X-MEN KITCHEN
Despite its size, there is still something cozy about the mansion's first floor kitchen-- the elegant dark wood theme continues in from the hallway, and, paired with the terra cotta-color, glass tiled floor, it creates a warm environment for people to cook, gather and eat. Inviting incandescent light is provided primarily by concealed recessed lighting and attractive pendant fixtures hanging from the wood-paneled ceiling. A large, antique table with matching chairs sits in the center of the room, and the appliances, while modern and of a professional grade, seamlessly blend in with the granite countertops and cabinetry, which lines the perimeter of the kitchen. The refrigerator and pantry always seem to be stocked with a variety of ingredients, drinks, canned goods, fresh fruit and vegetables. The view from the window over the sink shows the neatly kept lawn leading up to the woods past the backyard.
X-Men Time
Friday, November 18th
Enjoying the solitude of the strangely uninhabited kitchen,
Vlad moved with the subtle grace of a man who was doing something only to keep himself physically preoccupied. So far, his master plan to gather up the students took a back-burner to the sudden onslaught of homework and Danger Room sessions that had taken up the majority of his time. Standing idly in front of the kitchen sink with his eyes fixated on the gloomy scene out the window, Vlad sunk his beefy hands up to his elbow in the thick suds that he soaked the dishes in. One one side of the sink was a stack of dirty dishes that had probably been left by less-conscient
ious students earlier that morning and throughout the lunch rush. One the other was a stack of glistening plates, bowls, and silverware that was stacked perfectly, like tetris, in the drying rack and onto towels on the countertop. Some students would balk at the thought of cleaning up messes that didn't belong to them but Vlad considered these quiet, finesse-filled moments some of the best training a guy like him could get. He did look at them as filth, he saw stacks of delicate items that he mustn't break. So far he'd only snapped one teacup, and that had only been the handle and he convinced himself that wasn't so bad as he chucked the annihilated ceramic shards into the bin.
Saving the pots and pans for last, Vlad drained the water and the loud, sucking sound of water spiraling down a drain rent the air for a split second and then was gone. In a swift motion, he cleaned the sink, dumped the drain trap, and was filling the sink with steaming water. Meanwhile, he wondered how his little personal mission was going to fare: talking to Shade. Vlad had plenty of time to think about what a student group needed and he came up with one finite conclusion: they needed not to be coddled. Teaching and informing the younger ones about the potential war that was to come was the only goal. Shade's uses were potentially limitless, depending on his level of interest. With a pan and washcloth in hand, Vlad began on the skillets and pots, scrubbing most clean in one clean swipe. The only thing he didn't know was how to talk to Shade, but he hoped that wouldn't matter and it couldn't hurt to ask.
Light came into the kitchen, looking more a mess than usual, wearing a man's button-up shirt and black sweatpants with her hair pulling to the side. She shuffled into the kitchen a bit before she spotted Vlad, and letting out a loud sigh, she decided he was more tolerable company than any other annoying kids around. Figuring she could stick it out for as long as she needed to eat, Light moved over to the fridge and opened the door, pulling out a water bottle and an apple, her usual snack. Though, figuring she needed to eat more than just that, especially considering her recent illness and loss of appetite for the first couple of weeks during Shade's absence, she reached in again, rummaging around before she pulled out some cheese, mayo and sandwich meat. Closing the door, Light stood and walked by the pantry, grabbing a loaf of bread, then moved to the counter, laying out all her ingredients and pulling a plate from the cabinet above her and beginning to assemble her food.
The sound of steel wool on the stainless steel pot Vlad was scrubbing stopped him from immediately detecting Light's presence. She was almost his total opposite in every way - light on her feet and sour in disposition, especially lately. He continued scrubbing and mulling over the other possibilities for people he wanted to have beside him for this student group. The idea of who was leader had been unimportant until a few days ago when he realized that someone else, someone less than savory could rise to the occasion. So far he knew he wanted Flame by his side, and Shade if he could manage it. Shana too was a fine option as well, one that he intended to follow through with if Shade wasn't willing to comply. With her soft footsteps and the rhythmic whirring of steel wool along the rapidly diminishing pile of pots and pans, the only noise that clued Vlad into the room's lack of vacancy was the sound of the refrigerator pulling open. He looked over and saw Light, immediately noticing that today, like most of the other days since the ordeal on Halloween, she was dressed considerably down. He could recall several occasions where her clothing had been perhaps too provocative for his tastes, but always had she shown a keen ability to dress herself to get the attention that she wanted. These clothes did not indicate a desire for attention, though she was still probably getting it, whether she liked it or not. "Good morning," he said on instinct as he returned his attention on the sink, where he was running the washcloth over the last of the cast iron skillets. Despite his personal feelings about the girl's behavior, Vlad couldn't help but notice the distinct shift in her personality and added, "I vos going to make some tea if you vont some," without looking over at her as he drained the sinks, leaving the stack of clean dishes to sparkle in the artificial light.
Light had been hoping to avoid any conversation with Vlad, or anyone for that matter, but hearing him speak, her eyebrow twitched, unnoticeable behind the sheet of hair that seemed to always hang over one eye. "Hey," she replied to the Russian's greeting rather dully and quietly as she went about her business, putting together bread, meat and cheese. Looking at the food, her stomach began to churn again, the nausea returning, though she didn't quite feel like hurling yet. Pushing past the feeling, she returned the items to their spots in the pantry and fridge, then went back to her sandwich. Light didn't respond right away upon hearing Vlad's question, but instead she reached out for a miniature bag of plain potato chips, setting them on the plate beside her food and moving her things to the table. "Does it help with nausea?" she finally questioned after a few seconds as she took a seat, resting her head in her hand and looking rather pitiful while she began picking at her food.
While Light busied herself making a sandwich, Vlad dried his hands on the towel that hung over the oven handle and then replaced it so that it hung evenly without a bit of fuss. Gingerly grabbing the kettle from the stovetop, he pinched the top to pull it off and stuck it under the faucet to catch the steady stream of cold water that poured in. "I know a recipe that could help," he replied, looking over to the girl as she took her seat at the table and looked pathetically at the food she seemingly had no interest in. Being a people person as he was, it didn't take too long for him to postulate a number of ideas as to why she was acting in such a way - boy issues were tough on the spirit, and pregnancy wasn't an option he'd rule out either given the fact that he knew her and Shade to be rather involved. But, Vlad was a gentleman and also knew when to keep his big mouth shut, despite the churning of his mind's cogs. With the kettle over a high flame, Vlad pulled out two mugs and set them side-by-side. In one he draped a teabag that read "Russian Caravan" and smelled like rich, black tea, but in the other he squeezed a fair amount of honey into the bottom. He went to the fridge to pull out a lemon from the citrus drawer, and on his way to the cutting board that he extracted from the pile of clean dishes he'd so carefully tended to, he grabbed a light brown, gnarled looking root from a bowl on top of the microwave. He then retrieved the grater and a teaball from a drawer to his side and started grating the root into fine pieces that took him a moment longer than most thanks to the finesse he was currently practicing. The sharp, spicy smell filled the area around him, and soon he'd scooped the white shavings into the teaball and poured the piping hot water over it, melting the honey and setting the rest to steep. Holding the mug at the top, Vlad walked over and set it down next to Light's plate as the distinct smell of ginger and honey wafted up on tendrils of steam. "Ginger, it's good for upset stomach," he explained as he pinched the lemon to squirt it on top.
Stepping into the kitchen Flame raised a brow at the still figure of Light at the table, tempted to make an immature face at her. Deciding against any interaction with the girl, she instead gave a wave of her fingers towards Vlad before sticking her head into the fridge. Dressed in little more than a sport bra and shorts, she searched around for a bottle of water to take with her down to the gym or Danger Room.
Light barely heard Vlad's words, though she registered them, but gave no reply, simply continuing to poke at the sandwich on her plate. Deciding to ignore the meaty part of her food, she lifted her head to allow herself to use both hand to pull open the chips, the bag crinkling loudly as the top split open between her fingers. She dumped the chips onto her plate and set the bag aside, returning her elbow to the table and her head to her palm. Picking up one chip and popping it into her mouth, the girl stared down at her plate and chewed quietly. After a few more chips, the smell of the tea drifted her way, tickling her nose and nearly making her sneeze. As Vlad brought the mug over, Light sniffled a bit and looked up at the Russian, then sat up, reaching out for the mug. Picking it up, she held it up to her nose, sniffing as if to be sure he hadn't poisoned the liquid, then tilted the glass and took a sip. However, Flame walked in at that precise moment, making the girl take too large of a drink, and she swallowed quickly and blew out a puff of air, the heat of the liquid having scorched her tongue a little. "Thanks," she finally said to Vlad, her voice very quiet, almost meek, as she set the mug down, watching Flame as she paraded around the kitchen in barely a piece of clothing. Light thought about saying something more to one of them, though she had no idea what, especially since she'd had nary another soul to speak to, nor had she really done anything productive lately, and neither was it in her nature to make small talk. So, the girl took another sip of the tea, popped a few more chips into her mouth, and kept quiet as a mouse.
