Participants:
| Scene Title | If I Was Less Mature |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A convergence of three in the lobby of the Suresh Center |
| Date | September 11, 2010 |
There's a group of kids, twenty in all that bear the white shirts, green sashes with badges sewn aplenty on them gathered in the lobby. Headbands, ponytails, braids, pigtails, you name it. Girl Scouts, on a field trip on a saturday afternoon and to the Suresh Center is the plan and it seems the tail end of the tour that they were being given by Brennan who had recruited Mynama to help him.
They'd been around to the lecture rooms, sat in on a demonstration of some abilities that were more benign than dangerous - This was a field trip and no one wanted anyone to possibly be in danger - followed by a lunch in the cafeteria, visit to the other floors open to the public, gardens and then back in. Other people meander about the lobby, coming and going from their classes, lectures, appointments, you name it as Brennan stands beside the black woman in her volunteer garb, a genial smile on his face.
"And so you see, this is a place where people can come, you or others who maybe have an ability, and learn to be in better control of it, help others with their abilities and even take some classes held by those who teach things. I hope that this has been a very interesting tour for you. I know it's been my pleasure"
"Lets thank Doctor Brennan for taking time out of his day to show us around. Lets thank Mynama as well for her help" The leader and one of the adults with the group of adolescents who clap vigorously for the two of them. 'Thank you Mynama! Thank you Doctor Brennan" in chorus before they start to break up and head off towards the doors. Time for them to board the bus, head back to where they will be picked up by parents and Brennan watches them go beside the dark skinned volunteer, glancing towards individuals who enter or might be sitting in the Lobby.
"Well that went well"
Exiting from one of the rooms, a slick sheen of sweat present on his forehead, Linus huffs and puffs as he heads for the nearest water cooler. Pulling out one of the small cone shaped cups and filling it with water, he downs it in one gulp before filling it again. This time he dumps it on his head, wetting his hair. Throwing the cup away, he runs both hands through his growing mane, matting it down and getting the sweat off his forehead. The cooler just happens to be quite close to Brennan and the volunteer, who he looks over curiously a moment, but doesn't say anything just yet.
"Better than the last group, at least," Mynama adds, her bright smile gaining a relief to it as the last of the uniformed girls exits.
She heaves a sigh that moves her thin shoulders up and down with great effort. It's not like the girls took a lot out of her, and it isn't how she would ideally spend her time at the Center. But still, there are worse things than getting roped into volunteer work. And it makes Oscar happy, and it gets him to let her use the car.
When Linus enters the lobby, Mynama can't help but watch him in his desperate attempt to rehydrate himself. An interested sort of smile curls in one corner of her mouth, and her dark eyes sparkle. "That guy," she says, nodding toward him and glancing from Linus to Doctor Brennan and back again.
"That guy's hot."
Brennan's hands are in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels, the tails of his white doctor's coat swaying. When Mynama gestures with her eyes in Linus's direction, Brennan swivels to see who she's talking about. He's familiar and Brennan has to scour his mind to remember the name. "Want an introduction?" He's not gonna say whether he thinks the guy is hot or not. He's doctor Brennan and very much a one woman kind of guy.
Now if harper were here, maybe Harper would chime in on the whole hot factor.
He doesn't wait for an answer from Mynama, already heading over that way and expecting the woman to follow. "Linus" He can't remember the last name for some reason. "How is it going? You attending one of the classes here?" Obviously. "Hows the control coming along?"
Loading another cup of water and guzzling it down, Linus doesn't catch the two walking in his direction until he bends back up. He wipes a slight bit of water off his lips with the back of a hand, nodding to the man of the two. "Doctor," he says with slightly short breath. "It's going well, actually. I'm a lot less nervous about.. well.." His eyes drift to Mynama, then back to the doctor. ".. about making a mistake."
Mynama is more than a little surprised at Brennan's reaction to her joke, but she stifles a giggle behind tightly held lips as she walks over with him, the points of her thinly-heeled boots clicking across the floor. When Linus looks at her, she dips her chin demurely, her smile twisting coyly. It doesn't matter if he's at least four years her senior. He's cute, and he's Evolved. Like her.
"So what do you do?" she asks, unable to hold it in any longer. The Portuguese accent to her English clear from the start.
