Ironclad
Corsairs
Mason Rictus
Posts: 197
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Post by Ironclad on Feb 20, 2010 16:36:11 GMT -5
"Always, man. I'm a regular cowboy now," Mason said with a slight smirk, patting the Star Ultrastar he had in the waistband of his sweats lightly. He had a Heckler & Koch USP Compact strapped to one leg and extra magazines on the other. "Cyclops let me have that same weapon arsenal you used to use, and I set up target practice down there too. It's either there or I set up targets outside. Cyclops doesn't like me having my guns outside there and around the others, but I always got either my Ultrastar or my Baby Eagle on me. With the way shit goes down at the school, I ain't gonna have time to go to the damn arsenal."
He was very careful about keeping his guns concealed when walking around the school or around the other kids. Mason was pretty sure that they knew better than to try to grab his guns, but he was quick enough thanks to the enhanced reflexes to prevent anything. "I nailed the curve shot a couple of years back. I called you when I mastered it remember? That was probably the best thing you taught me. That and the bullet targets, I had to do a couple of those the other night." It was a fast thinking, instinctual shot at this point and it was well needed last night when he had to shoot a couple of bullets away from hitting Tracy and Aideen.
"I always leave time for training, the car is just my pride and joy man. This kid at the school, he's like fifteen or something, but man he knows machines and he knows cars. He can manipulate metals and he helped me rebuild the entire engine of that car. He helped me turn the Camero's original V8 engine into an aluminum quad turbo W16 and and with a seven speed DSG transmission. I got the power of the best supercar in the world in my old Camero. Life is good," Mason smirked and nodded his head thinking about the cars.
"Worked on it for months too. Every day pretty much it was me and him in there working on it. Sometimes Trace would stop by and keep me company, and Aideen was in there a lot working on her bike." He looked over at her with a teasing smirk. "She's a regular greasemonkey believe it or not, and its the only time she don't got that hair out of place look." It was one of the only things he could ever tease her about, and he knew his limits. The greasemonkey thing just tickled him and it cracked him up every time he saw her in old jeans and dirty wife beater covered in grease. He always looked like that in the garage though, so he couldn't really talk on that much. "Finished it just the other day though, and it rides like a dream."
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HeartString
Corsairs
Tracy Goddard
Trust me, I know what hurts you, I know what you're feeling
Posts: 222
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Post by HeartString on Feb 20, 2010 18:58:16 GMT -5
"Oh yeah, he's a cowboy alright." Tracy chimed in, nudging Mason and teasing. "But the kid he was talking about really is one. Ten gallon hat and everything. I heard how excited he was too, Mason" She turned from the group to say to her man "did he mention it to you?" Then turning back to the gang she said "Well, they're opening the stables back up and he was very excited to be a part of that. Apparently one of the parents is donating some horses, so that will be nice. We haven't had horses there since I was on Storm's BlitzSquad. Well, not as a regular thing at any rate. You remember those days?"
"Boy those kids are going to really have a wonderful summer, speaking of.. when I was sitting around, making the garage smell nice" she held her nose and puffed out her cheeks so that Lai and Ingrid would know it was not the most pleasant of aromas that lingered there "I would spend some time with that boy's little girlfriend. They are too cute together, so innocent. Anyway so the boy is Sean.. TuneUp, and he does his thing with metal and devices and his girlfriend is Katie and she is actually the daughter of Belasco- Can You Believe IT!?!"
Realizing that the ladies might not have any idea who that particular fellow was she took a chance to break from telling them about the kids to elaborate. "He is umm, well basically like the devil. He's a demon lord of that Limbo dimension where Logan had been trapped along with Nightcrawler.. well anyway she is really amazing. Turns out she is a very clever girl, and quite insightful and observant. Rough childhood though, she used to be a cutter, you know she cut herself- that's a sad sickness..."
