5113/Futures talk

Futures talk
Date of Scene:	06 August 2018
Location:	Xavier's School, Westchester, New York
Synopsis:	Tatum, Kitora, and Erika talk about future plans.
Cast of Characters:	Deadzone, Rift, Souvenir

---

Deadzone has posed:
Sitting in the rec room, Tatum is planning her syllabus for the new year. She keeps an eye on the students that have to remain in the school during the summer. Some of them because they don't have families to go to, others because their mutations make them so they cannot be out in public without causing some of the more mutant hating people to cause a fuss.

Rift has posed:
Kitora Alua is idly throwing a pingpong ball up in the air while reading a mutant fashion magazine that has an orange-skinned woman on the front. "Weird - she's an alien, not a mutant... I guess it counts." At least that's how Kitora sees things.

In actuality, she's laying ON THE CEILING with a red glow around her throwing the also-glowing ball toward the ground - and it's actually returning up to her in violation of many laws of physics. She was there a while and then started giggling at what she read, and her concentration lapsed: the ball stopped glowing when she tossed it and it fell and bonked Tatum right on the head.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir wanders in, checking her phone and hmmming. She looks around and waves at everybody, checking her bag briefly. Red plain overshirt, skintight leather gloves, Icon For Hire t-shirt, studded belt, black jeggings, black converse with hashtag lacings in neon. Lots of black eyeliner and mascara.

She looks up at the ceiling and waves at Kitora, "Hey! How's it going?" She hmmms and looks around at the people in the room. "And hi, person I don't think I have ever talked to before!" at Tatum.

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum blinks at the sudden bonk on her noggin from the ball. She looks up to the ceiling and arches a brow at Kitora. The null keeps her powers to herself though, not affecting the young mutant by causing her to fall. Instead, she reaches for the ball and tosses it back up in the air to the ruby menace. "Remember, you have to maintain focus, even when the world around you is distracting. THere has to always be a part of you that is on task." She would know. If she doesn't maintain focus, no one in this room would have access to their gifts.

Seeing Erika walk in, Tatum returns the wave. "Hello yourself, miss. I'm Ms. O'Neal, the Home Ec. Teacher. I've been taking some time to myself for the summer, but have to start getting things ready for the new semester. Will I be seeing you in any of my classes?"

Rift has posed:
Rift blinks. "Hmmmm." She looks 'up' at Tatum. "Maybe I tossed my ball a bit too high and it grazed your... aura?" she asks. "Sorry." She then stands up and jumps, turning in midair to land on the ground... and then turns her glow off. "Phew, I'm hungry." (A common thing she says.) "Oh, hello Erika. I was accidentally bonking teachers in the head with pingpong balls." She smiles faintly. "Not sure if the ball got too close to her and she nulled my aura or if I lost focus... probably some of both..." She shrugs.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir umms... "I don't know yet, I'm still figuring my schedule out. There's lots of stuff I want to take. Can I even do all that stuff with gloves and long sleeves? I have to figure out some of the side stuff and I don't know much about the teachers yet. What kind of things do you know how to do other than cook? I'm feeling really naked right now with the souvenirs I don't have on me right now, and I am having a hard tie figuring out how to get different ones. Not without doing stuff that's going to make people kind of nervous who might ground me."

She nods, "Well, I haven't raided the kitchen yet tonight, maybe I can do that later? I dunno." She shrugs and smiles and ponders the state of the refrigerator a little bit, trying to remember what was served today.

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum winks over to Rift. "You're always hungry. THank goodness for you I always make enough food to feed a small army. THere are tupperware containers in the freezer if you don't feel like making something yourself. And if you do do your own cooking, remember to clean up after yourself.

The gothabilly teacher turns her attention back to Erika. "I teach cooking, sewing, gardening and budgetting, as well as some other skills that are good to have to 'adult' effectively when you finally leave school. And if you don't feel comfortable in a regular class, I do a special one where powers are nullified to allow people the chance to at least enjoy themselves and try something."