Light's accidental gulp of steaming tea was not missed by Vlad, who was looking down somewhat concerned at the girl seated before him. He looked up when he heard the door shut and saw Flame, catching her wave and the length of her claws as she proceeded to the fridge after a mere wave. True to form, the sight of her in clothing that closely resembled garments he'd taken off before was enough to attract his eye, especially as she leaned into the refrigerator. Gentleman enough to tear his gaze away after a fleeting indulgence, Vlad went over to the stove and leaned against the sink so that his entire body was facing both girls. He wanted to straight up ask Light if she was all right but a girl like that wasn't about to dump her soul out in the middle of the kitchen, in front of a girl Vlad knew her to have spewed acid on. Or to him, for that matter. They certainly hadn't made a habit of crossing paths. Despite all that, he could sense her malcontent and was compelled to try his best to soothe it in whatever platonic way he could. So, he nodded towards her and asked "None off that seem any good to you? I can make soup too, if your stomach is vot's wrong."
Grabbing up the bottle she needed, Flame gave a glance over at the two as Vlad went through his big brother routine. It caused her to give a sigh and a bit of a sad smile, amused by his need to do this but also sad how it affected Korvka. The mention of Light possibly being ill made Flame take a wider arc around her as she headed into X-Men Hall 1st, as if the sickness would magically jump over to her from the girl.
Light let her eyes wander up to Vlad's face as she took another sip of her tea, this time with much more caution, and she caught the obvious glance of his eyes directed at Flame's rear while she bent over in front of the fridge. On the inside, she smiled to herself, but didn't feel like showing it at the moment, although the tea did seem to be helping a bit. As Vlad moved away and offered her some soup in place of her current plate of food, Light raised her eyebrows a bit and looked down at the grub in front of her. "I'll make do," she replied hesitantly, although the idea of soup was much more pleasing to her stomach than even the sight of the sandwich meat. Still, she wasn't used to anyone catering to her needs... other than Shade. So because she was too proud (and partly because it turned her stomach even more to be reminded of her most recent ex), she had to deny his offer. As the Flame then exited the room without even a word, Light followed her with her gaze, then rolled her eyes at the sight of her intentionally avoiding close proximity to the black-haired girl as she made her way out. "She's charming," she commented in a highly sarcastic tone, raising the mug of tea to her lips once more, taking a bigger sip now that it was beginning to cool. "I must say your taste in women is rather repulsive," she then added as a half-insult, though not intending to stir up any strong negative emotions, for once.
When Light refused his offer for soup, Vlad shrugged and folded his arms loosely over his chest as he leaned down almost subconsciously in a manner that made him appear less bulky and intimidating. He caught one final, fleeting glimpse of Flame as she scurried out the door with clear intent to avoid Light, which caught him somewhat by surprise. She was usually such a team player. "Eh?" he said casually as he turned back to the black-haired widow, lifting a curious brow as if to ask her to repeat herself. However, her follow-up was enough for him to figure her meaning and piece together what she'd actually said. Laughing, he threw his hands up in a helpless gesture before returning them to his chest and leaning back, grinning. "If it's charm you're tolking about you could give her a run for her money," he answered cheekily. He then began cleaning up the small mess he'd made while preparing the tea, scooping the remains into his hand and then flinging it into the waste-bin before pulling out a pot and knife. After a short visit to the fridge, he pulled out a tupperware container of yesterday's chicken and inspected it a moment before setting it and several other ingredients on the counter.
With the sleeves of Shade's shirt still reaching past her wrists, the fabric began to slowly slip off of Light's shoulder and she immediately reached up to pull it back into place then placed both her hand on the mug of tea, letting it warm them up. Raising a brow at Vlad's reply to her comment, she asked bluntly and with a hint of a smirk, "Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?" She watched him for just a moment as he moved to the fridge, then grew bored and turned her eyes to the window situated above the sink, staring out at the rain and lightning. The silence that followed allowed thoughts to enter her head once more and, feeling the nausea returning yet again, she raised the tea to her lips and took a larger gulp than before, hoping the liquid would settle her stomach quickly. Light set the mug down with a clink! of the ceramic on the wooden table and slouched down in her chair, folding her hands in her lap. "How did you get over her?" she asked abruptly and quietly after several seconds of silence without specifying the subject of her question, "Or at least deal with it?"
Vlad measured several cups of cold water and dumped them all rapidly into a large steel pot, clearly intent to make soup whether Light wanted some or not. His back was turned to her as he started to dice an onion, and then several carrots and cloves of garlic in rapid succession. Without having to worry about cutting himself, he wasted no time with care. The ceramic tink of Light's mug on the table brought him out of his slight stupor, followed by her question which he answered with a silent sigh. She didn't need to ask any more for him to glean the meaning. "Fake it until you feel it," he answered honestly as he scooped all of the ingredients into the water and set the flame higher with a flick of his fingertips. "But vot happened to me vos different. I made a mistake, you ver humiliated in front off the whole school so..." he trailed off and then turned around to face her. "Sorry. But I vood stop vearing his shirts, for von."
Although her face would say otherwise as she stared blankly down at her plate of still uneaten food, Light was listening to Vlad's every word intently, soaking in his advice. Faking it seemed easy enough; in fact, Light was under the impression that she'd been doing that all along. Except now, she'd lost her appetite, she was sick, and here she was prancing about in Shade's clothes. Just as if on cue, Vlad continued talking, mentioning the entire spat at the end of the Halloween party and the fact that she had Shade's shirt on. "It's more comfortable than it looks," she said with a little smirk, knowingly making a pathetic excuse. It also seemed that Vlad had gotten word of what happened at the Halloween party, not like any normal person hadn't, and for a split second Light considered asking him if he believed Camille's accusation against Shade, but once again her pride took over and she kept her mouth shut. More silence passed as she pushed the chips around on her plate, then after a moment, she couldn't help but chuckle to herself, lifting her head to ask, "What the hell did you use sandpaper for, anyways?" Light knew Vlad had found his stolen lubricant in her room (at some point, she and Shade had come back to her room and they were both greeted with the not so pleasant slime covering her bed and the crushed bottle in an obscure corner of her room, and the only culprit was Vlad), so she figured it wouldn't hurt to ask about the sandpaper that came with it.
"I'll bet," Vlad replied with a sage nod, his eyebrows soft as he looked towards the ground. He too had found himself with a number of Flame's clothing after laundering all that was in his hamper after the breakup. It was just a few shirts and delicates but they were enough to remind him of how close he'd thought they were and of what all he'd lost. It had left such a bad taste in his mouth that he had to deliver them to Flame promptly, or else be plagued with little sensual reminders that his girl, well, wasn't. He leaned against the counter and opened the container of chicken, inspecting to see that it was one the bone and would require a matter of preparation before he could toss it in the soup. A glance over his shoulder told him that Light was still just poking the food around on her plate, which bolstered his gusto for making the soup. He was curious to know if the rumors going around on hushed voices were true: that Camille and Shade had something to do with why there was no Light and Shade, but he thought better of kicking someone who was already down. "Sandpaper?" he asked suddenly, turning to lean on his side against the counter so that he could gingerly tear meat off the bone and look incredulously at Light. His grey eyes met her green ones for a momentary quest before they widened and his face cracked into a lopsided grin as he recalled the incident for which they had both probably pegged the other as a problem. "Hahahaha, that's my nail file," he answered with a blurt of laughter.
Light raised her eyebrows as Vlad hesitated to answer, then showed a genuine, albeit small, smile as the man explained it was his nail file. "Shade--.. we had something much worse in mind," she explained, her eyes seeming to darken even more as she stammered over Shade's name. It was a shame that she'd nothing else to say, because those same thoughts of him began slipping into her mind once more, and she looked away from the Russian, down to the table. She thought about picking at her food again, but she knew it was no use. The girl just wasn't hungry, and she knew if she ate now, it would all just come back up again. Instead, Light pushed the plate away but kept her now half empty mug of tea close, raising it once more to take a sip. Setting the porcelain glass down, she slouched down in her chair, crossing her arms over her stomach as a slight chill overcame her. Apparently getting out of her room wasn't helping much at all; Shade's name always seemed to pop up in conversation. As much as she hated to admit any sort of attachment to him... she missed him, a lot. Knowing now that even simple interactions with other students wouldn't keep her mind off of the boy, Light only wanted to go back to her room to lie down and sleep. Being unconscious seemed like the only way to escape reality at this point, even if her dreams were sometimes worse. And again, another wave of nausea overcame her, but this time it seemed it wasn't going to pass. Slapping her hand over her mouth, Light tried breathing deeply through her nose, but she felt her stomach churning, and springing up from her chair, she moved quickly over to the closest place she could think of, the trash can, which, luckily, wasn't too full, and with a short "sorry" to Vlad she pushed the lid bad and leaned over, hurling into the plastic garbage container.
Vlad had been wondering how long it would take for that name to come up. It wasn't as if he expected anything less from the girl who was still wearing his clothing but he glanced over just in time to see her face's initial reaction to the name on her tongue and felt a tight stone of compassion fall into his gut. To give Light her moment of privacy he politely turned his attention back onto the soup, which was now rolling at a high boil so he adjusted the flame and tossed the new, shredded chicken into the pot. "Vot did you think it vos for?" he asked curiously, trying to keep the conversation as far away from Shade as possible. For an instant he had foolishly considered asking Light if she had any insight as to how the devious boy would act towards Vlad's idea of a student group but was glad he'd tossed that idea away. If there was anything he was doubtful of then he should just take that as a sign to perhaps sit on the thought of talking to Shade for a bit longer. As it was, he could still carry through with his plans without any input from him, though he did want Shade to be a part of it. Vlad peacefully accepted the silence that blanketed the kitchen, tending to cleaning up the mess he'd just made while trying to get the soup underway and shooting back his mug of tea in one shot, grimacing at the tepid temperature. Flame crept into his waking mind, followed shortly by Korvka but he was a master at shaking those things off of him until the time was right so he carried on about his business washing the dishes and running a rag over the countertops to gather the food bits into one large hand. He was on his way over to the trash can when Light suddenly darted towards that very same target. His hand rose to fling the slop into the bin right as Light situated herself in front of it with an apology, thusly causing Vlad to inadvertently chuck the bits onto her back and into her long strands of black hair. "Shit!" he said as he realized what he had done and why Light was so intent on getting to the trash can in the first place. Flustered for a moment, he looked around until he saw the towel hanging from the over and then grabbed it, but stood behind the girl hoping to offer the towel to her instead of trying to clean the chopped bits off himself. "Sorry about that," he said sheepishly, giving Light enough room to breathe.
