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xp_logs(backdated) In District X, Match and Shatterstar find a vintage/thrift store that bears their shared first name.
Shatterstar had tagged along to District X with Match and someone called Alani, taking a silent car ride and then following Match once Alani had gone off to whatever her job was. He was comfortable to be in a city again, falling into step beside Match- who he had learned also had the legal name of Ben.
"Do you know any place to buy VHS tapes?" he asked the other teenager as they walked. Sure, he liked all physical movie media, but he preferred the grainy quality of VHS tapes. Plus, you were more likely to find B-movies on VHS. He had only brought his Arthur Centino movies with him, and if he was going to be stuck at the mansion for at least the summer, he wanted some other movies to play in the background.
“Uhhh, yeah, I think near some boutique?” Match turned to offer a half-shrug to the redhead , 'Star something, he shoulda listened. He tuned most things out when he got a ride into the city, and the driver had been someone he hadn't any urge to listen to, though she'd stopped when it became obvious that neither of them would be responding. With a destination in mind, he turned to go towards the shop he thought existed down the block, not a place he'd generally go, but it could be fun.
Oh, yeah, there it was. And he couldn't hold back the snort of laughter. Of course the name would keep coming back. "'m Match by the way."
The shop was called Ben's Bygone Belongings. It was sort of funny, especially now that Shatterstar knew neither of them went by Ben. He had been introduced to Match as a Ben so he said. "Wow. That's my legal name too."
Still, the shop window looked interesting, the type of cluttered where you would find what you were looking for so Shatterstar strode in ahead of Match, heading straight towards a wall of movies and books. "Come on," he said, slightly bossily, to the other teen.
He followed, nothing better to do though his gait more meandering than the boy on the mission he was following, idly looking around though he was never far behind. When they seemed to have gotten where they were going, Match looked over the wall of VHS tapes, DVDs, and books stacked in such a way that would make any Tetris master envious. Not seeing anything immediately worth his attention, he instead found himself staring at a strange white and black plush. A snicker came out as he held the thing. "Hey, look at this fucked up looking little dude."
Shatterstar had knelt in front of the precarious stack of VHS tapes and DVDs, carefully looking at the spines for anything that he hadn't seen that looked like it might be action or horror. He had been finagling out a load bearing VHS tape of Videodrome when Match called his attention to him. He looked at the stuffed animal in the other teenager's hand. Sure, it looked like it had seen better days but... "That's Snoopy. He is not a fucked up little dude." Shatterstar scowled. That was America's dog.
Match matched the expression immediately, brows furrowing before looking from the Snoopy thing to the other guy, then back to the... dog-bear? “Okay, gonna assume Snoopy’s the name, good for him, but that doesn’t make him not fucked up.” After a pause, finally looking up from it he shrugged. “Uh, good ears,” he finally offered, as if the semi-compliment would placate the redhead. “What were you grabbing again?” Amazing tactics, he’d pat his own back if this worked.
"VHS tapes," Shatterstar replied, fishing his prize out of the stacks. "And Snoopy is a symbol of space travel. He is a war hero. He is not fucked up." He punched Match lightly in the arm, still scowling.
He paused, looking more intensely at the DVDs to see if there was a copy of any sort of Peanuts media. "Do you really not know Snoopy? The Peanuts?" He asked, disbelieving. Maybe you didn't know the dog's name, but surely Match must have seen him before. He found what he was looking for and pulled out a copy of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!. He held it up for Match to inspect. "This isn't familiar to you?"
Match blinked blankly at the case, holding the toy up as if to compare the two, he even paused as if he was thinking deeply, combing through memories, before finally- "Nope, no idea what any of the things that came out of your mouth mean. They all kinda make sense separately, if that's any better." It probably didn't. With a sigh, he set the plush back down and shoved both his hands in his pockets. "They important?"
Shatterstar huffed indignantly. Was it important...! Probably not in the long run, but, "It's important to a lot of people. I can't believe you seriously can't recognize Snoopy. It's important to the pop culture collective memory of the U.S." He put the DVD with the VHS tape he had already picked out. "And Snoopy is like. Used a lot in NASA as a symbol or whatever, so yes it's important." At least, that was the sort of thing that was important to him.
"Oh, uh-huh" Match nodded slightly, as if it was all coming together for him. He frowned down at the tape, brows shooting up because the kid couldn't be serious. "Wait, he works for NASA? Like, the space program? This fucked up dog does space shit?" That seemed about right for what NASA did, maybe some other things too. Really, it seemed only right that coming to this place would make him have to think about the wider world. With a groan he pushed the thoughts back and ran a hand through his hair. Fuck, it was easier in the sewers.