Rift has posed:
Rift blinks. "Souveniers?" She tilts her head. "Oh - that thing where you can borrow someone else's talent?" She blinks. "You don't have any such things here for some reason?" she finally concludes, a bit uncertain about what's going on there. "I can help you with gymnastics and cooking... I think I told you I'd wear a headband for a while... I don't have it on me but it should be ready by now I think?"

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir nods, "I'm taking notes on how to cook! I've been writing down how I cooked and cleaned up when I do kitchen raids. And I am already a bookkeeper. I did books for two businesses."

She hmms, "Yeah, gymnastics would rock. I'm not sure when I would need that but I don't expect half of the weird I find out on the town. And probably! If you wore it when you did it."

"I was wearing Laura's old socks, but she has a really weird head space, and it kind of creeped out Colossus. I should find something a little better prepared for stuff like that. Like, with a fighting style that doesn't smash my hands that has some better advice for afterward maybe."

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum covers her mouth to hide a hint of a smile. "Perhaps you should learn how to do combat the old fashioned way. THen you could *supplement* your hard earned knowledge with that that you gain through your gift." She puts aside the tablet she was using to work on her syllabus. "Or find someone whose style and body type better matches your own."

Rift has posed:
Rift just goes silent for now as she watches the two of them interact as she sits down. "I don't know what I'm going to do know. I'm done with high school..." She sighs softly. "I've had dreams... but it's a tough row to hoe if I want to do it..."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir throws up her hands. "I AM! I've been working on cardio and punching trees and heavy bags and weights and stuff every day. But a /VAMPIRE/ isn't going to care about my yellow belt. They moved FAST, and they had boosted strength, and she got stabbed all the way through when she tried to jump on me and complained about me ruining her shirt. But nobody wants to help me find somebody to make one." She hmphs, glaring at the ground. "If this keeps up, I am going to need to like, start looking for heroes somewhere and start begging for help. And that's just the one! I have a bunch of things I might want to know in an emergency, and I feel like everybody wants to lock me up on campus until I am fifty turning me into Batman before I can go outside to even visit my parents."

She suddenly gets sad and looks down, drooping. "I /like/ my parents, but it's kind of a trip and it's dangerous there." She sighs and bites her lip, eyes getting a little bit wet. "And I'm not a badass like Laura or Tyler that can deal with stuff on their own."

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum leans back, her arches her brows in surprise at the outburst. She waits for Erika to say what she needs to get out and nods her head slowly. "Well, its not like fighting vampires is something we do on a regular basis. You might not have been ready for that, no matter what your skills are that you have gathered. And if you don't feel like you are learning anything here with us, you are not being forced to stay here. Everyone is here because they chose to be, Erika. And not all of us are meant for combat. It took me a long time to find where I fit in with the school here. Sometimes, you need to find other ways to help then being in the middle of combat."

She tilts her head to the side to look over to Rift. "What sort of dream was that? Perhaps we can help?"

Rift has posed:
Rift asks, first, "How far away do your parents live? If it's relatively close, I could learn the location and open a portal for you..." She then looks at Tatum. "I always wanted to be one of the X-Men. I think I could show an asset for the team. I know it's a hard life... but it's what I wanted to do ever since I came here... and I turn eighteen next week."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir tilts her head at Rift, "Sunnydale, in Bludhaven. That's a bit of a drive, it takes awhile and last time, I ran out of sunlight. And then they tried to eat me. And I am super glad I had a Laura souvenir with me, but it always seems like it starts other problems because she's basically an assassin. Now I'm scared to go back, and I miss my mom. I'm learning lots here. Except nobody ever listens to me."

She sighs. "I don't know WHAT I want to do. Maybe get married and get a nice job or something. I feel bad watching my friends getting hurt and I want to help, but I don't know if I want to spend decades learning how to do all the stuff I can pick up out of a box in ten seconds."