Tracy pondered it a while remembering the first time she had met the girl in the underground hangar of the school. "She's very goth looking.. lots of scars, but her power actually causes her blood to spawn demons. For a limited time at least." A shiver ran down her back at the memory of the demons they all fought in Limbo to free the gruff man sitting there with them and her dear friend Kurt as well. "Demons are nothing to mess with, believe me." She held up her hands to add weight to the statement. "But hers are quite small and more of a nuisance than anything else. We haven't had to deal with them lately since she hasn't cut herself, or skinned a knee even, for some time. It's sort of a shame though, but she's not ashamed to say, she's afraid of her power."
"You ladies don't know how scary it can be to have something inside of you that is hard to control and undeniable all at the same time." Her mind and her heart went out to the other student often found there. "Like this other kid who spends many a free afternoon and weekend in the garage along with us, Jasper. We call him Onyx, because he has such a darkness within him, and his power actually looks black.. sorta. He.. oh dear," she had to stop herself from talking for the emotions that welled up in her, echo's of the boy's own emotions, that her own power had made her feel caught the words right in her throat. "...sorry"
"I was thinking of his sorrow and his heavy hearted burden." She took a breath as she checked herself and regained her composure. "You know, these things we sometimes call our 'gifts' can come with a terrible price. I don't know many details of his life but I know he loves his motorcycle, and that he and his father built it together in Germany where he is from. Every time he works on it he has a mixture of joy that is inspiring and uplifting but also of great and terrible anguish, and a feeling of being responsible for a terrible thing he did. So terrible it was in fact that his own power combined with his guilt caused him to sprout giant batwings from his back when we were all in Limbo, they had the same purple-blue shimmer to them, a manifestation of his Darkforce powers I would guess just from having a deeper perspective."
"But yeah, the kids there have a knack of getting into serious scraps with one another, so I am always 'on call' it seems, not just around the globe.. and beyond.. but right there at school. I hope this weekend hasn't been too bad with me away, but I can only imagine what I will have to deal with when we get back." She reached her arm around Mason's leg to pat the ankle holster softly "Sometimes I am so very grateful he keeps something on him, but not just for the other students.. no not really for them- more for the constant attacks that happen on us. It probably doesn't even make the national news anymore, does it?"
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Post by ~ N.P.C. ~ on Feb 21, 2010 3:03:52 GMT -5
Ingrid stared at Tracy with wide eyes, amazed by the girl's ability to gain such an insight on people. Dylan spoke to her about it several times, but to see it first hand was just amazing. It must be hard to know so many people's emotion, and from the way Tracy talked about it the whole process sounded so heavy. And to deal with the constant emotions when there were attacks on the school must be a killer for Tracy. Ingrid couldn't imagine going through that and having to deal with all these people. As far as she was concerned, Tracy must be a saint.
"There has been no news of an attack on any school for a long time now. The last thing I heard was some conflict with the Avengers. That so...oh I do not want to keep saying how horrible everything is," she said moving the hair out of her face and staring at them all with wide eyes. "Is it really that bad? Attacks all the time? The horses sound amazing mind you, but it must be a hard place to live if there is a constant chance of attacks." Ingrid stared up at Dylan for a minute and hugged him closer before tucking her head under his chin and looking back over at them.
"You are all very brave to stay there. I know you lost people before, but the risk of losing your friends and your loved ones, oh I cannot bear the thought," she whispered quietly. "Just by tonight, I didn't know what to do when I thought that everyone would be lost, and when Mike was shot, I don't think I will ever forget that. I cannot imagine how you all coupe with the feelings I had tonight." She looked at the two couples across from her and felt a sadness in her heart. They all had a jaded look to them, as if they have seen and done too much in their short lives. "You are all saints to stay such good people, or at least to me you are. Is that all that you have to do? Fight all your lives for your own?" Her amethyst eyes shined as she looked at them with a mix of sadness and awe.
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Ironclad
Corsairs
Mason Rictus
Posts: 197
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Post by Ironclad on Feb 27, 2010 1:38:03 GMT -5
"Honestly doll, we'd be fighting even if we weren't mutants, everyone does in the world we live in," Mason said taking a long swig of his beer and settling back on the couch. "You said so yourself, today wasn't your first experience with fighting for your life, well it ain't much different back at the school. We do what we gotta do to survive there as much as we do anywhere else." He wasn't sure how true it was for the others, but being a mutant and coming to the school probably saved his life. If it hadn't been for Jean Grey and Professor X coming in to pick him up from the streets of Detroit then, he knew he would have never left that life, and by now been doing God knows what, or probably be dead.