"Yeah, they sent him into space," Shatterstar said in a deadpan voice. It wasn't untrue... A Snoopy plushie had been sent into orbit, but he wasn't going to clear up any misunderstanding. "So do not call him fucked up." He paused. "He's a beagle by the way." He was kneeling in front of the pile of VHS tapes, but wasn't seeing any other B-movie gold so he rose to his feet. "Are you getting anything?" he asked, as he put his movies under his arm. He eyed the Snoopy plush pointedly.
"Beagles don't look like this, dude." He'd decided instead to ignore the point that apparently Snoopy went to space, that just... there was no reason to touch on that and he didn't wanna start an argument in the store. He had to be lying to him. At the question, Match raised a brow, following the look before- "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered, though he grabbed the thing with a sigh that was followed by a wave of heat, almost like walking outside of a nicely air conditioned building just to be slapped with a wall of dry heat that had been waiting outside. "Fine, fine, I'll get the Snoopy."
Shatterstar snickered to himself, not having actually expected Match to agree to buy it. He shifted how he was holding the movies in his arms so he could tie up his hair in a bun from the sudden heat Match was producing. Just because Match was annoyed there was no reason for him to be suffering. He headed towards the counter, not paying attention to if Match was following when he spoke. "I'm done here if you want to meet up with that Alani woman and help out."
He would grumble if he thought it’d help his case, but he doubted that. Something caught his eyes and Match stopped following, head tilting as he reached out to pick up the Magic 8 Ball on the shelf and turn it in his hand. Except at the mention of the woman, of course - "Help out?" He snorted. “I don’t know what kool-aid they gave you, but I wouldn’t trust her. Great for rides into the city, sure, otherwise,” he made a clicking sound. “I’ll head to the center though, if that’s where ya wanna go.”
"I don't care what we do," he said, looking back at Match at his Magic 8 ball. He shrugged. "Why don't you trust her? Is it because she's too happy?" Shatterstar had to admit that he didn't exactly trust that level of peppy either, but he had been trying to keep an open mind about everyone who lived at Xavier's just because he didn't want to waste energy hating anyone. He stopped a second. "She does seem kind of like a nurse." It was far from a compliment.
"You get it," Match nodded, not quite sure what the boy had against nurses but the way he'd said it was more in line with his own thoughts, so he didn't see a reason to ask. "Vibes are just off, she works at the center, she works at the mansion, no way she's serious about anything, and if there's one thing I can't stand it's fake people." He paid as he spoke, shaking his head and throwing the coins under quarters to the tip jar on the counter. "I gotta meet up with someone, you can tag along if you want?" That sounded like a question, it was supposed to be an offer and internally he grimaced a little at his own inability to just be a normal teen.
"Only thing more annoying than a nurse is a technician, and she doesn't seem to have her RN," Shatterstar agreed. "Seems kinda too chipper all the time. Fake people are the worst." Of course, it could be argued he was fake, but he tried to keep things as real as he could. He found he didn't dislike Match, which was good. This was the only person his own age he knew in New York.
"I'm fine with meeting up with someone. I don't know many people around here." Read, he didn't even know everyone in the mansion.
"Cool, cool, cool." The words had flown out of his mouth before he really realized what he'd said, and if he could feel hot, maybe he would have, as embarrassment set in. But he stomped that down and nodded, stepping aside to let the other guy do his business. "Yeah!" He'd said it louder than he'd meant, but the agreement to what 'Star had said had finally registered. "Fake chipper, that's a good word for it. What's she got to be so happy about?"
"Not being dead, I guess," Shatterstar said, not having realized that Match's question was probably rhetorical. "But you don't need to be that happy about it." He watched Match carefully as he paid. He was trying to figure the other out, expression wise, but it was hard. He had never understood expression well..
Match, in turn, made a non-committal sound, as the redhead had a point, but he didn't want to take the conversation to a more serious turn, it made him remember Chicago too much and he had no time today to think about that. He thought about saying something to lighten the mood, but he'd never actually been good at that, so once the were out of the store he immediately turned to lead the other down the block. "So it's just a little drop off, then we can go see whatelese you might like here. Or, I don't know, I can google the creature I now own."
"I still don't believe you don't know the Peanuts," Shatterstar said, grateful for the topic change, having realized that maybe what he said hadn't been the best thing to bring up. People didn't like thinking about death. "Or Snoopy. Aerospace champion." He followed after Match and let him lead the way, having no idea where anything was. He didn't rubberneck, but he did notice that there were a lot of people on the streets who were visibly mutants, or at least didn't look "normal".