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum hears Rift's dream and smirks, chuckling. "Well, you would make travelling a hell of a lot easier. And no having to use Limbo as a waypoint, which is always nice." Yeah, Tatum can live without going to Illyana's realm. "I will mention you to the team. I won't make any promises one way or the other, but I will at least make sure your name is at least in the minds of those that make those decisions."

She has to laugh then. "Okay, Bludhaven isn't *that* far away. I would be more then happy to drive you there on the weekends. And no one is asking you to take decades to learn things, but it's a good idea to not rely solely on your powers. After all, things can always happen to take them away. Like being in a room with me."

Rift has posed:
Rift smiles faintly. "My range is limited - I've only managed five miles or so. Any further and the portal becomes unstable..." She sighs softly. "I can chain-portal to New York City because I've practiced..." She hmmmms.

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir opens her hands. "But they *are*! Because I just want some souvenirs for emergencies and people are like "Well, if you just train really hard for ten years, you can do it on your own and wouldn't that be better? And they ignore me when I say I already am training. And um... thank you. We have to get going early though so we can be done and back here before the sun goes down." She hmmms and thinks a bit, tilting her head and contemplating. "..Limbo?"

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum ahhs to Rift. "You sound a lot like Pixie when she first came to us. Not here. I don't even know if she exists here." THere is a soft sigh and she closes her eyes and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't talk about that place, but it gets confusing at times. You will get better as you practice. And I know everyone says that, but that's because it's true."

"Erika, I never said to only train. I said to have training of your own to act as a backbone to your power. Don't just rely on your power, but use it as a bonus to what you know. And yes, that means perhaps years of training. Guess what, that's what every one of the X-Men do. We train, daily, to make sure that we are the best that we can be. And even then, sometimes we find ourselves surprised by the situations we get into. And you know, if we left Saturday morning we could stay overnight and come back here Sunday night."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir nods. "That's you. And I would be tired Sunday from not sleeping? Wait, you make stuff stop working. Does that work when you're asleep? Hmmmm..."

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum nods her head slowly. "It never turns off. When I'm sleeping, I can't keep it under control like I do when I'm awake. When I'm awake, I can almost keep it tight enough to my skin that it's touch only. When I'm sleeping, I fill the room with my field. A bit more then that, actually. It's why I said that contol is so important, and that you have to learn to keep it up even when your distracted, because if I slip up, people in the room with me suddenly lose their gifts and that's not always a good thing. Some students need their gifts just to survive day by day."

Her brow furrows for a moment then. "You don't sleep, Erika?"

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir makes a little bit of a face. "Every bedsheet or blanket remembers somebody sewing it or washing it, so when I touch them they are in my head lurking. And they don't do anything, but I can't sleep with it there. They rescued me because I was awake for three or four days. Sleeping pills and all, nothing worked."

She frowns. "For awhile, I had to get zapped by Miss Betsy and nulled so I could sleep. Now I sleep on a bunch of live clover. It's alive so I don't click with it."

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum chuckles as she figures out what Erika is asking. "You are wondering if it can be arranged that I sleep in the room next to yours. I don't see why not. I used to do that for a few different students. One couldn't sleep because his power was walking in others dreams."

Souvenir has posed:
Erika Kristasdottir umms, "I'm okay right now, I just sleep naked and smell like grass until I have a morning shower, but I don't have a special bed in Sunnydale. So I have to come back at night. And it's still kind of a drive? So if I leave late, it's too easy to forget to leave early enough to be back in New York before the sun sets." She sighs some.

Deadzone has posed:
Tatum bounces one leg up and down on the other, letting her high heel sway from the pivot point of her knee. "If I still had my car, I'd say we just put the symbols on it that make it so vampires can't touch it, but I don't even know if that works on this world." She sighs softly. "We'll find some way to work things out for you."