2014-04-28 - Gym Jam

Monet headed into the gym, listening to her MP3 player. She's pretty into it as she heads over to one of the bikes. She planned on doing a whole workout routine. Just to keep herself in toned. Plus the gym was one of the few rooms in the building which she was pretty sure that Jubilee avoided like the plague. So here she was on one of the exercise bikes, singing 'Dark Horse' to herself.

For most schools, Phys ed is somewhere between a relief from the monotony and an annoyance. Xavier's is just a little different. When it is extremely likely that you will be running for your life at some point, it pays to be in good shape. So even the slackards learn to hit the gym. And that goes for slackards who've been here long enough to go from student to teacher, too. Which is why anyone coming into the gym right now will find an eclectic mix of music loaded into the player, and find the truly rare sight of Bobby sweating as he keeps a fast pace on the treadmill.

Having a healing factor was handy, it meant you could skip the athletic tape and boxing gloves and just go bare knuckle. And that is how Rina walks in, wearing a borrowed tank top and shorts from the gym clothes bin "Not feelin so cool Frosty?" giving up on calling him ice cube, frosty while unoriginal just sounded better somehow.

Fiona isn't dressed for the gym. In fact, she has no intention of working out, she's simply exploring the school a bit, trying to keep her mind off things. Sentinels-will-kill-us-all things. Boy things. New kid things. Boy things. Being somewhat in trouble for staying off campus overnight without permission things.

Mostly boy things. Which she desperately needs to avoid thinking about, but the more she tries to keep her mind off it, the easier it slips back to it.

And besides, the sight of Bobby reminds her of Sentinel things. And the sight of Rina reminds her of violence things. So the already pale-looking Fiona looks even moreso, and rather much like she is considering slipping out of the gym.

By contrast, Chenda Gray was just finishing up in the gym. She's just emerging from the locker room with the damp hair and faint telltale glow of a recent shower, clad in flared denims and layered long- and short-sleeved tees. She pauses to heave her battered purple gearslinger up over her shoulders, looking around the noisy room.

Well, there's Rina, looking ready to go three rounds with anyone or anything unlucky enough to be within reach. And Little Miss Perfect, pedaling away with impressive form and a lovely singing voice... the gypsy girl clears her throat unconsciously. Carrying a tune is easy for her, but making it sound good is another matter. And Bobby over on the treadmill. Is that perspiration? Better go say hi...

But wait... there's someone in the doorway who looks like they could use a helping hand, or at least a shoulder. Chenda's eyes soften, and she steps that way, keeping it slow. "Hi!" she says, offering a hand and a warm smile to Fiona. "Welcome to the gym. Don't let it scare you; it's a lot more fun than it looks, promise."

Monet gets off the cycle and walks over, taking her headphones off. She hadn't really met the new girl, Fiona. And only met Chenda a couple of times. And Rina.... well... she'd met her a few times as well - enough times to make Rina dislike her. She smiles around at them. "Yes, there's a lot more scare-worthy stuff in the school to get nervous about. So you're the new girl. Fiona, right? Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix."

Bobby pants a little as he answers Rina, "I... am as cool... as I want to be. Doesn't feel... like a workout... if I don't sweat." The treadmill starts beeping a few moments after he says that, as his time is up, and he presses the button to bring it to a stop. Still panting a bit, he calls to Rina, "You bareknuckle the bag, you clean it. With disinfectant. Been having the same argument with your dad for years. Well... we've tried, but he usually just shreds the bag instead." He scans the newly crodwed room, and gives a series of friendly nods and smiles. One hand goes up to push his hair back, as the sweat makes it fall in his face.

 Richenda giggles. "Monet's name always reminds me of two things. First is the old joke about dealing with Spaniards in the Old World: Look for the one with the longest name. He's in charge!" ;)

Rina grunts looking over at chenda and fiona "More like a necessary evil" then smiles at at chenda with a nod. Monet? yup Rina wasn't going there, she'd had enough. But Bobby? Bobby she just smirks at "that can be arranged" She'd decided in a an instant to let chenda handle the new girl. From rina's previous encounters with the white haired girl she didn't think Fiona wanted to share company, so she obliged and made her way over to the bag. "Unless you'd rather go a round with me?"