"So they were in movies, sure, but, I mean ya gotta watch the movies to know the characters, space champion or not." He still doubted that was actually a thing but refused to google it in front of 'Star. With more space the heat around him seemed to dissipate almost entirely, the lack of walls lined with things that were likely very flammable finally easing his mind again. He nodded a greeting to the woman with skin like a star filled night before tilting his head back towards her after they'd passed. "She's nice, tells you what's on sale at the bodega, good to know if you're looking for shelf stable."
"That's good to know," Shatterstar said, nodding. He wasn't planning on running away anymore but if things turned out badly it would be good to know where he could get his shelf stables. He appreciated Match telling him. Also, the woman was beautiful. "Always good to have a bag packed," he said.
"Always gotta have shoes and a go bag," Match couldn't stop himself from grinning, for a moment, before dropping it once he realized what he was doing. Motioning for 'Star to wait where he was, he paused to swing his backpack around and began to rummage through it before taking out a couple of cans and counting out loose change. "Donations," he mumbled in explanation. "Used to be what we survived on back when I was with the Morlocks in Chicago, pay it forward and all that."
"What are the Morlocks?" Shatterstar asked and craned his neck to see if he could tell where Match was donating to. He pulled out a few crumpled dollars from his jacket pocket and handed them to the other boy- he had no use for them now anyways that he wasn't planning on leaving.
"Oh, thanks. Uh, well, we lived in the tunnels back in Chicago." He informed the other boy blankly, unsure how much people knew or didn't know and not sure how to describe that year of his life. So he focused on collecting the stuff to pass off, as he tried to explain. "Postman said the name was from some old ass book where the guy went to the future and there were, like, people who lived underground, and we did so it made sense. They, uh, they left, went deeper when I went above ground, we think. No one's heard from them since."
"I'm... Sorry?" Shatterstar said for lack of knowing what else to say. What else could he say. He didn't want to ask if they were important to Match, or if he missed them. He shoves his hands in his jacket pocket. He has already given what he had to give.
"Huh?" It had taken Match a moment, confusion immediate before he looked back down and shrugged. "Er, thanks, it's, I don't know, it happened, I'm here now, and here's a lot better than there. They were good people, but I was the new kid, at least here I'm not." The more he tried to explain it the more he found himself tripping over his own words. Huffing out an exhale, a flame flickered that he quickly waved out of existence.
Shatterstar nodded again. "To the center then?" He asked.
"Yeah, come on."
Shatterstar had tagged along to District X with Match and someone called Alani, taking a silent car ride and then following Match once Alani had gone off to whatever her job was. He was comfortable to be in a city again, falling into step beside Match- who he had learned also had the legal name of Ben.
"Do you know any place to buy VHS tapes?" he asked the other teenager as they walked. Sure, he liked all physical movie media, but he preferred the grainy quality of VHS tapes. Plus, you were more likely to find B-movies on VHS. He had only brought his Arthur Centino movies with him, and if he was going to be stuck at the mansion for at least the summer, he wanted some other movies to play in the background.
“Uhhh, yeah, I think near some boutique?” Match turned to offer a half-shrug to the redhead , 'Star something, he shoulda listened. He tuned most things out when he got a ride into the city, and the driver had been someone he hadn't any urge to listen to, though she'd stopped when it became obvious that neither of them would be responding. With a destination in mind, he turned to go towards the shop he thought existed down the block, not a place he'd generally go, but it could be fun.
Oh, yeah, there it was. And he couldn't hold back the snort of laughter. Of course the name would keep coming back. "'m Match by the way."
The shop was called Ben's Bygone Belongings. It was sort of funny, especially now that Shatterstar knew neither of them went by Ben. He had been introduced to Match as a Ben so he said. "Wow. That's my legal name too."
Still, the shop window looked interesting, the type of cluttered where you would find what you were looking for so Shatterstar strode in ahead of Match, heading straight towards a wall of movies and books. "Come on," he said, slightly bossily, to the other teen.
He followed, nothing better to do though his gait more meandering than the boy on the mission he was following, idly looking around though he was never far behind. When they seemed to have gotten where they were going, Match looked over the wall of VHS tapes, DVDs, and books stacked in such a way that would make any Tetris master envious. Not seeing anything immediately worth his attention, he instead found himself staring at a strange white and black plush. A snicker came out as he held the thing. "Hey, look at this fucked up looking little dude."
Shatterstar had knelt in front of the precarious stack of VHS tapes and DVDs, carefully looking at the spines for anything that he hadn't seen that looked like it might be action or horror. He had been finagling out a load bearing VHS tape of Videodrome when Match called his attention to him. He looked at the stuffed animal in the other teenager's hand. Sure, it looked like it had seen better days but... "That's Snoopy. He is not a fucked up little dude." Shatterstar scowled. That was America's dog.