Because of her sudden sickness, Light missed the last question Vlad asked, and was even oblivious to the food scraps that hit her back as she heaved into the trash can, at least until she was finished and she heard the Russian's apology from behind her. "Why..." she began to say, very quietly, as she leaned back from the trash can and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, wondering why Vlad was offering the apology in the first place. Then, she felt the cold remnants of the food slop that he'd wiped from the counter, seeping through Shade's shirt and onto her back, and hanging from her hair. "What is.." she started again, turning away from the trash to see the man holding a dirty towel, then reaching behind to feel her hair. "Fucking Christ," the girl then cursed, speaker louder then before. Briskly, Light stood and stepped away from the garbage without even acknowledging the towel that Vlad had been holding out to her. She went straight to the sink, and, after splashing some warm water onto her face, she turned her head so that her hair fell under the running water and began combing her fingers through it to get the goop out. Finishing up quickly, she turned off the faucet and commenced with wringing the water from her hair, then, without hesitating, unbuttoned the shirt and pulled it off her shoulders, leaving her in just a bra and her sweatpants and revealing her body to look somewhat thinner than before. "Great way to make me get rid of that," she spat angrily as she wadded the shirt up and tossed it into the trash, right on top of her own bile. For a few minutes, Light had thought that she and Vlad might possibly be able to get along, but now she was too livid to even consider it. Without missing a beat, the young woman marched straight over to the table, picked up her plate of uneaten food, dumped its contents into the trash, as well, tossed the plate thoughtlessly onto the counter, and walked straight out the door and into X-Men Hall 1st.
Blissfully unaware of the incident that had recently transpired between Light and Vlad, Valerie stepped gracefully into the kitchen, swinging her purple water bottle back-and-forth by the attached carabiner on her crooked right forefinger. 'Voilà! No more eating in your room, now,' the girl said smilingly to Marcus, before realizing that they weren't the only occupants of the room. 'This kitchen's, like, homier than the one upstairs, but the one upstairs is, you know, suuuper convenient,' she explained, as if she had to push the selling points of either room. As she turned to face the kitchen proper, Val gave a gentle exclamation when Vlad caught her attention. 'Oh! Hiya, didn't see you there,' she said, which was ironic, considering the Russian had a rather noticeable and apparent presence. 'Smells good in here,' the blonde chattered, catching a whiff of the soup rather than the retch in the garbage can.
Marcus followed Valerie in to the kitchen and looked around, "looks so much better than eating in my room," he laughed, before noticing the other people in the room, "Oh, uh...Hello!" He settled in to a corner, a little more skittish from the events that had recently transpired in the Danger Room.
As Light turned around to investigate the reason behind Vlad's apology, thereby discovering the technicolored goop in her hair, he met her with a face filled with guilt. His eyebrows were drawn and lifted the way a large dog's would after a severe reprimand, grey eyes soft from beneath the black lashes. Flinging slop onto an already sickly girl looked bad, no matter how accidental. "Bad timing," was all he managed to say before she huffed angrily away from him, leaving his towel clean and ignored. His hand dropped and he sighed once before tossing the towel towards the side of the counter, where she was hastily running her locks under the faucet. Stepping away to tend to the soup with a quick stir, he looked back and instantly turned red and averted his eyes as he noticed Light unbuttoning her shirt. Despite the fact that Vlad had never looked at Light in such a way, there was no denying that she was an attractive girl and Vlad had no intention of falling down that rabbit hole. He didn't feel the need to respond to her outburst of angry words, blaming him for ruining Shade's shirt, but did inform her on her way out that "the soup will be done in an hour or two." Once she was gone he placed a lid on top of the large pot and set the flame to keep it at a gentle simmer and turned around to see Valerie and a new student enter the kitchen, seemingly ignorant to his current occupation of the same space. Still whirling a bit from his botched encounter with Light, Vlad jumped slightly at Valerie's cheery salutation, but amended the action with a beaming smile that showed almost all of his pearly white teeth. "That's von I haffn't heard before," he replied with a grin. Generally he was impossible to miss. Looking to Marcus, he returned the greeting with a huge smile and a little wave before addressing Val's comment about the aromas. "I'm making soup. It's for anyvon who is sick or vonts some and should be done in an hour or so," he answered, making sure to include Marcus in the invitation to eat.
'Soup sounds like the perfect thing on a day like today,' Valerie frankly admitted as she shot a pointed glance toward the window. It was more than obvious how she felt about the dreary, stormy weather as she wrinkled her nose and shivered, but she also added, 'It's just so icky out.' Then, to Vlad, she smiled, cheerily amending her negativity at the weather, and said, 'When it's ready, I might just take you up on that offer!' After a beat, she continued, 'Oh, by the way, this is Mar--' she looked to where the boy had been standing, and had to take a moment to locate him after he took his place in the corner of the kitchen. '--cus. He's new, been here a few days.' Hoping to maybe draw the new student out further into the open, the girl selected a seat by setting her water bottle on the table, before starting over toward the pantry. 'There's plenty of snacks and stuff over here. There's usually bananas and apples on the counter by the fridge. Soda, juice, water... help yourself!'
With the girl's little bit of edging, Marcus managed to edge himself out of the corner of the room, and waved back to the large male, a weak smile on his face. "Soup does sound really good today..." His voice thin and trailing off. He skittered around the table carefully to the fridge and opening it, grabbing a can of soda, and cautiously shutting the door. He turned and found a seat near Valerie and sat down, popping open the can and taking a sip, holding carefully to the can as he rested it on the table.
"Mhmm," Vlad hummed in polite response to Val's enthusiastic mention of the day's soup-like qualities. He didn't mention once that it had been made because of Light's obvious illness and mentally vowed to save her a bowl of it in case the other students were feeling under the weather as well and chowed down on all of it. "Hey Marcus, name's Vlad," he greeted with a measure of distance in his voice as he let his mind fall to the ladies he couldn't help but piss off and the mission he'd been ignoring for the past few weeks. He made sure to smile though, just so that Marcus would know he was a gentle giant. Looking around the kitchen with his arms comfortably folded over his barrel chest, the massive Russian remained silent as Val gave the verbal tour. "Hey, save me a bowl off this if it gets low, vill you?" he asked to Valerie as he started towards the door, pausing to face her before he left to wait for her response.
Valerie, who was standing in front of the open pantry doors by now, with a loaf of wheat bread in one hand and a jar of peanut butter in the other, glanced back over her shoulder when she heard some movement and the refrigerator door gently open and close. A smile turned the edge of her lips as Vlad introduced himself to the new, skittish student, and she hoped that maybe it would put the boy at some degree of ease, especially if he met the friendlier, more outgoing classmates first. With one last look to the pantry shelves, Val figured she had everything she wanted, and started to close the doors, but she stopped and grabbed a package of cookies first. 'Uh, sure! Do I need to do anything with it? It just needs to, like... simmer or something right now?' was the dancer's response to Vlad, with a note of apprehension. Val could accomplish many things, but cooking was not one of her strong points, even something as simple as soup. On her way over to the counter to prepare her snack, Val dropped the package of cookies-- soft chocolate chip-- on the table by Marcus as an offering, since the boy seemed reluctant to do anything more than sit there and guardedly sip at his soda. 'Honest, you can have, like, anything in here that you want,' she lightly added in passing with a small smile.
Marcus smiled to the friendly giant, "It's nice to meet you, Vlad." He leaned back a little more in his seat, relaxing some. When Valerie dropped the bag of cookies in front of him, his gaze was quickly averted to the girl, "Huh? Oh, thank you." Not quite sure he understood the gesture at first, he opened the bag and slid the plastic tray partially out of the bag, grabbing two cookies and sticking one of them into his mouth and flipping the other over his knuckles almost as if it were a coin. He was still mildly nervous, though was quickly gaining more confidence in himself and the situation.
"Thanks," Vlad answered, shifting his weight towards the door as if being magnetically pulled towards it despite fighting his own great inertia that held him in Val's presence a moment longer to answer her question. "It should be fine. You can stir it every now and then if you vont," he added with a shrug. He then turned a jovial face to Marcus, replying, "same to you!" and then proceeded out the door to X-Men Hall 1st, pushing it open with a minimal flick of his finger. "Bye, guys!"
'Sure thing,' Valerie chirped in reply to Marcus as she set the bag of bread and jar of peanut butter down onto the countertop. The athletically-clad girl made short work of opening up the bag and putting a couple of slices into the toaster's slots, and, as she waited for it to pop back up, she retrieved a luncheon-sized plate from the cabinet and a knife from the drawer. 'I guess I can handle that,' she replied to Vlad, with the addition of a single nod, 'See ya!'. Val smiled and watched after his form as he left the room before her blue-eyed gaze flickered in Marcus's direction. 'He's a really great guy,' she said in a most sincere manner to the newer student. 'Vlad's got a sister here, also; Korvka, she's cool, too, a talented musician,' Valerie explained, unaware of whether or not she was overwhelming Marcus with information. In her typical chatty manner, scarcely a breath passed through the girl's lips before she continued, asking, 'So, have you been able to go to any classes, yet?'