Fiona lightly and quickly shakes Chenda's hand-- that thing about how someone shakes your hand being a good representative of who they are? If that's true, Fiona is gentle, somewhat weak, and hesistant. She nods in response to Monet's question, giving up on the idea of getting out before anyone spots her. It's a bit late for that.

In Monet's mind, she got the visual from Fiona's surface thoughts of various things - Julian Keller; Sentinels come with a huge spike of terror whenever she mentally touches on those; the trouble is from... err... kind of not coming back by curfew the previous night because she might have stayed in the city.

Going by that same rule, Chenda is warm and strong, but gentle as well, as she doesn't hold or shake Fiona's small hand for too long, feeling the hesitance there. She shadows a glance and a grin at Monet. "But we just call her Monet," she informs Fiona with a wink. "Your name's Fiona? I'm Chenda. Totally cool to meet you."

She gestures to the rest of the room. "Have a look around if you want. There's bound to be something interesting here. I'm into acrobatics and running, myself, but this place has the gear for anything but hot-tubbing."

Monet then picks up another interesting mental image as she idly scans the new girl's surface thoughts - when Chenda mentions hot tubbing, a few very interesting mental images of Julian in a hot tub pop up.

Monet smiles at Fiona. "They just call me M even more often. I don't want to tax anyone to remember too much. Oh... and you're far too tense about Sentinels by the way, new girl." She heads over to the weights next. "They're unlikely to ever attack here." She sets it for some ungodly large amount. Then smiles at Fiona for a moment before sending her a little telepathic message (Cute boys in hot tubs, on the other hand... there are a few potential prospects. Your choice is pretty good.)

Bobby grabs a gym towl and wipes his face, then heads over to one of the other pieces of equipment. Answering the bit of the conversation he heard, he shakes his head, "For some strange reason, the Professor thought a dorm full of teenagers and a hot tub would be a bad combination. I think he was worried about a sudden uptick in the birthrate of mutants." Bobby says it teasingly as he decides to go to the pommell horse. Though not one of the more physical mutants, Bobby is in exceptionally good shape, and has excellent balance. So he decides to show off a bit. Grabbing the pommells, he goes up into a handstand, and starts doing slow vertical pushups.

Rina smirks "Can you blame him? He did have you runnng asround flirting with everything that had boobs and moved" half teasing Bobby before considering the high low bars but strarted throwing jabs at the bag instead as she warmed up "Hey Frosty, what ya know about Wonderman?"

A dark blush tinges Fiona's face for a moment, before she telepathically replies to Monet, ~Um... thank you? I think.~ But she's also quick to bring her tumbling thoughts under some semblance of control, without hesistation. As if she's used to, despite being a new student at Xavier's, being around others with powers. In face, she's fairly blase about all the students and their varying ablities, unlike most new students, she's not gawking or amazed at there being 'others like her'.

Bobby's comment also earns another blush, and a very guilty look before she forces a quick smile to her face, smoothing down the front of her shirt idly. The fae-like girl wrinkles her nose a little, disapprovingly and concerned as Rina swings at the bag without protection on her hands. ~She is going to bleed on things,~ she points out peevishly to Bobby and Monet.

Of course, Chenda can't hear Monet's mental comments. "No, Monet. You just figure that if anybody could be addressed simply as a letter of the alphabet, it's you," she replies teasingly. "Personally, I think /Men In Black/ did that better."

She naturally looks over as Bobby begins his vertical push-up routine. "Show-off," she labels, not without warmth.

Bobby gets to the end of his count, and brings himself down. Once right side up again, he rolls his brunging shoulders, loosiening them up, "Hey, I don't flirt with everything in a skirt. Who even wears skirts any more?" He winks, then looks around. It takes him a moment to realize who the telepathic voice was, but by process of elimination he focuses on Fiona, "Yeah... that's why I told her she's going to disinfect the bag, after.