Match matched the expression immediately, brows furrowing before looking from the Snoopy thing to the other guy, then back to the... dog-bear? “Okay, gonna assume Snoopy’s the name, good for him, but that doesn’t make him not fucked up.” After a pause, finally looking up from it he shrugged. “Uh, good ears,” he finally offered, as if the semi-compliment would placate the redhead. “What were you grabbing again?” Amazing tactics, he’d pat his own back if this worked.
"VHS tapes," Shatterstar replied, fishing his prize out of the stacks. "And Snoopy is a symbol of space travel. He is a war hero. He is not fucked up." He punched Match lightly in the arm, still scowling.
He paused, looking more intensely at the DVDs to see if there was a copy of any sort of Peanuts media. "Do you really not know Snoopy? The Peanuts?" He asked, disbelieving. Maybe you didn't know the dog's name, but surely Match must have seen him before. He found what he was looking for and pulled out a copy of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!. He held it up for Match to inspect. "This isn't familiar to you?"
Match blinked blankly at the case, holding the toy up as if to compare the two, he even paused as if he was thinking deeply, combing through memories, before finally- "Nope, no idea what any of the things that came out of your mouth mean. They all kinda make sense separately, if that's any better." It probably didn't. With a sigh, he set the plush back down and shoved both his hands in his pockets. "They important?"
Shatterstar huffed indignantly. Was it important...! Probably not in the long run, but, "It's important to a lot of people. I can't believe you seriously can't recognize Snoopy. It's important to the pop culture collective memory of the U.S." He put the DVD with the VHS tape he had already picked out. "And Snoopy is like. Used a lot in NASA as a symbol or whatever, so yes it's important." At least, that was the sort of thing that was important to him.
"Oh, uh-huh" Match nodded slightly, as if it was all coming together for him. He frowned down at the tape, brows shooting up because the kid couldn't be serious. "Wait, he works for NASA? Like, the space program? This fucked up dog does space shit?" That seemed about right for what NASA did, maybe some other things too. Really, it seemed only right that coming to this place would make him have to think about the wider world. With a groan he pushed the thoughts back and ran a hand through his hair. Fuck, it was easier in the sewers.
"Yeah, they sent him into space," Shatterstar said in a deadpan voice. It wasn't untrue... A Snoopy plushie had been sent into orbit, but he wasn't going to clear up any misunderstanding. "So do not call him fucked up." He paused. "He's a beagle by the way." He was kneeling in front of the pile of VHS tapes, but wasn't seeing any other B-movie gold so he rose to his feet. "Are you getting anything?" he asked, as he put his movies under his arm. He eyed the Snoopy plush pointedly.
"Beagles don't look like this, dude." He'd decided instead to ignore the point that apparently Snoopy went to space, that just... there was no reason to touch on that and he didn't wanna start an argument in the store. He had to be lying to him. At the question, Match raised a brow, following the look before- "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered, though he grabbed the thing with a sigh that was followed by a wave of heat, almost like walking outside of a nicely air conditioned building just to be slapped with a wall of dry heat that had been waiting outside. "Fine, fine, I'll get the Snoopy."
Shatterstar snickered to himself, not having actually expected Match to agree to buy it. He shifted how he was holding the movies in his arms so he could tie up his hair in a bun from the sudden heat Match was producing. Just because Match was annoyed there was no reason for him to be suffering. He headed towards the counter, not paying attention to if Match was following when he spoke. "I'm done here if you want to meet up with that Alani woman and help out."
He would grumble if he thought it’d help his case, but he doubted that. Something caught his eyes and Match stopped following, head tilting as he reached out to pick up the Magic 8 Ball on the shelf and turn it in his hand. Except at the mention of the woman, of course - "Help out?" He snorted. “I don’t know what kool-aid they gave you, but I wouldn’t trust her. Great for rides into the city, sure, otherwise,” he made a clicking sound. “I’ll head to the center though, if that’s where ya wanna go.”
"I don't care what we do," he said, looking back at Match at his Magic 8 ball. He shrugged. "Why don't you trust her? Is it because she's too happy?" Shatterstar had to admit that he didn't exactly trust that level of peppy either, but he had been trying to keep an open mind about everyone who lived at Xavier's just because he didn't want to waste energy hating anyone. He stopped a second. "She does seem kind of like a nurse." It was far from a compliment.
