Rictor & Liam, backdated to August 22
Aug. 22nd, 2023 03:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsRictor meets Liam at the pool. It's only a little awkward.
It was still summer break for a little longer and normally for Liam that meant skulking along the frigid creeks and channels leading to the Atlantic Ocean, swimming, catching fish and generally being a very stinky, wet cat. Westchester was a little further south and a lot further inland, but there was still a lake and a pool, therefore, Liam was obligated to check it out. He wasn't a fan of getting his ears or tail wet, but... it was difficult to swim and not do that, so oh well. He'd dry. Eventually.
Heading to the pool, there was no doubt that Liam's cat stripes extended down his arms and legs, though he wore a tshirt at least to be polite inside the school.
At the pool, Rictor had no such compunctions for modesty. Wearing a simple black briefs-style swimsuit, he was doing laps, and for an earth elemental such as himself, he was cutting through the water with ease. He had lost count of how many times he'd gone back and forth when he noticed company joining him, someone he had not yet had the pleasure to meet in person. When he reached the near-end of the pool closest to the entrance, he stopped to take a breather.
"Hi," he called out. "You're Liam, right? We met on the school socials. I'm Rictor."
"Hi!" Liam called back, tossing his shirt on a nearby chair before jumping in the pool. Better to just rip the wet bandaid for these things, "Where are you from?"
This one was wearing shorts, so he clearly had more modesty (if not too much more) than Sharon, who seemed to have never owned a pair of pants in her life. Rictor doffed his goggles so he could see better, quickly assessing the other obvious differences between Sharon and Liam. Fascinating, the variety of mutants to be found here.
"Oh, I'm from Mexico. You?"
"Maine," he pointed up, like that made any sense, then pushed his hair from his eyes. Wet like this he looked very much like a drowned cat, though not quite as pathetic, droopy ears aside. "That's cool though. I think everyone I talk to is from a different place."
Rictor considered what little he knew of American geography, mostly from a map in the back of the airplane magazine, and recalled that Maine was far north of here, though still closer than his own home. "Yeah. Mister Kane, who helps me train my gift, is from Canada. Amanda and Marie-Ange, who brought me here, are English and French. Shatterstar is from Boston, but I don't know where that is."
"Between here and Maine," Liam answered easily, filing away all the different countries in his head. "We drove around it coming down to the school. I've been to Canada, my mom's from Newfoundland originally. What do you do? That seems to be a question everyone knows, but no one asks."
"What do I do? Oh, as a mutant?" Still after nearly two months, the word left a weird taste on Rictor's tongue. "The easiest explanation is I make earthquakes. I think there's more than that, but essentially, that's what I do now. And you? I mean, there's all this." He waved a hand in front of his face. "I'm sorry if that's personal. I'm still learning mutant"—there's that foreign word again—"etiquette."
Nimbly, Liam shot Rictor the bird, "I mean... what you see is what you get? I'm kinda a cat," not like Sharon was a cat, but also, sorta yes. "No cat lasers out anything like that. Earthquakes sound... really big." No earthquakes, no thank you.
"Yeah. It's a little hard to control." An understatement, to be sure. He stuck a finger in the water and watched it ripple outwards. He smiled softly. "Do you like it here so far?"
Doing a full body shiver, Liam made a face at the water, hitting it, "Don't do that!" he snapped, trying to jump backwards, but that wasn't easy to do in the water. He moved over out of the ripples though. That was a little better. "And yeah, it's okay. So big though!"
Rictor worried for a moment he was going to have another Shatterstar-at-the-quarry situation on his hands, with this new kid overreacting to this display that would threaten to snowball into fisticuffs. But Liam didn't seem angry, just a little miffed, so Rictor swallowed his pride and let it go. He mumbled an apology and hopped out of the pool to sit on the edge, keeping his hands out of the water.
"I got lost several times for the first few weeks," he admitted, following Liam's conversation direction. "It took a while before I could even remember how to get up to the second floor where my room is."
It wasn't that Liam was scared of Rictor's powers, it was that they made him feel weird. He didn't know how to describe it other than a feeling of today being a terrible day to be alive. But that feeling went away almost as soon as Rictor stopped using his powers. Carefully, he approached, sniffing discreetly near Rictor's hands. "I know where my room is. And the kitchen. And out here. I haven't figured out how to get to the roof yet."
"I didn't know people can get onto the roof." Rictor, much more of a plant person than an animal person, started to pull his chlorine-scented hand away, but worried about the rudeness of that, too, and stopped himself. "I am happy to stay on the ground, or under it. I would rather not be surrounded by sky."
"But... but being up high, you can see everything!" Liam tried to explain, moving away so he wasn't too much in Rictor's space, "That's much better than not seeing anything underground," knowing what was going on around him was important.
Rictor shrugged and grinned at Liam. "But I can see through the ground. In a way. I can feel footsteps when people walk on the same dirt I'm standing on."
Okay, that was kinda cool. "So.... you're like Toph," please please please have him recognize the reference. Explaining Avatar was kinda confusing.
Luckily for Liam, even though that show premiered when Rictor was all of 6 months old, it stayed on rotation on TV well into his childhood that he was familiar. And no one who had watched that show would mind being compared to Toph. "Yeah, kind of. I mean, I'm not as sensitive as her, but same idea." A loud buzzing noise interrupted him, and he stood up to check his phone at one of the lounge chairs a few feet away. "Oh, I have training with Kane in a few minutes. I need to get ready. It was nice meeting you, Liam."
"Have fun!" Training? For what? Shatterstar mentioned the X-Men and he'd Googled, which had been something of a mistake depending on the website and not all that helpful. Was Rictor an X-Man? No one had mentioned him joining or training and he wasn't sure about all that anyways. Well, something to think about, but nothing to do about it yet. Instead, Liam began swimming, enjoying the water.