Marcus waved to the large man as he left the kitchen and turned to Valerie, "Huh? Oh, yeah. I've made a couple of classes so far. Been mostly the boring stuff, so far. You know, math, science, history..." He smiled to Valerie, slowly growing more and more comfortable with the girl, "So, what do you like doing around here? I mean, the danger room looked...fun?" He said, a little skeptical, seeing as his eyebrows nearly got singed off just a few minutes ago, due to an errant blast in the danger room.
Though she was tending to her toast, Valerie nodded to initially indicate that she was listening to what Marcus was saying. She laughed lightly and very briefly at his comment regarding the room in which they met. 'Well, I guess they don't call it the Danger Room for nothing,' she commented, taking a moment to weigh the thought for herself. 'That room has, like, a bazillion uses, I guess. Some more benign than others...' she said, making a sandwich out of the pieces of toast she'd slathered with peanut butter. 'There are actually a lot of things to do around here for fun,' she added as she went to the refrigerator to pour herself a glass of milk. Finished with her snack's preparation, the blonde started back toward the table and took a seat after setting the glass and plate down. 'The grounds are really lovely, not that you could tell on a day like today,' she said with a small frown directed toward the window,'...and there's a lake not too far from here. There's also a town a little ways away. Not walkable, but not too long of a car drive.' After grabbing a paper napkin, Val laid it on her lap and smoothed it out with the palms of her hands. 'There are training opportunities, there's a lounge upstairs for hanging out... personally, I've been doing a lot of studying, dancing and training the past few weeks.' Finally through talking, she took a bite of her sandwich.
"Dancing, you say?" Marcus said as he leaned forward, resting his elbow on the table and popping the other cookie that was still in his hand into his mouth. He looked sidelong to the girl who was now sitting down virtually right next to him. He chewed slowly and quietly on the cookie, trying to not make much noise nor mess. The girl was certainly slender and flexible enough to be a dancer, but he thought that he would see what other information he could hear from her.
With a mouthful of peanut-buttery toast, Valerie nodded at first, then swallowed with the help of a sip of milk. 'Yep! twelllllve...' she paused long enough to briefly wrinkle her nose and brow as she thought about it, then corrected herself, '...actually, almost thirteen years. Right now I'm collaborating with Korvka.' As if that needed further explanation despite the information she'd already provided Marcus with, she continued, 'She's writing a brand new piece, and I'm, well... dancing,' she said with a small, almost self-conscious laugh at how obvious that sounded, '...choreographing an accompanying piece.' Before taking another bite of her sandwich, Val shrugged dismissively and summed her chatter up with an upbeat ,'That's what I do! What do you do...like to do?' punctuated the question by taking another bite of the toasty goodness in her hands.
With the last of the cookie gone, Marcus took another drink off of his soda before replying, "Well, recently, a lot of my time has gone in to working on my sculpting. But music is another big part of my life." He pulled out the iPod from his pocket and slid it on to the table, "I never go anywhere without that. It's sort of my lifeline. I don't play any instruments, but listening to music sort of helps me zone out."
Valerie paid polite attention to Marcus as he spoke, and, as her mouth was full when he stopped talking, she finished chewing and spoke a moment or two after he was through. 'That's what it's like when I dance. Well, sorta. Gives me a focus, something to concentrate on, at least. Doesn't really matter what else is going on.' As she started on the second half of her sandwich, Val became quiet as she ate, though only momentarily so, as if the lack of words was aberrant to her. 'Whereabouts are you from?' she asked casually enough over the muted sound of the soup simmering on the stove and the rain pattering against the windows. Then, suddenly feeling like she was drilling the new student, Val flashed a quick, somewhat sheepish smile and said, 'You can ask the next question, I promise. '
Marcus listened intently to Valerie's response, smiling at the girl and lightly sipping from the can of soda until she asked him where he was from. The boy suddenly chilled a bit, his expression growing cold. His hand clenched gently to the can as he set it back down, diverting his gaze from hers. He replied meekly to the girl in a quiet tone, "I'm...from a small town in Illinois. Not much of a fan of it, really..." His voice thin, he paused for a moment to take another drink, deliberately sitting the can down again before speaking again, "So, where are you from?" He tried to push away his distaste for his home town, managing to crack a thin smile once again as he looked back to the girl.
Up until the point Marcus looked away, Valerie watched him and continued to eat as she awaited his answer, her expression one of open, friendly curiosity. She looked away quickly, her gaze dropping to her plate, as she tried to think of something to say to maybe shift the topic of conversation to a more preferable subject. The girl was busy taking a gulp of milk when he finally did answer, and she cleared her throat softly as she absorbed what he'd said and weighed it against his reaction. 'I'm from Wisconsin, Illinois's neighbor to the north!' she started, with a smile right off of the bat, perhaps talking a little louder and faster than necessary, '... Madison, Wisconsin.' She jokingly added, 'You might have heard of it,' since it seemed to be that most students had to memorize the capitals of the states at one point or another in their learning career.
"Ah, yeah, so not that far from home," Marcus said, still clearly a little affected from having to talk about home, but not too sour about it any more. He was able to actually hold a little more believable smile at this point, and he reached into the open cookie container, and pulled out another of the soft cookies, "Thanks again for grabbing the cookies, they're really good." He didn't make full eye contact with the girl yet, but not out of spite or anger, just from lack of will.
Again, Valerie took the opportunity to consume more of her food while she waited for Marcus to respond. 'Uhm, sorry, I didn't mean to, like...' she said after he was through, not wanting to completely overlook the fact that the boy was troubled about something. Setting the last part of her sandwich down onto her plate, a cold, hardened cresent of bread crust, she continued softly, 'We've all got some sort of story, everyone who lives here.' She intended to leave the door open for further discussion if he wanted to, or if he didn't want to, well, that was okay, too. After wiping her hands on the napkin in her lap, she crumpled it and laid it on top of her plate. A hand was tentatively raised, like she was going to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder, but she just reached back and used it as leverage on the back of her chair, after pushing her chair back to stand. 'No problem,' she said with a small smile in response to his thanking her for the cookies, '...and, honest, I think you can have just about anything to eat in here, as long as it's not nailed down or labeled.'
Marcus laughed gently as Valerie went in to explaining that all the food in the kitchen as available to them, "Well, I'd hope they wouldn't nail the food down. Sounds like that would be hard to eat," He smirked to the girl, somewhat avoiding the topic of his story. He wasn't quite ready or willing to talk about everything back home. He took in another big whiff of the soup's smell that lingered in the air, "Oh man, that smells good. This'll be the best food I've had in weeks!" He laughed, knowing that, sadly, this was true.
Marcus's lack of response to her apology and initial statement did not do unnoticed by Valerie, who, instead of forcing the matter, decided to let it drop for the time being. There was, however, a tinge of dolefulness as she surveyed the unsure black-haired boy sitting next to her. After he made mention of the food that was cooking away on the stovetop, Val's eyes widened slightly as she said, 'Oh! The soup...' , and the girl committed herself to standing fully as she pushed the chair back, its legs scraping noisily on the floor as she did so. Even though Vlad didn't seem too terribly concerned about leaving the pot of soup to simmer by itself, Val didn't want it to burn or boil over, or whatever it was that chicken soup had the propensity to do. 'Do you like to cook?' she asked over her shoulder at Marcus as she carefully lifted the lid and dipped the wooden spoon into the gently bubbling liquid, figuring that it was a benign enough question.
"Sure, cooking's great. Good way to relax, actually," Marcus said smiling, "And by the way...Thank you...for not digging," He smiled to the girl, knowing she probably wouldn't see him, but realizing that it was gesture that counted. "But, I'm not much of a cook, myself. Mostly do the boxed or canned stuff, sometimes I manage to cook a full meal." He relaxed back in to his chair, knowing that his mind was going a mile a minute with worries and other problems of the day, and that he had just stumbled across his words, but knew that he managed to get out everything that he wanted to say.
As Valerie carefully stirred the spoon around in the soup, she just watched the swirling bits of vegetables and chicken for a moment before responding with the barest of glances over her shoulder and a very minimal shrug as if to say no problem in regards to her not digging. 'I can barely boil water without burning it,' the girl eventually admitted with a self-deprecating laugh as she tapped the wooden cooking implement on the brim of the pot to rid it of any excess liquid before setting it aside and recovering the soup. 'Mom never had time to show me. She swore by Stouffer's and the crock pot.' Just then, Val touched the pocket of her fitted hoodie, then extracted her phone to read the message that had caused the device to vibrate. Laying it on the counter for the moment, the blonde went about cleaning-up the bread and peanut butter jar, putting everything away and tidying up her crumbs. 'What do you have planned for the rest of today?' she asked after several moments of quiet cleaning, honestly curious what anyone was doing on this dismal day. 'I can give you a quick tour of the mansion,' she offered, since he'd previously admitted that he was unfamiliar with the building. 'What there is left to show, anyway.'
"Oh, come on, you can't be that bad." Marcus said, looking to the girl with a sort of quizzical disbelief on his face, "I'm sure you're a decent cook. Can't be much worse than I am." The boy skirted around the oddly off-hand comment about her mother, and watched the girl retrieve her phone and browse over it quickly. " I had nothing planned for today at all. Not even going down to the danger room. But sometimes, that just has to happen."