Monet smiles a bit as she lifts approximately 10 tons a few times. She thinks to Bobby and Monet, (She's feral, you should be happy she's not letting other fluids get on everything as well.) She puts the weights bak on the rack and sits up to respond to Chenda. "Men in Black involved people who knew they were above and beyond the common rabble, protecting the planet from things which the average person could simply not handle. So... I'll go with your assessment, dear. Except this is real life, and that was fiction." She looks over at Rina. "Have we been playing rough today? You do have a healing factor, don't you?" she says sweetly.

Then gives a little telepathic question over to Fiona, (So is it all boys in hot tubs or just that one? Because as far as cute goes, Mr. Drake isnt too bad. Don't tell him I said that, of course. I have an image to maintain.)

Rina smirks at chenda's comment bout Bobby. She was ignorant of the telepathic conversations buzzing about "Why do you think he's a class clown chenda? He likes attention" too bad for bobby it's hardly ever paid off in the one department his mind is usually in "Disinfect it..shred it...whatever works." But then snarls as Monet pipes up "What the hell do you care? Ain't none of your business anyhow" her quick jabbing gradually builds to a series of one two punches.

A mental image of a certain extremely handsome, tallish, grey-eyed, dark-haired boy (and nicely toned, too) lounging in a hot tub on a penthouse balcony is inadvertantly shared with Monet. Fiona bites her lower lip, looking over at Bobby appraisingly. ~I like Hellion better,~ she replies to Monet. ~Though Mr. Drake is very nice to look at as well--~ and she swallows, looking away and finding a convinent bit of wall to 'hold up' by leaning on it.

Rina's sudden savage snarl makes Fiona jump a little-- and instinctively, a passive, low-level telepathic soothing floats out from her to encompass everyone in the area.

Monet smiles as she sits at the bench press. "Why wouldn't I care? A chain's only as strong as its weakest link, and Jubilee's not here... so I want our next weakest link to be as strong as it possible can be." She peers at Rina's wounds. "In a preferably not so messy way too. Besides... it's just hygenic." She pauses. "Oh wait... big word." She puts her finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Blood is messy and icky to normal people."

"Not quite right, Monet; the Men In Black /were/ common rabble until they earned their initial, and they could come from anywhere. It might be fiction, but stuff like that happens in real life, too," Chenda corrects with a grin. She's been there to see some of that. For now, seeing Bobby doing what he does best, if not always accomplishing what he wants, is enough enjoyment.

The sudden snarl from Rina makes her wince. After a previous incident, irritation isn't her favorite emotion. "Easy, girl..." she cautions. "Remember what happened with Sio. And what tends to happen when you get mad." The sight of more blood on the bag just makes her grimace. Seriously, would gloves really be /that/ much of an issue?

She glances over, seeing Fiona jump, and lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Easy, Fiona. She's testy, but I don't think she'd hurt you. I don't think any of us would." Hopefully Bobby won't have to get out the Frosty suit...

Monet smiles and lies back down on the bench. "Hilariously embarrassing things to herself, I'm sure." She goes back to her warm-up reps, first putting her headphones back on. (Oh you are so cute with the shyness. You know... you could always try to have Mr. Drake and Hellion both in the hot tub. They probably would both go for the whole pixie-ish thing. It's adorable in a midsummer nights dream sort of way, I suppose.)

Monet starts humming a bit along with the song currently playing.

Bobby grabs his water bottle and takes a long drink. He's not sweating any more. In fact, the sweat on his shirt and in his hair is disappearing visibly.. He looks over at Rina nd teases, "Nah, Rina, you're a lot of things, but funny isn't one of them." He grins at her for a moment, not having noticed what Fiona did, he was pretty calm already.

Rina keeps snarling "I'd suggest ya learn some social skills first. Leave me alone till ya do. Cuz whatever yer pushin I ain't interested. Sides, don't care if anyone minds the sight o' blood, we're all gonna see it sometime, better get used to it now" starting to slug it out with the bag, each swing of her fist sending it swinging with a shake and shudder. Rina was familiar with the feel of various power effexcts on herself and knew when someone was trying to be calming, not that it had any less effect....No, but something was irritating rina and irritated she stayed. Looking sidelong at the girl approaching her "Ppreciate the sentiment but ya best stay back. I aint gonna say it again" her knuckles raw and bloody as with each strike at the bag more blood was smeared on it, not even giving herself time to heal what damage she was doing. Yes icky..and this was what she did just cuz she could?!