It was still summer break for a little longer and normally for Liam that meant skulking along the frigid creeks and channels leading to the Atlantic Ocean, swimming, catching fish and generally being a very stinky, wet cat. Westchester was a little further south and a lot further inland, but there was still a lake and a pool, therefore, Liam was obligated to check it out. He wasn't a fan of getting his ears or tail wet, but... it was difficult to swim and not do that, so oh well. He'd dry. Eventually.
Heading to the pool, there was no doubt that Liam's cat stripes extended down his arms and legs, though he wore a tshirt at least to be polite inside the school.
At the pool, Rictor had no such compunctions for modesty. Wearing a simple black briefs-style swimsuit, he was doing laps, and for an earth elemental such as himself, he was cutting through the water with ease. He had lost count of how many times he'd gone back and forth when he noticed company joining him, someone he had not yet had the pleasure to meet in person. When he reached the near-end of the pool closest to the entrance, he stopped to take a breather.
"Hi," he called out. "You're Liam, right? We met on the school socials. I'm Rictor."
"Hi!" Liam called back, tossing his shirt on a nearby chair before jumping in the pool. Better to just rip the wet bandaid for these things, "Where are you from?"
This one was wearing shorts, so he clearly had more modesty (if not too much more) than Sharon, who seemed to have never owned a pair of pants in her life. Rictor doffed his goggles so he could see better, quickly assessing the other obvious differences between Sharon and Liam. Fascinating, the variety of mutants to be found here.
"Oh, I'm from Mexico. You?"
"Maine," he pointed up, like that made any sense, then pushed his hair from his eyes. Wet like this he looked very much like a drowned cat, though not quite as pathetic, droopy ears aside. "That's cool though. I think everyone I talk to is from a different place."
Rictor considered what little he knew of American geography, mostly from a map in the back of the airplane magazine, and recalled that Maine was far north of here, though still closer than his own home. "Yeah. Mister Kane, who helps me train my gift, is from Canada. Amanda and Marie-Ange, who brought me here, are English and French. Shatterstar is from Boston, but I don't know where that is."
"Between here and Maine," Liam answered easily, filing away all the different countries in his head. "We drove around it coming down to the school. I've been to Canada, my mom's from Newfoundland originally. What do you do? That seems to be a question everyone knows, but no one asks."
"What do I do? Oh, as a mutant?" Still after nearly two months, the word left a weird taste on Rictor's tongue. "The easiest explanation is I make earthquakes. I think there's more than that, but essentially, that's what I do now. And you? I mean, there's all this." He waved a hand in front of his face. "I'm sorry if that's personal. I'm still learning mutant"—there's that foreign word again—"etiquette."
Nimbly, Liam shot Rictor the bird, "I mean... what you see is what you get? I'm kinda a cat," not like Sharon was a cat, but also, sorta yes. "No cat lasers out anything like that. Earthquakes sound... really big." No earthquakes, no thank you.
"Yeah. It's a little hard to control." An understatement, to be sure. He stuck a finger in the water and watched it ripple outwards. He smiled softly. "Do you like it here so far?"
Doing a full body shiver, Liam made a face at the water, hitting it, "Don't do that!" he snapped, trying to jump backwards, but that wasn't easy to do in the water. He moved over out of the ripples though. That was a little better. "And yeah, it's okay. So big though!"
Rictor worried for a moment he was going to have another Shatterstar-at-the-quarry situation on his hands, with this new kid overreacting to this display that would threaten to snowball into fisticuffs. But Liam didn't seem angry, just a little miffed, so Rictor swallowed his pride and let it go. He mumbled an apology and hopped out of the pool to sit on the edge, keeping his hands out of the water.
"I got lost several times for the first few weeks," he admitted, following Liam's conversation direction. "It took a while before I could even remember how to get up to the second floor where my room is."
It wasn't that Liam was scared of Rictor's powers, it was that they made him feel weird. He didn't know how to describe it other than a feeling of today being a terrible day to be alive. But that feeling went away almost as soon as Rictor stopped using his powers. Carefully, he approached, sniffing discreetly near Rictor's hands. "I know where my room is. And the kitchen. And out here. I haven't figured out how to get to the roof yet."
"I didn't know people can get onto the roof." Rictor, much more of a plant person than an animal person, started to pull his chlorine-scented hand away, but worried about the rudeness of that, too, and stopped himself. "I am happy to stay on the ground, or under it. I would rather not be surrounded by sky."
"But... but being up high, you can see everything!" Liam tried to explain, moving away so he wasn't too much in Rictor's space, "That's much better than not seeing anything underground," knowing what was going on around him was important.
Rictor shrugged and grinned at Liam. "But I can see through the ground. In a way. I can feel footsteps when people walk on the same dirt I'm standing on."
Okay, that was kinda cool. "So.... you're like Toph," please please please have him recognize the reference. Explaining Avatar was kinda confusing.
Luckily for Liam, even though that show premiered when Rictor was all of 6 months old, it stayed on rotation on TV well into his childhood that he was familiar. And no one who had watched that show would mind being compared to Toph. "Yeah, kind of. I mean, I'm not as sensitive as her, but same idea." A loud buzzing noise interrupted him, and he stood up to check his phone at one of the lounge chairs a few feet away. "Oh, I have training with Kane in a few minutes. I need to get ready. It was nice meeting you, Liam."
"Have fun!" Training? For what? Shatterstar mentioned the X-Men and he'd Googled, which had been something of a mistake depending on the website and not all that helpful. Was Rictor an X-Man? No one had mentioned him joining or training and he wasn't sure about all that anyways. Well, something to think about, but nothing to do about it yet. Instead, Liam began swimming, enjoying the water.