"You get it," Match nodded, not quite sure what the boy had against nurses but the way he'd said it was more in line with his own thoughts, so he didn't see a reason to ask. "Vibes are just off, she works at the center, she works at the mansion, no way she's serious about anything, and if there's one thing I can't stand it's fake people." He paid as he spoke, shaking his head and throwing the coins under quarters to the tip jar on the counter. "I gotta meet up with someone, you can tag along if you want?" That sounded like a question, it was supposed to be an offer and internally he grimaced a little at his own inability to just be a normal teen.
"Only thing more annoying than a nurse is a technician, and she doesn't seem to have her RN," Shatterstar agreed. "Seems kinda too chipper all the time. Fake people are the worst." Of course, it could be argued he was fake, but he tried to keep things as real as he could. He found he didn't dislike Match, which was good. This was the only person his own age he knew in New York.
"I'm fine with meeting up with someone. I don't know many people around here." Read, he didn't even know everyone in the mansion.
"Cool, cool, cool." The words had flown out of his mouth before he really realized what he'd said, and if he could feel hot, maybe he would have, as embarrassment set in. But he stomped that down and nodded, stepping aside to let the other guy do his business. "Yeah!" He'd said it louder than he'd meant, but the agreement to what 'Star had said had finally registered. "Fake chipper, that's a good word for it. What's she got to be so happy about?"
"Not being dead, I guess," Shatterstar said, not having realized that Match's question was probably rhetorical. "But you don't need to be that happy about it." He watched Match carefully as he paid. He was trying to figure the other out, expression wise, but it was hard. He had never understood expression well..
Match, in turn, made a non-committal sound, as the redhead had a point, but he didn't want to take the conversation to a more serious turn, it made him remember Chicago too much and he had no time today to think about that. He thought about saying something to lighten the mood, but he'd never actually been good at that, so once the were out of the store he immediately turned to lead the other down the block. "So it's just a little drop off, then we can go see whatelese you might like here. Or, I don't know, I can google the creature I now own."
"I still don't believe you don't know the Peanuts," Shatterstar said, grateful for the topic change, having realized that maybe what he said hadn't been the best thing to bring up. People didn't like thinking about death. "Or Snoopy. Aerospace champion." He followed after Match and let him lead the way, having no idea where anything was. He didn't rubberneck, but he did notice that there were a lot of people on the streets who were visibly mutants, or at least didn't look "normal".
"So they were in movies, sure, but, I mean ya gotta watch the movies to know the characters, space champion or not." He still doubted that was actually a thing but refused to google it in front of 'Star. With more space the heat around him seemed to dissipate almost entirely, the lack of walls lined with things that were likely very flammable finally easing his mind again. He nodded a greeting to the woman with skin like a star filled night before tilting his head back towards her after they'd passed. "She's nice, tells you what's on sale at the bodega, good to know if you're looking for shelf stable."
"That's good to know," Shatterstar said, nodding. He wasn't planning on running away anymore but if things turned out badly it would be good to know where he could get his shelf stables. He appreciated Match telling him. Also, the woman was beautiful. "Always good to have a bag packed," he said.
"Always gotta have shoes and a go bag," Match couldn't stop himself from grinning, for a moment, before dropping it once he realized what he was doing. Motioning for 'Star to wait where he was, he paused to swing his backpack around and began to rummage through it before taking out a couple of cans and counting out loose change. "Donations," he mumbled in explanation. "Used to be what we survived on back when I was with the Morlocks in Chicago, pay it forward and all that."
"What are the Morlocks?" Shatterstar asked and craned his neck to see if he could tell where Match was donating to. He pulled out a few crumpled dollars from his jacket pocket and handed them to the other boy- he had no use for them now anyways that he wasn't planning on leaving.
"Oh, thanks. Uh, well, we lived in the tunnels back in Chicago." He informed the other boy blankly, unsure how much people knew or didn't know and not sure how to describe that year of his life. So he focused on collecting the stuff to pass off, as he tried to explain. "Postman said the name was from some old ass book where the guy went to the future and there were, like, people who lived underground, and we did so it made sense. They, uh, they left, went deeper when I went above ground, we think. No one's heard from them since."
"I'm... Sorry?" Shatterstar said for lack of knowing what else to say. What else could he say. He didn't want to ask if they were important to Match, or if he missed them. He shoves his hands in his jacket pocket. He has already given what he had to give.
"Huh?" It had taken Match a moment, confusion immediate before he looked back down and shrugged. "Er, thanks, it's, I don't know, it happened, I'm here now, and here's a lot better than there. They were good people, but I was the new kid, at least here I'm not." The more he tried to explain it the more he found himself tripping over his own words. Huffing out an exhale, a flame flickered that he quickly waved out of existence.
Shatterstar nodded again. "To the center then?" He asked.
"Yeah, come on."