'Trust me,' Valerie said succinctly, though smilingly, after fiddling with her phone again for another moment before slipping it back into her pocket. 'The greater percentage of my forays into the culinary arts have been less than palatable, and two or three ended in the fire department being called in.' Leaning her backside against the counter, she smiled wryly and laughed briefly at the memories. '... only because our fire alarms are wired directly to the security system. Not because there were any actual emergencies,' she explained with as she casually stretched her arms out in front of her, then let them drop back against her body, hands clasped together loosely at the end. When he made mention of his trip to the Danger Room, Val cocked her head slightly and, even though they were the only two in the room presently, inquired at a conspiratorial volume, 'How often do you have to, like...' The girl trailed off, assuming it was unnecessary to finish the question, unwound her fingers and just tapped the inside of her left forearm with the fingers of her right hand.
"I'm not even sure our fire alarms had batteries in them," Marcus said, trying to keep a flat tone, referring to back home again. He watched Valerie's movements a little more carefully now, his head slightly cocked and a small grin showing through, " It's probably a good thing that they didn't, or I'd have had a few run-ins with the fire department myself. And, usually, I have to make a 'withdrawal' every couple days. Been using the Danger room since it's a little more secluded usually. And it let's me play a bit afterwards if I want to. I don't usually get to the point that I did earlier..." No, he was trailing off, remembering his earlier run-in at the Danger Room, and how he had let it go on for way too long.
Heading back toward the table, Valerie didn't care for the detached tone that Marcus copped when he spoke of home, but she smiled gently with his vague grin, to try and encourage further such expressions, regardless and oblivious to whatever the cause might be. The girl rested her hands on the back of the chair she'd been sitting in previously and tipped it back on its rear legs and nodded ever-so-slightly as he spoke. She eventually looked quite regretful that she'd even brought the topic up as the boy seemed to divert his thoughts to the earlier events in the Danger Room. The chair legs dropped back rather abruptly onto the hard kitchen floor, as if she'd accidentally lost her grip. Each time it seemed like they were getting on a conversational roll, Val probed just far enough to make Marcus mentally wall-up or retreat. 'I didn't mean to... I mean, honest, it wasn't any big deal,' she said, the words falling from her mouth in short succession, even if she meant no harm, and really had nothing for which to be sorry. 'I won't say anything. I don't think Mihir will, either...'
Marcus smiled and shook his head, "No, it's alright. I just know better. And it's not like I had much of a choice. My blood got pumping suddenly and just went in to overdrive. It's rare, but it happens. It just hurt like crazy. It's kind of a burning sensation." The boy spoke, starting to become a little more relaxed. He knew that Val was growing to understand his fears about his powers, and about how he felt about his home. He sat back in his chair, leaning back and looking up to Valerie, smiling, "I just need to quit worrying," he winked at the girl, realizing how uncomfortable she was getting with trying to talk to him about anything at this point.
With a touch of concerned skepticism, Valerie watched Marcus with slightly raised eyebrows as he insisted that all was well. Maybe she was over analyzing his reactions. He probably just needed time to adjust and become comfortable with his new environment and all the new people he was meeting. As a smile finally turned the corners of her mouth again, the girl briefly drummed the tips of her well-manicured fingernails on the top rail of the chair. 'Something we all do now and again, I guess,' she off-handedly commented in regards to the tendency people had to worry. Her eyes wandered toward the ceiling; she'd spent the better part of the past week doing just that, among other things, worrying, hoping that her family enjoyed their visit, praying that her mother and father remained civil in front of her newest friends and colleagues, in addition to finishing homework and working on her choreography. Huffing a sigh, she exhaled those thoughts out for the moment, and refocused on the conversation at hand, or at least what there was of it. 'What wing did they stick you in?'
"I'm down West hall, with Lucas," Marcus said, in response to his living arrangement, "Not been a bad room mate. Just not sure how well he enjoys having my 'art' up in the room." He chuckled softly at his own joke about the artwork. "So, where are you staying?" He asked, trying to avoid digging in to the girl's reasons for being so worked up and seemingly worried about everything. He reached back in to the cookie tray on the table and pulled out two more cookies, sticking one haphazardly in to his mouth so that it hung from his lips. He stuck the other one towards Valerie and spoke carefully around the cookie, still getting rather muffled, "Cookie?"
'He's pretty nice, hmm?' Valerie asked, though it was more of an observation; she'd already met Lucas, albeit briefly, and he seemed shy but pleasant enough. The girl folded her arms and leaned forward, still standing but resting on the back of the chair. 'Nobody has to, like, know what your artwork is made from, do they? It's like finding-out what's in a hot dog or a chicken nugget. There are just some things you don't need to know, I guess,' the girl said with a shrug and a half smile as she waxed philosophical for a moment. 'Sometimes I wish I was assigned a roommate,' Val then frankly admitted, social creature that she tended to be. Regrettably, she hadn't gotten too far into the roommate-cohabitation thing at college before she was sent to the mansion. 'No, thanks... I'm good,' she said, unfolding her arms just long enough to wave a hand in denial of the offering, as an easy, amused expression broke upon her face at his method used to ask. Considering her physique, it wasn't likely the girl very frequently indulged in such a treat.
Chewing on the first cookie for a moment before replying, Marcus thought to himself for that time. He swallowed the cookie, and then spoke with deliberate thought, "Well, I guess not. But it's kind of hard to hide the fact that everything I make is made from blood. Distinct color, and smell, and all..." He waved around the other cookie, using it to emphasize his speech, "Fortunately for hot dogs, they don't smell, or taste, nor even look like anything else identifiable. Blood, on the other hand. Blood is very identifiable in all three of those categories." He kept carrying on, showing a clear knowledge of blood, as well as an undeniable disconcern about the normal preconceptions of blood, not really fazed by the thought of it as most people would be. As if to conclude his grand speech, Marcus took the other cookie, and unceremoniously bit into it, much cleaner than he had dispatched any of the earlier cookies, as he turned and looked to Valerie, smiling and chewing on half of the cookie.
When the phone in her pocket vibrated again, Valerie placed her hand over it, as if to check if the device was still there, even though she knew it to be, but didn't take it out to look at it yet. She casually rested her arm back onto the chair and listened to Marcus's argument, and, when he was through, she raised her shoulders up slowly then let them drop back down abruptly, admitting defeat as he shot holes through her reasoning. 'Well,' she said after a moment of thought, '...I didn't have the overwhelming urge to sniff or taste the little swan figurine, and I can't imagine that most people have the tendency to do so with the greater percentage of sculpture.' Her retort was given in a good-natured manner, as she was not at all prone to being nasty or contrary. In the long run, and in most cases, it didn't even matter much if she even lost the argument. 'Okay, so it looks like blood, but there's got to be, like, a niche market for that sorta thing, right?'
"Heh, I'm sure there is. There's got to be someone out there that would want sculptures made from blood," Marcus said, shrugging. "Though, when it comes to having a lot of the stuff in one spot, even when it's crystallized, you can still get that vaguely metallic smell." He was clearly being over-analytic of the situation at hand, trying to come up with more answers to Valerie's questions than he needed to.
'Okay, so you just need to invest in some Glade plug-ins for a gallery show,' Valerie said while trying to keep a straight face, however unsuccesful she might be. 'Or hidden, strategically-placed little dishes of baking soda.' She pressed her lips together to stifle her smile and a laugh, wanting to find the lighter side of the subject, despite Marcus's apparent tendency toward the more serious side. Finally managing to not dissolve rudely into giggles at the new student's expense, Val cleared her throat and pursed her lips before asking, 'So do you, like, study, uhm... hematology or phlebotomy or something?'
Marcus laughed at the idea of using the air fresheners to cover up the smell, "I don't know, I guess I'm kind of endeared to the smell of it, myself. Don't know how Luc feels about it yet though. And really, I guess it's not so much a study. I just happen to know a lot about it. It...kind of grew on me." He had to stifle a laugh of his own at his bad humor. Valerie's interest in his ability was certainly endearing her to Marcus, and he smiled at her, beginning to relax a lot more. "I mean, I guess that's like me asking if you studied physiology."
'Physiology and anatomy, as a matter of fact,' Valerie blithely stated. 'Online. At least the dissection part is tooooootally less icky that way.' It wasn't by choice that she was studying online, of course, but the girl was happy to be started and working on her undergrad degree bit by bit, at least. 'It's actually a requirement for dance majors, well, it is where I had been going to school, but it's also helpful to, like, know all that stuff since I'm pretty sure I'm going to pursue physical therapy or sports medicine, or something like that.'
"Wow, and to think I wasn't being serious..." Marcus said with a stifled chuckle. He did smirk at Valerie's reaction to the idea of dissection, figuring that his ability, then, probably did have to really gross her out to some degree, but also that it was intriguing to her, "So, then, maybe I should get a job at a blood bank? They say I don't have a blood type any more, so I only assume that it might work for everyone. Either that, or no one at all." He laughed, having never of actually thought about working in a blood bank before, his ability did lend in to the idea perfectly.
