Rictor raised an eyebrow. "'B-movies?' I don't know what that is."
"Movies that are low budget and you know. Not advertised a lot," Shatterstar explained. "What do you call them in Mexico?"
"Oh! Those are películas churros because they're hollow and have no nutritional value, they just taste good." Rictor laughed and smiled at Shatterstar. "There was a club in my high school for people to watch those. There are many movies of luchadores as heroes who solve crimes and fight villains. Have you ever heard of el Demonio Azúl?"
"Películas churros," Shatterstar repeated carefully, though his pronunciation was poor. He couldn't get the double r sound. "I like that. It makes them sound good." He took out his phone and wrote the name down in his notes app. "No. I haven't. Is that a movie?"
"Churros," Rictor repeated, rolling his R's emphatically. "El Demonio Azúl was a famous luchador and he was in many movies. He's like if Dwayne Johnson or John Cena were Mexicanos and popular in the 1960s. And wore a mask all the time. I don't think El Demonio Azúl ever showed his face."
He didn't not attempt to roll his R's again.
Shatterstar's face split into a toothy grin. "That sounds so cool. I can't believe I've never seen one of his movies before." Especially since he did like foreign B-films when he could find them. "I'd enjoy watching that."
Rictor felt his face redden when Shatterstar finally legitimately smiled back at him. What was that about? He ran a hand through his unruly hair so his arm could block his face from view. "They are probably not on American streaming, but you might be able to download them from somewhere. Maybe use a VPN and pretend you're in Mexico."
Rictor reaching up to touch his hair just made Shatterstar look at his hair. Despite the unruliness it was pretty clear he had good grooming habits. Someone who wasn't afraid to stand their ground against him, liked movies, and took good care of their hair was the type of person Shatterstar wanted to be friends with. "Do you want to watch one with me sometime?"
This conversation had turned out to be the exact opposite of how it started. It almost left Rictor with vertigo. But better to befriend this unique gringo than to fight him like he almost did, right? So he nodded and smiled back at him when he was sure he was no longer blushing.
"If we can find one that is dubbed into English or has subtitles, sure. Unless you understand Spanish?"
"Subtitles are good," he said, not wanting to admit he struggled with reading them and that he knew maybe twenty words of Spanish. His grin was still on his face and widened a little, all teeth, when Rictor smiled back at him. "Sounds good to me. Want to watch maybe tomorrow or Friday?"
"Miss Amanda said there's some American holiday tomorrow and there might be a party, so maybe Friday is better. And then I have more time to find a movie. If I can't find it, maybe you can show me one that you like instead."
Shatterstar nodded again, seriously. "It's a date," he said then looked to the mansion and realized he never actually finished his run. "I uh. I need to finish my run. See you Friday Rictor?"
"Hasta luego, Star."
(Backdated to 1:30 July 3)
Rictor had spent most of his time since arriving at the Xavier Institute touring the mansion and the grounds, trying to get some measure of orientation so he could navigate without getting lost. He had mostly given up on that today, though, as he found the lake. Not really much of a water person himself, he was still drawn to the serene landscape and decided maybe today would be better spent here. He had taken off his shoes the moment he left the mansion and stepped onto the ground, so he was enjoying the feeling of the soft grass between his toes when he noticed that one of the trees dotting around the lake had almost shattered, like it had been hit by a particularly violent lightning bolt.
He tentatively poked it, as if it would disintegrate at the wrong touch, but it was a sturdy corpse. And the ground did not feel any more enervated than anywhere else, so it could not have been a curse or fire or something like that. What could have happened?
Shatterstar was doing his usual set of laps around the lake, wooden training sword tied to his belt. He didn't know what it was about being here in this place full of powerful people, but he felt better with it at his side. He came to a stop just short of the shattered tree's corpse. He stared at the other boy examining what he had destroyed. (He hadn't meant to blast the tree as badly as he did in his first week here, but the damage was still there). He flushed red with embarrassment that someone new was examining the proof of his lack of control. It didn't help that the other boy, who he was sure he would have remembered if he had seen him before, was objectively handsome.