There are only so many things that could make a man sweat like that. "Are you a pyro?" He can't be a speedster - she's never seen a speedster sweat. "Or can you just withstand great amounts of heat? High temperatures?" Maybe they've been testing him in an oven. How cool is that?
Brennan doens't have a clue what it is that Linus does, but there's negation settling over him, giving him a break from his ability. "Take a break" A gesture with his hand towards the raised platform, with it's couches and chairs, perfect to take a few moments in. "I have you covered. Then you can go back to practicing" If that's what he was actually doing. "Linus, this is Mynama, one of our volunteers"
Linus feels a wave of relaxtion roll over him as Brennan's negation ability shuts off his power. He's never had that bad of a control over his ability that he could just explode randomly, but the thought that he doesn't need to worry about it all is reassuring. "Thanks, Doctor." He turns back to Mynama, and if he even saw her coy little smile, he doesn't say anything. He probably wouldn't be able to tell, anyway. "Oh, I'm a heliokinetic. I absorb sunlight, and expel it for different means."
"Really?"
Mynama is entranced, her eyes wide and her mouth in a wide, open grin. "That's amazing. I've never heard of that before." She looks to Brennan, her amazement altered slightly as she narrows her eyes. "Have you ever heard of that? Is it common?" It can't be that common. But if there was even a chance, she might share it. And it would be a spectacular ability indeed. Without waiting for a response from the doctor, Mynama looks back to Linus. "What sort of means? What do you do with it?"
"Can't say that I've ever heard of that before. But most people's abilities are pretty unique. There's not another, I've been told, that they've come across who can do negation just like I do" Brennan points out. "I have yet to come across any two peoples abilities that are identical" Brennan points out. "Linus, what have you learned to convert it into so far?"
"Uhh, well.. only heat and light together right now. I can control the intensity though. I can go anywhere from a tanning bed up to I've been told 2,500 degrees Celsius." He stuffs his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, the soft cloth of his t-shirt being dripped on from his hair. "I've also been told I can probably learn to do one or the other, produce light by itself or heat by itself. I also never get tired as long as I get sun exposure, which is cool.. but I get sick if I don't." He looks at Mynama, smiling. "Are you Evolved, too?"
Mynama nods fervently, her smiling widening (as if that were possible) before it falters and is replaced by a more somber expression. "I have tested SLC positive, but I do not know what my ability is. But I am learning all I can about what other people can do, so that when I do manifest, I will be able to control it. Like you're working on doing." Her smile gains strength again, and she looks from Linus to Brennan.
"It'll come, some day" Brennan assures the teenager. "You'll manifest before my youngest children, I promise you that, likely. There used to be a power detector who volunteered here. She would touch people and let them know what they were supposed to be, what they could do. Didn't matter if they were unmanifested"
There's a flicker of sadness that travels across Brennan's face and disappears just as quick. "Theres' groups they offer here Linus, where you can get with others who have manifested as well, or unmanifested, and talk. Sometimes it's good to have the support of their peers" This is directed to Mynama as well.
"I don't think that's really my thing, Doc." Linus shrugs his shoulders a little awkwardly with his hands being tucked in his back pockets. "But it's good to know it's there if I ever do decide I need it." His attention turns to Mynama, nodding. "That's good. Control is important. It may be the most important thing, honestly. Just look at.. well.. there are a lot of examples. I don't think they need to be verbalized." He lets out a yawn, hand coming out from a pocket to cover his mouth. "If I were you, though, I'd want to have something simple. Trust me, you don't want something like I have."
"But it's so cool!" In a very not-cool way. Mynama, too, shakes her head at Brennan. "I've been to the start of a couple, to get the coffee going. Those people don't want to have abilities, or they see them as…as curses. But it's so empowering. You're really somebody with one. Your own person." Someone who can't be stopped.
'Some of them are, see it as a curse, something to be shoved far deep down inside, bend to a knee in a church and beg for it to be taken away" Brennan agrees with Mynama. "There's others that embrace it, make a living out of it and are productive with it. Or like Linus here, trying to learn it and control it" Brennan smiles, a glance to his watch. He sucks in air through the corner of his mouth, sucking through his back teeth and shakes his head. 'And I have appointments I need to get to, patch folks up. Linus, sit, talk with Mynama."