Valerie finally took a seat again, pulling her chair out from the table and slightly toward Marcus. The lull of inactivity was finally getting to her, after her busy week and afternoon Danger Room session. Casually resting her left elbow on the edge of the table, she suggested,' You should get a job doing whatever you want to do.' She smiled and offered a teensy shrug, 'I won't be able to dance forever...' She paused and tilted her head to consider that comment. Most professional dancers made it maybe into their thirties before their bodies couldn't take the rigors of the profession. 'Well, maybe I could actually,' she said, quickly and under her breath, like it was meant as an aside to herself, before truly addressing Marcus again. 'It just seemed like a sensible career path for me.'
"I say go where your heart takes you. I haven't had much of a thought about work before. I was too young to really worry about it before I ended up with my abilities. Though, I'm sure that I couldn't work for a blood bank. The outside world doesn't have a good perspective for us mutants." Marcus spoke carefully to Valerie, with her now sitting next to him, "Maybe art. I suppose I could always take art classes. I'd never have to buy any supplies either. I have plenty of paint and sculpture material with me at all times. That could be fun..."
Initially offering a slow, vague nod in agreement, Valerie inclined her chin and tilted her head ever-so-slightly to the side when Marcus remarked about the status of mutant relations in the greater part world. 'Well, maybe that is what you should try to do, then. The blood bank thing. Or, like, whatever it is you decide on. You shouldn't not do something just because you're a mutant,' she said, sitting back in her chair. 'I'm totally a proponent of art, too, though, whatever form it comes in.' Extending an arm, Val grabbed her water bottle from the table and took a drink from it. 'The only reward that comes from taking the easy road is that it's easy,' she said afterward, somewhat cryptically, her left hand raised in the air in front of her, forefinger gently crooked as she recited the abridged version of the sentiment gleaned from her inspirational page-a-day calendar.
Marcus crooked his eyebrow as Valerie spoke with her cryptic retort, "Yes, but sometimes, it's better to take the easy way when it doesn't involve the risk of being killed for being a mutant. Sure, I could just about single-handedly supply a blood bank, but if the people that are running it aren't sympathizers, then I might just as well need to be on the receiving end of a blood transfusion." His voice was bleak, but not horribly down-trodden, nor as scared as he had been earlier. He seemed to take this as fact, just something that he would have to deal with as long as he was a mutant. He picked up his can of cola once more and took another sip off of it. He swirled the can in the air for a moment before setting it back down, noticing that it was nearly empty, "Looks like I may have to get something else to drink soon."
Before she could spurt-out a Yeah, but! without a substantial response to back it up, Valerie stood-up again, after having been seated for what seemed like mere moments, with nothing but a glance at the can in Marcus's hand. Avoiding eye contact by turning away and shuffling her sneaker-clad feet toward the stove, the girl uncovered the pot of soup and gave the delicious-smelling concoction another good stir before cutting the heat-- she wasn't sure how long she'd be staying in the kitchen after seeing this conversation to a conclusion. 'I'm not saying not to be careful, go do something rash, it's just...' she started and tapped the spoon against the brim of the pot before setting the lid back on, '... we need to facilitate the changes we want to happen. It doesn't have to be huge things, though. Just little by little. Even if it's just the way we, as individuals, think about ourselves.' Val wasn't remotely oblivious to the plight of mutants, considering her personal experience, witnessing news broadcasts, reading articles. She was an eternal optimist, but she also knew when to fold. Pausing, she she shook her head briskly and glanced fleetingly back to Marcus. This conversation was getting awfully deep for someone she'd just met earlier in the afternoon. 'Sorry, this isn't very good making acquaintance talk, huh?' she said with a half-cocked smile, then went to the refrigerator to grab him another can of soda.
"I'm not saying that we can't make a change in the matter. I'm just saying that maybe a blood bank isn't the place to do it. If they found out that a mutant had been donating at any point, they'd close up shop faster than you can say 'outbreak'. I don't want the cities blood supply to suddenly go dry just because I decided to be the one to help stock it." Marcus spoke very plainly as he stared down on his emptying can. Hearing the fridge crack, though, quickly caught his attention, "Oh, well, thank you." He smiled softly to Valerie, "You know, I think that maybe, this isn't that bad of a conversation to make acquaintance over. It provokes thought, and honest opinions." He leaned back in the chair, propping his elbow over the back rest, while keeping his other hand on the can that set firmly on the table.
Heading back toward the table only long enough to set the drink down for Marcus and replying with a sedate, 'Sure thing,' Valerie looped back over toward the cabinets. He did have a point in regards to the conversation, to which Val offered a somewhat non-committal mmm-hmmm, but she wasn't in the mood for a particularly philosophical topic at the moment, especially considering that no matter how much encouragement she offered, he wasn't likely to change his opinion presently. As she opened and closed a couple of cabinet doors, looking for a couple of containers into which she could transfer the soup for storage, she spoke again. 'Did you say you didn't have a blood type, anymore?' the dancer asked with a modicum of genuine interest, hoping to gently veer the discussion onto a different course.
"Yup. That's right. I don't have a blood type any more. my blood is more generic than Type-O blood." Marcus said with a sort of cheerfully upbeat tone as he picked up the new can of cola and cracked the lid open. The cola quickly began to fizz over the top, and he pulled the can quickly to his lips, trying to keep the foam from making too much of a mess. After a moment, he had managed to avoid the majority of the mess and finally got to take a actual drink from the can. He set the can down with a slight chuckle to himself, "Go figure, just my luck." He smiled and shook his head softly, looking at the can.
By the time Marcus replied and his soda erupted, Valerie had already started to divvy-up two portions of the soup-- one into a larger container and one into a seperate, single- serving dish that she was going to tag with Vlad's name. She opened her mouth to respond to his remark about his blood, but when she glanced over her shoulder, she realized what had happened with the carbonated beverage. 'Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry,' she said, dropping the soup ladle with a clatter into the pot and quickly gathering a dishtowel before swooping back over to the table. 'I guess I must've shook it up,' she uttered with a touch of chagrin. 'Here,' she said, holding the striped terrycloth rectangle out for him, in case he needed to sop anything up. 'Where all did it get?'
"Hah, it's alright. It happens. I think I managed to catch it all," Marcus said, surveying over himself to make sure he hadn't missed any major spills of the cola. Gently taking up the wash cloth, he cleaned off his hands of the little bit of spill over that he had, "I seem to manage to catch all the little breaks like this. It's quite the skill sometimes."
'Ohhhh, nowwww, that's no way to think. Accidents happen. Didn't help that I apparently manhandled the can in the ten feet from the fridge to the table,' Valerie said, more than willing to accept the blame and with a little laugh and smile in spite of herself. Since there wasn't really anything to clean up, Val left the towel with Marcus for the moment and went back to the counter to finish tending to the empty soup pot, which she grabbed, along with the lid, ladel and wooden spoon, and put in the sink to wash. 'Is there anything else you wanted to see around the school?' she asked, elbow-deep in the sink, as he hadn't really replied to her tour offer before. 'You know, like, inside, of course. If you've already been to class, there's not really anything much more to show,' she conceded with a shrug. Involved as she'd been in talking to the new student, Val was finally aware how much she'd like to take a shower and change out of her clothes, as they were sticky and uncomfortably clingy with dried sweat, but she didn't want to just leave him in the dust.
"I'd hardly say manhandled, but hey, accidents happen. It's all good." Marcus said, smiling, "But, no, I'm pretty good with the layout of the school. Everything should be fine there."
Valerie filled the soup pot with hot, soapy water and left in the sink to soak, then stuck the other utensils in the dish washer. After washing her hands and drying them off one final time with a fresh towel she grabbed from a drawer, the girl whirled around on the ball of her foot to face Marcus again and shot him a sunny look. 'Alright then,' she said, momentarily leaning back against the edge of the counter, 'I've got a couple of things to get done; see you around later? Maybe a bunch of us can get together and watch a movie, or something,' she suggested with a half-shrug before gently propelling herself off of the counter and toward the table to retrive her water bottle and wristlet. She wasn't sure what she was going to do this evening, but surely some of the other students must want to do something.
Marcus leaned back and smiled, "Sure, a movie sounds great. Catch you up in the lounge later, then?" His smiled curled slightly more into a smirk as he took another drink off his can of cola that sat before him and set it back down, "I'll have to find something to do in the meantime."
It didn't seem as if Marcus thought that Valerie was ditching him, which she did kind of feel like she was doing, but she truly wanted to at least freshen up before before too much more time passed. There was a reticence about the girl as she dawdled a bit at the table before she cheerily added with a succinct nod, 'Great, see you later, then!' Her keys and some change jingled a little bit as she gently waved her hand holding the small purse prior to her striding toward the door and out into the first floor hall.
Marcus returned to his can of cola before him, and took another drink off from it, now staring off into the blank distance of the otherwise empty room. He knew he had somewhere to be later tonight, but nothing for the rest of the day. At this point, he could waste away the rest of today sitting here in the kitchen, for all he was concerned, but he knew that he would have to find something better to do instead. With another drink of the cola, he finished the can, and carefully pitched it into the waste basket and smirked lightly. He stood up and pushed the chair in, turning for the door, and stepping out into X-Men Hall 1st.
Entering from the first hall, it seemed like Valerie had just been in the kitchen. She suppressed a sigh, hoping that this whole strange situation would soon work itself out, and proceeded to fetch the soup, which had probably had the scarcest of time to even cool down, yet.
Marcus stepped back in to the kitchen, which he had only recently left a few moments before, feeling like his head was still spinning from being tackled to the floor by a feral blue mutant. Man, this place is strange. He walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out another can of soda, and cracked it open, taking a drink before closing the door, "You'd almost think I was addicted to this stuff, but after everything that's gone on, I need this." He said, almost as if speaking to no one. He turned to Valerie and smiled, before propping himself up on the cabinets next to the fridge.