His dark hazel eyes looked over at the clock on the wall, making him place his beer on the end table and stand up, stretching slightly and moving a hand back to scratch his hair. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I got one crazy sweet tooth that's kicking in right about now," he winked at Tracy and glanced over at Aideen, almost hesitant to ask her since she looked so comfortable, but the ultimate craving for a beer float won this battle. "Let's go Hot Stuff, I don't know what would be open now, and well you would. We'll bring back treats." Mason leaned down and kissed Tracy lightly on the forehead.
"What flavors ya'll want?" He didn't bother writing it down, knowing that between him and Aideen, they'd remember it. "We'll see what they got, and do our best." Slipping his jacket on and lacing up his sneakers, Mason looked up and grinned at Aideen. "You know... if you wear a skirt I may let you drive my car... What the-? Oh come on I was playing with you, how does that make me deserve this?!" He lifted his feet to see the soles of his sneakers melted in rubber goo, sticking to the floor, with strings of rubber sticking to the floor like mozzarella cheese stretches.
He glared at her as he took off his sneakers to switch to his boots, watching the look on her face as she put on her jacket and smirked despite himself. He knew he deserved that, but sometimes he couldn't resist teasing her, and this weekend it hadn't been all that much since he got a glare from Wolverine every once in awhile made him hold back. He was pretty sure that if there was one person in the world that could make him feel physical pain, he was pretty sure it would be Logan. "We'll be back in a bit," he called and closed the door behind them as the got downstairs.
Keys in his hand, Mason looked between his car and Aideen, having an internal battle for a second. His car was literally his baby, he even named his car Gisele. To let someone other than him drive was a dilemma for him, but thinking back to the look on Aideen's face from earlier, all that guilt came flooding back. "Aw hell, here." Mason tossed her the keys and went to open up the garage for them. "Just... be careful. That's packing a lot of muscle and it's way more powerful than it looks," he said pulling on the chains to lift the garage door up.
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Post by Ember on Feb 28, 2010 1:56:11 GMT -5
Twirling the ring of the keys around her finger, a slight smirk of surprise came on her face while staring at the keys and then back at Mason. "I'm always careful, remember?" Her dark eyes glittered in amusement this time as she opened the car door and slid the key into the ignition. The car burst to life and the music blasted through the impressive speakers that they managed to install. Rap and hip hop wasn't totally her thing, but she was used to it enough to not mind terribly.
Moving the car into reverse, Aideen shifted gears and peeled out of the garage, smirking slightly at the look of horror on Mason's face. She knew it was killing him to watch someone else drive his car and him not being fully in control. When he closed the garage and got in, Aideen put the car in drive and immediately peeled off with a squeal from the car, pressing the clutch lightly as she shifted gears to speed up. She learned to drive on stick shift, so driving the older model cars was a breeze for her. She didn't drive cars enough to know all the tricks, but she didn't need to anyways. Racing cars didn't have the same appeal to her as her motorcycle, that allowed her to go twice as fast and move between cars with ease.
"Will you breathe? We're only going 65 and there aren't any cars around," Aideen said loudly over the music looking over at Mason to try and get him to relax. She turned at the light and drove further downtown. She didn't have the skill that Mason did in driving a car, but she never shied away from speed and this being her first time driving Mason's car, she was milking it for all it was worth. The power of the engine rumbled the entire car, giving a similar sense of freedom the way riding her bike gave her.
"You gonna tell me why you let me drive your car out of the blue?" She glanced over at him briefly while stopping at a light. "Here I thought I had as much a chance driving your car as you did my bike. Don't even think about it," Aideen added quickly glancing at him with a cool glance as she started forward again. Her bike was one of the few things that was truly hers and she would never let anyone touch it let alone ride it. She knew Mason felt the same way about his car, that's why she knew something was up if he was letting her drive it.