Linus shoots Brennan this look of utter shock that morphs into the childish look of 'Do I have to?'. Yeah, stick the socially awkward nerd with the excited girl who thinks he's hot, but has no clue how much a lamer he is. This will go swimmingly. "Uh.. yeah, alright. Thanks, Doctor." He waits for the Doctor to make his leave before he gestures towards some seats, making his way over. "Trust me, just because you have an ability doesn't mean you can't be stopped. People fear us and target us, exploit us and kill us at every turn. It's not as magical and awesome as it is in your dreams." He sits down, raising his arms in a flabergasted expression. "Haven't you ever heard of the X-Men?"
Mynama sits, but she rolls her eyes at Linus's little lecture, ultimately shaking her head, her eyes closed to expose the color she's painted the lids with. "I'm not an idiot, Linus," she scoffs back at him. "I go to the movies." Of course she's seen X-Men. Seen. Not read. "And they were awesome and they fought for the greater good and stuff. And it's only the really bad people that get locked away." Oh yes. She's heard the rumors and stories and all else. The internet is a glorious thing for that sort of information. "Like serial killers." And atomic bombs.
The hands Linus had raised continue to be raised, but now they back up, palms exposed forward in an apologetic and defensive position. "Okay, okay. Relax." He lowers his arms, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Still, there are people that fear us and would hurt us. I agree that the X-Men are the good guys. They fight oppression and try to save lives at the same time. It would be like if there were super powered Jews during the Holocaust that tried to fight the Nazi regime and teach them about humanity at the same time." He stops, tilting his head to digest what he just said. "You know what, scrap that. Just know that nothing in the world is all good. There are bad things to come with everything."
Mynama is quieter then, and she narrows her eyes as she looks sideways at Linus. "Yeah," she says after a moment, her tone edged with the razor-sharpness that is keenest at her age. Linus, as 'hot' as he may be, doesn't know her. How dare he make presumptions on her worldview? "Because, of course I need that lesson." Affronted, Mynama stands and starts to walk in the general direction of the employee breakroom, her gait crisp, and the click of her heels giving her strength.
"Hey!" Linus stands up quickly, his long legs giving him an advantage as he covers the distance, then circles around to get in front of the teenage girl. "I don't know what kind of lessons you do or don't need, Mynama." He backpedals to walk beside her, but still face her. "But let me tell you something. Have you ever accidentally melted half a car seat, and if you picked the wrong one, you would have killed somebody? Ever fallen asleep at night, worried that in your sleep you might set the apartment building on fire? Worried to go out in public because you're worried you could expose yourself and scare people?" Finally he actually gets in her path, holding his arms out to stop her. "So take your teenage attitude and.. and.." He thinks about what to say for a moment. ".. and get rid of it, or something!" Yeah, real threatening.
"Get away from me!" Mynama cries, her voice carrying into the corners of the high ceiling and echoing back, making heads turn to look at her as she recoils from Linus's hands. "I won't be like you. I won't let my ability sneak up on me. I'm going to have it under control from day one, because I know it's coming. Hell, if I could make it manifest? If I could find out right now what it is that makes me special? I'd do it. And I'd put you in your place."
She steps in a circle, leaning forward just slightly and keeping her eyes on Linus in the process. "You think you know me? You think you are in any place to give me advice on how I should see the world? I have eyes, Linus. I don't need to borrow yours. Mine work just fine."
Linus folds his arms over his chest, his ears burning hot with embarrasment when he sees people turning to look at the commotion. He looks around at them, then back to Mynama as she screams at him. "You know what? Fine. I'm glad you got the head start that I didn't. I really am. I'm glad you're here and ready and excited to enter this brave new world you've painted for yourself in your mind." He unfolds his arms to tap at his temple for effect. "Forget it." He throws his arms up, head shaking. "I'm out of here." Then he turns and heads for the door, not looking back.
Were Mynama less mature, she might stick her tongue out at Linus as he retreats. As it is, she simply stands her ground, staring at his back as he marches out of the Center. With confidence, she tosses her head back, lifting her face to the air in prideful victory, before she too turns to continue on to the breakroom. Time to sign out of the volunteer log and head 'home.'