Addy appeared in the kitchen and turned quickly, keeping her back to the door so she could watch everyone else in the kitchen. Sliding against the wall until she was near the cupboards, across the room from Marcus, Addy sat on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest, tail wrapped around her ankles as she watched Valerie. Addy had long forgotten her rudimentary knowledge of the kitchens, so her eyes followed Val's every movement.
With the container of soup already in hand, Valerie offered Marcus something of a wan smile as he quipped about the soda. 'Your dentist might not like it, but there are worse vices,' she said, with an edge of sunniness in her voice that also crept back into her expression. Her attention shifted over her shoulder and away from the ruddy-skinned boy when Addy sidled into the room. A subtle shade of concern and compassion washed over her features, but she didn't let her focus settle for too long, as Val didn't want to make the poor girl more self-concious than she probably already felt. 'This will make you feel better,' the blonde gently insisted with another glance to Addy. She pulled her lips in and pressed them together tightly, as if she was going to say something else, but decided against it. Valerie was curious, after all, but didn't want to inundate her returned classmate with too many questions... yet. Instead, casting a smile to Marcus, she nodded her head toward the cabinet behind the boy and asked, 'Could you reach me a bowl, please?' and added, 'Go ahead and have a seat, Addy,' hoping that the blue mutant would maybe let her guard down, even just the tiniest bit.
"I draw blood out of my own body on a regular basis. Pretty much anyone with a medical license doesn't tend to like my habits." Marcus said with a smile and a laugh. He sat there as Addy settled into the room, keeping a gentle, friendly smile on his face. When Val asked him about the bowls, he nodded, "Sure." Without moving from the counter, he popped open the cabinet over his shoulder, "Did you want one too, Val?"
Addy pressed herself tightly into the corner, crouched low on the floor as she listened and waited. The boy said he drew blood out of himself, and she stared at him rather longer than was necessary. She swallowed tightly, arms firmly around her ribs, her emaciated stomach letting her know that the smell of food was making her hungry enough to move a little closer to the table.
Raising her eyebrows and nodding her head slightly, Valerie smiled and wordlessly conveyed point taken in regards to Marcus and the medical establishment. 'Ahhhh,' she segued into answering his question, not having actually considered whether or not she was hungry, '... sure...' she said glancing back to Addy, who had at least inched closer to the kitchen table, 'I guess I'll have a little, too.' Val set the soup on the counter and peeled the lid back from the plastic container. 'What if we try to find Endelyn after this? I'm sure she'll be happy to know that you've returned, Addy,' she carefully offered, unaware that Endelyn had seen this incarnation of her roommate already, though under far more pandemoniac circumstances.
"Alright then, three dishes it is," Marcus said, reaching up behind him into the cabinet. He stumbled around for a brief second before finding three soup bowls and pulling them out. He pushed the cabinet door back closed and set the bowls on the counter as he hopped down, grabbing them once again after his feet were firmly on the floor. He stepped to the table and separated the bowls out, producing one near each of the three in the kitchen.
Valerie's suggestion was the wrong thing to say to Addy. The girl shook her head and started backing away from the table suddenly. "No. I'm not going back up there." She had no urge to run into Light, who had attacked her, or Vlad, who had left her there. It was just too much to handle right then. She felt that urge to burst into tears she had suffered from for three years, but she hardened that emotion and instead lowered herself into the corner, hugging her knees, looking quite pathetic.
'Oh, I'll just take those right here, ' Valerie said with a smile and a glance to Marcus as he laid the bowls out on the table, '... though I suppose I could just heat the entire container all at once, as long as it fits in the microwave...' she added, loud enough for all to hear, though it was mostly to herself. She slid the container off of the counter and held it carefully in the crook of her arm as she popped the door open to the microwave; there was plenty of room, and after pressing a couple of buttons, Val set the electrical appliance to do its work. When Addy replied, Valerie was not looking in her direction, and didn't get to see her initial visual reaction. 'Back up where?' she replied innocently, though before thinking, and the blonde turned to locate the loincloth-clad girl's position. She was momentarily distracted by a resonant thud from outside the kitchen, and her questioning blue eyes darted away from Addy and toward Marcus as she wondered if she was hearing things. Val stifled a sigh, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, and she walked toward the door, but returned her attention to the student crouching in the corner. So many questions filtered through her mind. 'Were you somewhere else in the school here before you were in the foyer?'
Marcus' eyes narrowed as he heard the thud from outside the kitchen, an inquisitive look passed over his face as he turned to Val, reaffirming that she wasn't just hearing things. He calmly walked nearer to the door, putting himself between the others and whatever made that noise. Not wanting to stir up any more problems, though, he left the door shut. If whatever it was came in, he'd be ready.
The thud didn't just frighten Addy. It sent her skittering up the wall, quite literally. She had clawed out some of the wallpaper and drywall before she realized that she was in a realm where she could send herself practically anywhere. It took a moment before she remembered the place she wanted to be, and Addy vanished from the corner, leaving behind a waft of blue smoke and drywall drifting to the floor.
Reaching a hand out and taking a step forward, Valerie started to say 'Addy! It's o-' when the blue girl started her panicked and destructive scramble at the wall, but, before she knew it, her friend had already disappeared. '...kay,' she finished in a small voice, staying posed with her outstretched arm until she let it drop spiritlessly to her side. As her shoulders fell, her usual vibrancy waned and the girl suddenly looked very tired. It had been a long week, already, and this was not how she imagined she'd be spending her Friday afternoon. The blonde said nothing else, allowing the drone of the microwave to fill the air until she spoke-up again, her attention sliding over to Marcus. 'She could be, like, anywhere, now,' she said, her words emphasized by her clipped, quick manner.
Seeing Addy poof, and hearing Val's explanation, Marcus sighed, "Well, that's good." His voice thin with a hint of an annoyance to it. Still not knowing what went on outside the door, He was slightly on edge. "Seeing as she can be anywhere, I guess that kind of means looking for her isn't exactly going to be the best option. The mansion is pretty huge."
'Who knows, maybe she's not even here anymore. You heard where she said she went weeks ago,' Valerie said, not sounding so much annoyed but like she just didn't know what to do. 'Another world?!' she added, apparently quite unsure what to even believe. As if the dancer had already forgotten why she'd been headed over toward the door, she shuffled over to the table, pulled a chair out and plopped her derrière down onto its seat. Val wasn't one to question people; she routinely gave them the benefit of the doubt, but even this situation seemed a little outlandish. Still, she had no clue as to what the limits of Addy's abilities were, so who was she to question them? 'I mean, what do you think?' she asked of Marcus, even though he had little basis for comparison, considering he'd just met Addy minutes ago, and by means of a less-than-pleasant situation.
Marcus shrugged, still very confused at the situation, "Honestly, I have no clue. I hardly understand what I'm capable of sometimes, none-the-less someone else who can apparently teleport between worlds. I've kind of given up on the whole understanding what mutant abilities can do thing, mostly." He turned back to the table and shuffled over to a chair, pulling it out and plopping down beside Valerie. The sound that came from the hall didn't worry him so much any more, seeing as there was no sound at the kitchen door. He sat back, finally sinking back down.
Propping her left elbow on the tabletop, Valerie nestled her chin into the palm of her hand as she listened to Marcus offer his opinion, then swiveled her gaze in his direction when he took a seat aside of her. The blonde screwed her mouth to one side and begrudgingly nodded a tiny bit in agreeance with the black-haired boy. 'Things'll get sorted out pretty quick... once everyone calms down, anyway. I bet the Professor already has it all figured out; not much escapes him,' Val stated quietly but confidently, recalling the session she'd had after the Halloween party incident, and blissfully unaware of the unfortunate discovery just across the hall. She pursed her lips, ruminating upon that thought, until the buzzer on the microwave sounded, indicating that it was through heating. 'To be honest, I'm, like, not even actually hungry. I just said I'd eat some so Addy would,' she admitted after a moment of silence, then laughed in spite of herself.
"I'm sure that it's going to be taken care of." Marcus said, as if simply reiterating what Val had just said, trying to get the girl to relax a little more, as he could see that she was still slightly distraught at Addy disappearing once again. Still lazily slumped down in the chair, he finally pressed his hands to the tabletop, "You know, I wasn't really all that hungry either." The boy was lying, slightly, but he wasn't going to let her know that.
With a vague, distracted nod, Valerie allowed her attention to skim over to the windows, where she could see the violent weather beating the tree line about in the distance, and briefly wondered if they were going to lose power. 'Really?' she said suddenly, a little surprised, though she wasn't actually questioning the validity or truth of his statement. 'My guy friends always seem like bottomless pits when it comes to food,' she nonchalantly commented before neatly flipping her hair over her shoulder when she looked back to him. 'Guess maybe I should put it away, then.' The girl stood and started toward the microwave, trying to keep her mind on the present company, but she couldn't help but wonder, in the periphery of her thoughts, where Addy had gone. 'I think I'm going to stick around for a few minutes. Who knows, maybe she'll pop back in,' she said, though didn't seem very convinced of it. 'Don't feel like you have to stay, though. You probably have other stuff to do,' she added while carefully testing the outside of the container with a quick tap of her fingertips to see if it was too hot to handle without pot holders.