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Ironclad
Corsairs
Mason Rictus
Posts: 197
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Post by Ironclad on Feb 28, 2010 3:58:21 GMT -5
Mason relaxed a bit and glanced over at her while keeping his eyes on the road. "Why didn't you tell me coming back would screw you up again?" he said loudly over the music, a hard edge to his voice. He was mad at himself for not thinking ahead of time that it might be hard for her to come back to this place, but he was also pissed at her that she couldn't be straight up with him about how she felt coming back to this place. As much as Mason liked to pride himself on being observant and sharp, Aideen was harder to read than those books by Dostoyevsky that Emma made them read for class.
"Don't even try and play it off with me, I ain't Trace, or Logan. Neither of them are gonna give you shit on it cause they wanna keep you happy, well guess what girly, I'm pretty pissed right about now, and I deserve you to be straight up with me for probably the first time this entire damn trip," He spat turning down the music so they could have a conversation without shouting. "I'm pissed cause you didn't tell me, and I'm pissed I didn't see it. S'not like you can blame me for that though, you're a closed book. I couldn't figure you out no matter how hard I try, and believe me I tried."
He knew little to nothing about the girl's home life. Most of it he guessed, because her bike was the custom made street style one, and he knew it was the one that only racers road. He also knew she was from Boston, and managed to put two and two together. Mason knew he had some serious training, but that's as far as he knew. He didn't pry though, that wasn't his style. Everyone was entitled to have their secrets, him being no exception, but in this case she should have let him know it would be too much.
"You know what it felt like to watch that look come on your face back there when you saw Mike's outfit? It was like the most random stab in the gut ever, but when I found out why, man that knife just twisted. Logan's entire face just fell right then and there when you got all tense and got outta there faster than hell. This is bullshit Aideen," Mason said keeping his eyes on the road as they drove. He wasn't going to walk on eggshells around her like Logan and Tracy did, she needed someone to lay into her, to get it through her own head that she wasn't as alone as she seemed to think she was.
"I ain't telling you that you gotta be telling us all your feelings on everything, but shit girl you gotta give us a heads up if something didn't feel good to you. You're as god damn important to us as we are to you, and I know we gotta be for you to have even come here this weekend and go to that dinner thing Tracy begged for. You think I woulda even come here if I knew what it would do to you?" His hard voice had a slight strain to it, picturing the look on Aideen's face over and over again in his mind.
Mason looked over at her, studying her again like he usually did when he was trying to figure her out. Her elegant and pretty face was stoic as ever and gave him no clue how anything he said affected her, and it frustrated the hell out of him. He wanted to know what was going on in her head, he didn't like being partially responsible for causing her all that pain she kept in, pain that he would never have seen if not for the look on her face earlier today and the way it affected Tracy next to him. "You can't keep doing this, the more you do it to yourself the more it hurts the rest of us. Logan man, I known him a long time and I've never seen anything hit him like that. He can kill any guy that looks at you, and believe me that's a whole lot of guys, but he can't help you from yourself, especially since I'm guessing from his reaction that he was just as much in the dark about this whole thing as we were," he added in a slightly softer voice, glancing back on the road as they drove. He was going to give it all to her, even if it meant hitting the hard stuff.
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Post by Ember on Feb 28, 2010 17:35:04 GMT -5
"Who are you to guilt me into anything?" Aideen said after a moment of silence, voice cool and calm. She was slightly bewildered that Mason just poured out all this on her. Tracy wasn't someone to get in her face like this, she was far too respectful, and Logan, well the way she saw it he probably respected her wishes to not get him involved, whether he liked it or not, she wasn't sure exactly. "I didn't tell you because I thought I could handle it, and I've been doing a good job of it up until that incident with Mike. That was only because I didn't expect that, and was caught off guard."