Monet puts the weights back on the rack and sits up, pushing the headphones off her ears again. She walks over to Rina. "Rina, dear? You realize I could make you stop doing this, right?" she says, motioning at the bloody bag. "Because honestly, it's really gross. I realize that ferals like you need to..." She makes air quotes. "Mark your territory, as it were. And while I'm appreciative that you're not peeing everywhere, the blood? Not much of an improvement. Besides, you're freaking out the new girl."

Fiona's body glows bluish-purple and a telekinetic field settles around Rina, restraining her and not allowing her to move... or injure herself further.

To Bobby and Monet: ~She needs psychiatric help, I believe. Also, this is unsanitary. I am surprised this school allows such things to occur-- it seems rather uncontrolled.~

Bobby turns his head when he sees the glow, "Drop her, please." He gets between Fiona and Rina as he says it, and goes ice form. This is not "I'm going to be silly and make her laugh" ice form, this is "I'm going to stop her from trying to kill another student" ice form. He syas to Rina, "You're really pushing it here, when you know it's causing an issue." He turns and says, "And Fiona? Don't restrain another student without permission when there's a teacher here, OK?" He lets out a long sigh, then turns back to Rina, "Even if you heal, people don't like watching you hurt yourself just for practice, OK?"

Rina growls loudly, now very pissed off! "And I'm sayin, I don't give a damn! get used to it!" oh yes, this wasn't just the 'I better work out' growl or even the 'I'm ticked and need to work off some steam' growl. This was a growl far worse as she was held in place, her knuckles quickly healing as though nothing had happened...unless you looked at the punching bag that is, it told a very different story. Rina looked at Monet but was pretty sure Monet would have stopped her in a far more humiliating way, then looks at fiona...and she's..glowing?! Rina punches the shield bubble, hard! "You're new here so I'm gonna give this warning once, if you can path you stay the fuck outta my head and let me go right now! I'm not a frikkin hamster to put in a ball! Ya got me?!" Even Bobby knew that feral growl, the growl that made you wonder if it wasn't safer to keep the feral caged.

Fiona lifts the bubble up by a couple feet before releasing it, her eyes and skin still glowing as a form-fitting TK shield wraps the small girl's form. To Bobby, she says simply, ~Your discipline here is lax.~ Wherever she came from, she was obviously used to something different. ~But I apologize for any overstepping of roles, Iceman. However, she is obviously in need of psychiatric care.~

"Monet... Fiona... that's not the best way to communicate with Rina," Chenda says, holding up her hands in a placating/cautioning way.

Not, admittedly, that Rina's helping anything. Bobby's not the only one putting a body between Rina and the others now. "Rina, could you calm down? Please? This is one of those times that getting mad's /really/ not gonna help." Then the bubble ascends a couple feet, and she grimaces. "Stay cool, Rina. Just take my hands and think about ice cream..." She at least manages to hold in a remark about chew toys being taken away.

Monet rolls her eyes. Then looks over at Fiona and claps politely. "Not bad actually. But yes, Mr. Drake is right. You really don't need to do that." She telepathically adds, (It runs in her family.) She looks over at Rina again. She giggles at something when she looks at Chenda. (Good one.) she thinks into Chenda's mind.

Bobby speaks very calmsly, mostly addressing Fiona, "Yeah, we're not exactly military discipline here, that's not what we're for. We're to help each other. He turns. "Everyone's got drawbacks to their powers. Some are dangerous, some cause difficulties in communication..." He looks pointedly at Fiona, "And some... are hard to calm down. We deal with it." He turns to Rina, "Now Rina... please. Cool it. I just want everyone to walk away, and we can deal with this when heads are a little more together, OK?" He's being calming, but he's also taking no chances. He's drawn so much of the ambient moisture towards him that there's an actual mist forming around the surface of his ice form.