"It's the mutation," Marcus said plainly, "I can't always eat too much. Messes with my blood pressure sometimes. Plus, the stress of having someone go suddenly missing like that doesn't help." He said calmly. "I don't have anything going on, really. Not many friends around here, and it doesn't seem like I'm exactly making waves in the right direction so far. I'll wait here with you. If you don't mind, that is?" He looked to Valerie as she fiddled with the container of hot soup, relaxing back in the chair and not wanting to move himself.
Suddenly a sneeze was heard on the opposite end of the table from where Marcus and Valerie were and with a quick popping sound, a girl materialized into existence at the spot.
"I don't know." Kenna said nonchalantly as she slowly swung a bottle of water back and forth, holding the top of it between her index finger and thumb, "I mean, she seemed pretty upset and I think the professor would have called us in to see what was going on". The girl who had just appeared was wearing a green open hoodie with a white trim around it, a simple, unassuming black T-shirt with the mansion's logo over it and a pair of dark faded jeans. What drew attention the most, however, was her impossibly red, wild hair and her huge green eyes. The girl's expression was stern but looked a bit puzzled, she moved some of her hair over her shoulder with one hand while she left the bottle of water on the counter. Strangely enough, there were some droplets of condensation there already, though neither the girl nor the bottle were there before. Obviously puzzled and a bit annoyed at the looks she was getting, Kenna tilted her head, her wild locks moving in turn, and asked. "What?..." and after a small pause, she added; "...God.. don't tell me I look like the Kool-aid man again..."
Nodding to indicate that she heard and understood Marcus, Valerie pulled the soup from the microwave and shifted it to the counter. 'I'm sure you'll meet more people over the weekend. Sometimes there are activities or extra training sessions planned. Today, it's, like, a total ghost town here, or something. But I don't mind hanging-out at all,' she said with a meaningful smile before pushing the container further back on the counter with its lid cocked so it could cool for a few minutes before it was put back into the fridge. 'Bless you!' the blonde chirped, hearing the simultaneous sneeze-pop, for she assumed that it was Marcus. She paused and looked-up upon hearing a conversational and totally unfamiliar voice following afterwards, a voice that definitely hadn't been contributing to the dialogue a moment ago, and the entirety of her body involuntarily twitched with surprise at the new presence. Though she wasn't sure if she was actually being addressed, Val eventually said, 'You. You look... normal...' not sure what she even meant by that, as she tried to place Kenna's face in her mental catalog of students at the school. 'I mean... you look pretty normal to me,' she added in a small voice with a fleeting, uncertain glance to Marcus before returning her attention to the surprise arrival.
When Kenna 'popped' into the room, Marcus jumped from his seat, but with his relaxed posture, he didn't make it far. In his clumsy movement, he managed to cause the chair to tumble out from under him, and go crashing aside. He wasn't able to catch his feet in time, and he, himself, also went crashing to the floor, landing butt first. "Uhhh...Hi?" He managed as he looked up at the new arrival, "You...look fine."
Kenna nodded nonchalantly to Valerie's response, keeping her stern, serious expression. "Good to know.. I mean, there nothing has happened in a few months but you can never be sur-" she began to reply when suddenly Marcus tumbled down, chair and all. The fiery-haired girl didn't seem to react much to the fact, and simply breathed in before raising an eyebrow and adding, "Ok... hi?" in response to the boys salute. Kenna wasn't much for strange behavior, so the shook her head a bit and leaned back on the counter, her eyebrow raising up again and asking; "....Fine?"
Well, it was a good thing that Kenna was calm, because Valerie felt a mounting, worrisome sense from within that encroached visibly on the edges of her tight expression. She cast a quick glance in Marcus's direction, as he landed ass-side down for the second time in not too long, wincing empathetically as she did so. Judging by the boy's reaction, the blonde was validated in the fact she wasn't hallucinating. Now, Val wasn't one to assume the worst about anyone or anything, but the day just seemed to be getting more surreal, and, after an emotionally taxing week, she'd just about had enough. 'I don't mean to be rude,' the Wisconsinite said-- and she honestly didn't, evidenced by her careful tone, '...but... who are you and where did you just come from?'
Marcus blinked in disbelief at the girl's sudden appearance. He was still frozen with shock, sitting on the floor, "You..You look like any normal girl..." He managed, if only barely, still trying to establish what had just happened. He turned to Val, blinking again, hoping that she might have some sort of answer. They already had one teleporter on their hands, they certainly didn't need another.
Kenna opened her water bottle and took a small sip as Valerie spoke, her blue-green eyes fixed on Marcus, who was still on the floor. Slowly, though she turned her gaze towards the blonde girl and almost seemed to choke on her waster when she was asked who she was. "Seriously?" she replied, her thick Scottish accent as noticeable as ever. "I'm me." she continued putting her water bottle down and putting her arms on her hips. "I didn't take you for a jokester, Valerie." she continued, Kenna never used any nicknames or abbreviations when she spoke to people. "Uhm.. thank you?" she replied in turn to Marcus. "I'm me." she answered puffing her cheeks a little bit in frustration. "And I came from my room this morning, as ev'ry single morning. And we were having a perfectly agreeable conversation about Addy when all of the sudden you two went blank for some reason." For some reason, when Kenna got upset it seemed like her hair got even wilder than normal.
As Valerie exchanged looks with Marcus, she began to shake her head. At first, it was just a slight movement, but it quickly became a more vehement gesture of denial as Kenna proceeded to explain in a matter-of-fact manner her perception of events. Val inched away, giving the wild-haired stranger a wide berth and backed-up until she bumped into one of the chairs tucked under the kitchen table. Maybe she was overreacting, being dramatic, but something about this entire situation was completely and thoroughly off, though the young woman before them didn't seem terribly dangerous or threatening. And Addy? What did this girl know about Addy? Was she some sort of teleporting, trickster mind-reader? Forgoing any pleasantries, Val demanded, 'How do you know my name?' though the tautness in her usually effeminate voice commanded little authority.
Marcus felt very cross at the moment. The girl suddenly appearing, and acting as if she knew everything about what was happening did not sit well with the boy at all. He carefully pushed himself up from the floor, keeping his eyes on Kenna as he stood, "Ok, you were not here two minutes ago," he boldly stated, not really to prove a point, but more to try to reassure himself that he was not crazy in thinking that she has basically appeared out of thin air.
"You told me?" replied Kenna, "When you got here." she added with a slight tilt of her head, her accent becoming a bit less noticeable when she was calmer, but still rather obvious. "This is getting a little creepy, you two." continued the girl, stepping away from the two as well and crossing her arms over her chest, her expression had not changed, however, remaining serious and reflecting the girl's deadpan tone. When Marcus had his outburst, however, the girl stomped towards him, her arms stiff and fists clenched, the girl stopped with her face inches away from Marcus'. Though she was tiny and smelled like lavender and a hint of vanilla, Kenna's eyes were like cold iron when she was vexed with someone. "What did ye say there new lad?" she asked with a rosy tint growing on her cheeks, the girl was growing frustrated and it showed in her accent, growing thicker by the second; "Ye tryin' tae make a joke?"
Blinking rapidly, Valerie digested the small bits of information Kenna had given them, looking for a clue as to what was going on. 'HE'S TELLING THE TRUTH!' she quickly spouted, getting a little shrill, when she watched the other girl close the distance between herself and Marcus, perhaps assuming that her intentions were to do something untoward to the boy. She pressed the tips of her fingers over her mouth, not having meant to raised her voice like that. Kenna appeared just as certain about what happened as they did, plus she'd just referred to Marcus as the 'new boy'. 'Addy, Marcus and I were here. THEN something, like... scared Addy... and she disappeared. You were never here. I'm sorry but you weren't. I've never even seen you before. I would... would totally remember someone like you.' She looked over at Marcus to verify what she'd just said, then turned back as calm and even as a look possible to Kenna.
Marcus' hands clenched tightly as the girl approached him in such an aggressive manner, "I'm sorry, but you have no room to be going off and trying to call me a liar," The boy tried to keep the best composure that he could, his words coming through smooth and clear. The boy was certainly perplexed by the new girl's knowledge and 'finesse', but he knew exactly what he had seen, and this girl was certainly never part of that until now. He turned to Valerie and gave a quick nod, as to approve of what she had just said as being fact before turning back to Kenna, keeping a firm gaze locked with her eyes.
Turning her green, iron-like gaze towards Valerie for a second and then to Marcus again, Kenna seemed to be at a loss for words. The scottish girl huffed once, standing back and grabbing her water bottle, she seemed to think the two were playing a kind of sick joke on her but decided to calm down. "Fine, have it your way you two." she replied with a cold pout on her lips before taking a quick swig off the water bottle. "We'll see what the professor says abit' all this." grumbled the girl before she stomped away from the kitchen, declaring; "Am gonnae be in my room." before heading out into the X-Men Hall 1st.
''Uhm... no... uh, you... wait!' Valerie stuttered, still not knowing Kenna's name, and reached a useless hand out in her direction, as if it would stop her from leaving. The blonde did feel bad about having upset the stranger, for she also seemed so adamant about what had just happened. Val quieted and glanced helplessly to Marcus ,then said through a sigh, 'We need to go find her.' Without a second thought, she grabbed her wristlet from the table and made her departure from the kitchen.
Marcus sighed, "And for what reason?" He knew that Val wouldn't actually have heard him, but he felt as if his plea would have helped his cause. The girl had practically just called him a liar to his face, and he really was not excited to go chasing her down so that He could apologize. He was not at fault here, why should he have to be the one to apologize? With a bit of a huff, he turned and followed the other girl out of the room, and on to X-Men Hall 1st.
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