Switching gears as she slowed down on the street where the deli was, Aideen kept her eyes on the road and kept her demeanor cool. She was mad that she couldn't control her emotions at a time that called for it, a time where she was conditioned to expect and keep her guard. Mike just looked so much like James then, and with all the ghosts she had been seeing, it just got to her. She should have controlled herself better, but despite all the conditioning put into her behavior and self as a whole, there were some things that she could not prevent.
"I'm not a delicate little snowflake, I won't let my fear and apprehension keep me from anything." Almost anything... "When you have a fear, you face it, and then overcome it. I am doing that, with only minor setbacks at being caught unprepared. I can handle it, and I won't have you lecturing like a child about why I shouldn't always be honest," Aideen said sharply as she shifted gears to parallel park carefully. "If I feel you need to know something, you will know. I do not have to inform you of everything anymore than you do me. My feelings and my thoughts are my own, and it is my choice who I share them with. In this case, I'm fine. Quit treating me like I am an invalid."
Putting the car in parking position, she sat back for a minute, slightly bothered by Mason's observation that Logan was going through it because of her. That had been precisely why she had not told him anything about her fears and doubts, she wanted him to enjoy himself on not worry about her. Aideen didn't like that he was feeling bad or anything negative towards her. She vowed a long time ago that she would not be one of those girls that brought nothing but drama to their guys, and here she was despite all her efforts doing just that, in a slight roundabout way.
"Logan know that I would tell him anything if he asked, I never deny him that. He doesn't like to pry anymore than I do. I know next to nothing about his life, except for the little parts he revealed to me, and the rumors I hear going around the school. And I don't need to know anything more than he tells me. If he doesn't tell me something, I trust there is a reason for it, and I assume he does the same with me. It's not like I ever stopped him from asking," she added quietly, running her hands over the wheel for a moment before turning off the car and getting out. "If he respects my reasons, than you should too. I'm fine, I'm going to be fine, and if I'm not I will make it fine. Simple as that." The door of the car shut with a light slam, as if to prove her point.
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Ironclad
Corsairs
Mason Rictus
Posts: 197
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Post by Ironclad on Feb 28, 2010 19:58:42 GMT -5
"Yea yea, whatever helps you sleep at night," Mason snarled shutting the door. They were in some run down neighborhood, with a bunch of little wannabe hoods hanging out on the doorsteps and porches of the houses surrounding the area and in front of the store. His eyes narrowed at the looks they were giving Aideen and nudging each other. He hated little shits like that, and they did nothing to help his mood at all. Walking next to Aideen, he put an arm around her waist and looked straight at the punk ass group, almost daring one of them to say or do anything to give him an excuse to let out some anger.
Being punks though, he knew they wouldn't do shit. Just turn around and call him names instead of acting on it. "Pussies," he muttered as they walked into the store, letting go of Aideen. They purchased their things in silence, Mason grabbing the beer and Aideen getting the ice cream. The whole thing took them maybe fifteen minutes, if that. He had no intention of starting up this conversation in public, and knew that if he did, he wouldn't get much of a response from her anyways.
When they got back to the car though, it was a whole different ball game. He let Aideen drive again, feeling more at ease getting into the car this time more than last time. "No one's calling you an invalid, I'm your friend god damnit, I care about you, whether you like it or not. And so does Trace, and so does Logan. You know how you don't like it when any of us are unhappy? It's the same damn thing for us when it comes to you. I'm asking you as a friend Aideen, to please tell me if something about what we're doing is too much for you."
He stayed silent for a couple of minutes of the drive, not looking at the road so much but more at her. The girl was surrounded by a shroud of mystery, which was both alluring and frightening at the same time. It's what turned a lot of guys on to her, to try and find out the mystery behind the gorgeous exotic girl with a power that could go as hot as the sun and a personality colder than the arctic. "You're not alone anymore you know that?" Mason said softly, moving his eyes back to the road. "You can try and push us all away, but we ain't going anywhere. I'm not, Tracy isn't, and Logan definitely isn't. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you might start to forgive yourself on some things." He didn't say anything else after that, instead he turned up the music and stayed silent on the ride back to the garage. With ice cream and beer there was a chance that the night's mood could improve yet.
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