Monet looks around. "Look I think I have a solution that will make everyone happier." She then taps Rina's forehead lightly as she implants an overpowering urge to do a basic function.

Sleep.

Rina lands on her feet, with a menacing growls, too peeved to look at chenda, her gaze though bounced back and forth from monet to fiona as if debating who to go for first. Holding her arms out as she tipped her head back with a roar, much like her Dad.But...damn that cocky bi--- monet was quick! As Rina calmed down with a yawn teetering on her feet before falling to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Monet looks at the others after Rina collapses. "Don't worry, I just put her to sleep." She adds, "In the good way, not the permanent way. Besides, we all wanted to do it." She looks at them all. "Oh come on, you ALL wanted to. She's going to be quite angry when she wakes up. But then again that won't be different than how she normally is - not as if I worry about her getting vengeance on me anyway. Plus it'll give her time to heal." She looks at Rina's hands, then at the bag distastefully. "I should mention I'm not moving her."

Richenda pages: Oh, Chenda will be /mad/... but that's still hilarious. One second Rina's all 'GRRRRRR-ROWW-ROWW-ROWW!' The next she's on the floor, out like a light. Possibly drooling. :P

Fiona regards the knocked out form of Rina for a moment, but seeing the girl wasn't going to be injured where she had fallen... ~I am not either. She is undisciplined. Sleeping on the floor may be instructive, and will not cause any damage,~ she points out to Monet. She looks peevish again. ~I am going back to my dorm room.~ And with that, she turns on a heel and departs in silence.

Bobby sighs and hangs his head, "Great... that leaves me to clean the bag. He eyes the bag, then thinks of a trick he used the other day on a completely different mess. The blood smears crystalize and flake off the bag, then bobby freezes the whole mess on the floor into one piece and dumbs it in the trash. He turns to Monet, "Any idea how long she'll be out?

Monet smiles as she looks over the sleeping Rina. "Just until morning, 8 hours of sleep for a good litle feral. Gotta get up bright and early to be in a killing rage, right?" She looks over at Bobby. "Sorry that I'm leaving this to you, Mr. Drake. But I'm not faculty. Pretty sure putting the kiddies to bed is more of a 'staff' thing."

Chenda blinks at the mental voice in her head; the cultured, almost melodic sound tells her instantly whose it is. She darts a glare at Monet, though the sudden rosiness of her cheeks hints a a guilty thought beforehand. (I love her like a sister, but then this happens and I keep thinking of terriers...) comes the embarrassed reply to Monet.

And Rina won't even look at her. "Rina... focus... do /not/ attack Fiona. Or anybody else," she says firmly, trying to keep this from getting as bloody as that punching bag.

But then Monet speaks again, and suddenly Rina falls! Chenda yelps and grabs for her, catching the muscular girl to keep her from collapsing all the way to the hard gym floor. "Oof!"

And Monet gets another glare. (Okay, that solved the problem... so why do I want to thank you and smack you at the same time? And she's not heavy, so that's not it.)

Bobby reverts to his human formso he can help carry the unconscious girl without causing frostbite. Unaware that the silent exchange going on is more than just glaring, Bobby gives Chenda a grateful look, "thanks for the help there."

Monet walks past Chenda and Rina. She gives a thought to Chenda first, "Envy would be the answer to both of your questions. And I think you meant 'terror' not 'terrier.' Good night, Chenda." And off she goes, giving a little wave first.

Ignoring the wave, she turns to help Bobby. "S'nothin'. Will she be okay when she wakes up?" Sure, she does figure Monet's above lying about what she did, but sleeping meds sometimes have side effects.

Bobby nods at Chenda, "We're talking Logan's daughter here. We'll be lucky if she doesn't wake up halfway there." Bobby takes a few moments to get situated so he's bearing most of the weight, without his hands ending up anywhere they shouldn't be, then heads towards the student elevator. "You know... I spend more time cleaning, carrying, and peacemaking around here than teaching."

"Oh... in that case, I'd better let you carry her," Chenda murmurs, wincing. "I think you'd probably fare better against an angry hyena than me. This wouldn't be much different." Though she does stay close by. Somebody's got to push the elevator buttons, after all.