"What are you doing?" Shatterstar asked, defensive as he stalked closer to the other. "Who are you?"
Rictor was too intrigued by the tree to notice the vibrations in the ground warning him of someone's approach, so he was startled when Shatterstar called out to him. He spun around and nearly tripped over his feet when he caught sight of the new arrival. The hair, the mark over his eye, the sword? Who was he? What was he?
"I'm, uh, Julio," he introduced himself, "But everyone calls me Rictor. I just got here. And you?"
Shatterstar tilted his head slightly at how Rictor nearly tripped. It wasn't fair he could trip and be attractive. Shatterstar felt gangly and ungainly in comparison. He knew his looks were striking but it had always been in an intimidating way. He glowered slightly, relying on his intimidation factor to guide him through the interaction.
"I'm Shatterstar," he replied and gestured to the tree. "What are you doing?"
He felt on defense around the other man and he didn't know why.
The intimidation factor worked. Rictor involuntarily took a step back, walking right up against the tree. But caught between apparently an armed warrior and a hard place, he decided to return the favor as best he could. The Earth called to him as always, and he nudged it back, sending a trickle of his magic—no, he reminded himself, which just frustrated him further, his mutant gift—back into the ground. Just a little shake, only a few seconds. No more than the rumble of a video game controller.
"I'm just looking around," he declared, lowering his voice an octave in an effort to sound properly manly and aggressive. "The tree was interesting. Is there a problem?"
It was only a small rumble but Shatterstar relied on his balance to keep steady on the ground. What the hell was that? He glared at Julio and bared his teeth slightly at him, more out of reflex than anything else. He knew he had a reason to be on the defense, especially if this boy could take the ground out from under him. Shatterstar shifted his stance to be more balanced, even if the other decided to shake the Earth again.
"Not a problem," he said. "You're just being nosy. You should mind your own business." Shatterstar saw the tree as his, since it was his blast that had destroyed it. He didn't like people being in his things. If Julio hadn't been handsome he might not have felt as threatened.
"Nosy? Oye, güey, I'm just looking at a tree. What happened to it?" Rictor turned back to it and gently ran a hand down the crack where part of the trunk had been split in half. "It's beautiful in a way, ¿sabes? Like an art piece for a museum. I have never seen anything like it before. I can make trees fall"—he remembered the spell going out of control, the earth rupturing, a mango tree crashing and pinning his chiichi as another crevice opened up near her and nearly swallowed her, too—"But they just . . . . fall. There is nothing artful about it."
"I did that," Shatterstar said, face flushing as red as his birthmark. Nothing he had ever done had been described as beautiful. Graceful, maybe, but never beautiful. And this was from the part of him he hated most, the powers he couldn't control and brought him only pain. He loomed over Julio as he moved to place his hand on the cracked wood, hand nearly touching the other boy's.
He pulled his hand away, dripping the training sword at his side, embarrassed to have felt the heat of Rictor's skin. "There's nothing beautiful about it," he grumbled. "It's just something I broke."
That admission made it all make sense. Rictor was embarrassed enough for losing control of his powers 2600 kilometers away from here, so he could understand the mortification of being directly confronted with it every day. He picked up his shoes from the ground and walked down to the path by the lake. "I was walking around to get acquainted with here. Do you want to walk with me?"
Shatterstar acquiesced with a slight nod of his head, tucking some hair behind his ears when it fell into his face. Until Rictor picked up his shoes he hadn't realized he was barefoot. "Do you like running?" he asked. "I do my run around the lake."
It wasn't that he didn't want to continue with Rictor because that would be surrendering but he wanted to win the interaction so he couldn't agree to walking with him right away.
"Sometimes. It's an option for cardio. But if I am going to exercise in the outdoors, I don't want to wear shoes, and running without shoes isn't safe," Rictor answered with a sly grin. "So a, eh, caminadora? The machine you run on in the gym? That's easier. I can also watch a movie on my phone while I run."
He sneered at him slightly. "That's hardly how you should do it," he said and moved as if he was going to move away but stopped and turned to Rictor. "Wait. What movies do you watch?" Shatterstar asked. He genuinely felt knowing what movies someone watched was the best way to know them.
Weird change to topic, but Rictor rolled with it. "Pues, my father loves wuxia movies, so he showed them to me when I was little. Bruce Lee, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen is his favorite. He loves those Ip Man movies. I, uh . . . don't laugh? I like to watch románticas. Wait, there's an English word for it. The romances that are funny?"
Shatterstar didn't see it as a weird change in topic at all. Rictor had mentioned watching movies on the treadmill first. The change in topic tracked to him. "Romantic comedies," Shatterstar nodded, relaxing his stance a little as they talked. "I don't watch a lot of that but some of them are good."
"Right. Stories where people fall in love and laugh at the same time are fun. I watched 10 Things I Hate About You on the airplane to New York. That one is so funny. How about you? What do you watch?" He eyed the sword at the other boy's side again and had a good guess but did not want to presume.
Shatterstar nodded seriously, clearly taking in everything Rictor said about movies. "That's a good one," he agreed. "Lots of B-movies. Mostly action and horror. Musicals too though," He added the last as an afterthought. "Anything without a big budget, really."
Rictor raised an eyebrow. "'B-movies?' I don't know what that is."
"Movies that are low budget and you know. Not advertised a lot," Shatterstar explained. "What do you call them in Mexico?"
"Oh! Those are películas churros because they're hollow and have no nutritional value, they just taste good." Rictor laughed and smiled at Shatterstar. "There was a club in my high school for people to watch those. There are many movies of luchadores as heroes who solve crimes and fight villains. Have you ever heard of el Demonio Azúl?"
"Películas churros," Shatterstar repeated carefully, though his pronunciation was poor. He couldn't get the double r sound. "I like that. It makes them sound good." He took out his phone and wrote the name down in his notes app. "No. I haven't. Is that a movie?"
"Churros," Rictor repeated, rolling his R's emphatically. "El Demonio Azúl was a famous luchador and he was in many movies. He's like if Dwayne Johnson or John Cena were Mexicanos and popular in the 1960s. And wore a mask all the time. I don't think El Demonio Azúl ever showed his face."
He didn't not attempt to roll his R's again.
Shatterstar's face split into a toothy grin. "That sounds so cool. I can't believe I've never seen one of his movies before." Especially since he did like foreign B-films when he could find them. "I'd enjoy watching that."
Rictor felt his face redden when Shatterstar finally legitimately smiled back at him. What was that about? He ran a hand through his unruly hair so his arm could block his face from view. "They are probably not on American streaming, but you might be able to download them from somewhere. Maybe use a VPN and pretend you're in Mexico."
Rictor reaching up to touch his hair just made Shatterstar look at his hair. Despite the unruliness it was pretty clear he had good grooming habits. Someone who wasn't afraid to stand their ground against him, liked movies, and took good care of their hair was the type of person Shatterstar wanted to be friends with. "Do you want to watch one with me sometime?"
This conversation had turned out to be the exact opposite of how it started. It almost left Rictor with vertigo. But better to befriend this unique gringo than to fight him like he almost did, right? So he nodded and smiled back at him when he was sure he was no longer blushing.
"If we can find one that is dubbed into English or has subtitles, sure. Unless you understand Spanish?"
"Subtitles are good," he said, not wanting to admit he struggled with reading them and that he knew maybe twenty words of Spanish. His grin was still on his face and widened a little, all teeth, when Rictor smiled back at him. "Sounds good to me. Want to watch maybe tomorrow or Friday?"
"Miss Amanda said there's some American holiday tomorrow and there might be a party, so maybe Friday is better. And then I have more time to find a movie. If I can't find it, maybe you can show me one that you like instead."
Shatterstar nodded again, seriously. "It's a date," he said then looked to the mansion and realized he never actually finished his run. "I uh. I need to finish my run. See you Friday Rictor?"
"Hasta luego, Star."