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Tweak says, "WHERE ARE THE CHEETOS??"

Bobby Drake (frostbyte) wrote in devolve,
@ 2011-01-27 16:15:00

Entry tags:

bobby_drake, lorna_dane

Who: Bobby & Lorna
What: Reflect and talk.
Where: The roof, overlooking the fields.
When: Thursday afternoon.
Rating: PG-13 (for language and minor violence)
Status: Complete

Even in a colony full of people it was easy to find oneself feeling completely alone. It was not a feeling Bobby had ever been accustomed to. It was not for the world's lack of trying to teach him, but for his own stubbornness to see. His whole life, he had met his troubles head on with a shield the size of a goalie net. A personality so large and over the top it reached far beyond him to handle problems before they came and blunt the force of any future pain.

He often wondered how it had not been so exhausting to live that way. His stamina was well known, his cleverness at times admired, but through it all there remained the surprised disbelief that anyone could go through life the way he had. At first, the looks on their faces had been amusing, then a challenge, and somehow in the end it had become so routine their reactions were warming. Smiles, laughs, the shakes of heads...How could it be that one person could chose to brave life completely carefree? Wild and spontaneous, always a joke, a melody, a rhyme...some comeback to keep things from escalating. Some way to keep the darkness at bay.

Bobby sighed and dropped back into the heavy snow that blanketed the roof. The blue of the sky was clear and bright, stretching out in every direction only occasionally doted by clouds of white. Silver linings everywhere.

He couldn't get the look out of his mind. He'd tried, oh how he'd tried. But nothing could erase the way Sam had looked at him. Horrified, angry, confused and frustrated...terrified. He closed his eyes and scrubbed his hands over his face. Betrayed. Hurt. Alone.

"Damn it, Sam," he breathed, the words failing to lift the weight in his chest.

Throwing out his arms, he spread his legs. Snow drifted up in great piles at the movement. After a pause, he drew his legs back and his arms up. Then out and down. Again and again.

When he finally stopped, the snow walled around him, higher than he'd imagined. He'd sunk deeper than he'd have expected. It took a moment to realize he'd done it. He sighed and blinked up at the sky from within the downy encasement. A dark spot against the white of the roof. Fallen from grace, and not a feather in sight.

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geek_magnet
2011-01-28 12:55 am UTC (link)

Bobby hadn't responded to either of her messages. More worryingly, she hadn't seen him at the fireworks show. Hopefully, he's watched it from somewhere. Because he needed to see what he'd inspired.

The localized snow on the roof was a dead giveaway. Lorna's body became outline in green as she lifted off the ground and up to the roof, landing a bit in front of him.

"Hey, Frosty," she greeted softly, looking down at him. "Don't we have enough snow around here already?"

It was a lame opener, but there it was. She was trying.

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 01:07 am UTC (link)
	"Never enough snow, Lor," he replied, an old counter that lacked the joy and amusement it once held. "Thought you'd know that by now." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	geek_magnet 2011-01-28 01:11 am UTC (link)
	Okay, at least his comeback was just as lame. Which was kind of sad. "Never for you," she countered anyway. "The rest of us get frostbite." Looking down at him, Lorna shook her head and sighed. "If I ask what's bugging you, will you tell me?" she asked bluntly. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	frostbyte 2011-01-28 01:14 am UTC (link)
	"No," he replied honestly. "But you get points for directness." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geek_magnet
2011-01-28 01:19 am UTC (link)

She sighed again. "And you get points for honesty," she agreed.

It'd been like this for awhile. Lorna was worried about Bobby more and more. He was getting more and more melancholy. It didn't make sense, unless reality was finally wearing him down.

Maybe it was wearing her down too, considering her own crazy outburst.

"Will you let me try to cheer you up?" she offered. "I have about six hours of video footage of everybody enjoying your icy wonderland. There's even a clip of Hank on the big slide."

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 01:24 am UTC (link)
	He made a soft sound, somewhere between a snort and amusement. "Thank you, but no." He shook his head. "I don't want to see." He sat up, snow sliding down his back like water. He looked up at her. "I don't really care." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geek_magnet
2011-01-28 01:28 am UTC (link)

Lorna knelt down in front of him, shaking her head. "Throw me a line here, Bobs," she said wryly. "I suck at this. You know that."

She really did. If she knew what people needed to be doing (like taking breaks instead spending every waking moment trying to save the world), so could boss them into it. Organize things to make sure everybody was taking care of themselves.

But she had no idea what to do with a depressed Bobby Drake. The idea was still breaking her brain a bit.

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 01:35 am UTC (link)
	"I'm still amazed by you trying," he replied. It was odd, and perhaps spoke more of their situation than anyone cared to admit. Filling in the indented angel with fresh snow, he cleared a space beside him and patted the roof. "Do I still have to school you, Padawan?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geek_magnet
2011-01-28 01:40 am UTC (link)

"I'm as stubborn as I am bad at this," she reminded him with a smirk. "You know that too."

Partially levitating herself so she didn't slip, Lorna settled down on the proffered spot. "Do I really have to answer that? If I can't cajole, bribe, harangue, threaten or literally drag people into things, I'm at a loss at how to deal with them. This is why I went into geophysics. I'm much better with ozone than people."

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 01:45 am UTC (link)
	"The thing about people," he said, leaning back in his seat. "Is that everyone needs something. Find out what they need, figure out how to give it to them - if even just a little - and you can set them down a happier road, which in turn makes them more agreeable in general." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geek_magnet
2011-01-28 01:55 am UTC (link)

Lorna laughed softly and shook her head. "You make it sound so simple," she said quietly. "Maybe it is. But I have no idea what you need. Well, besides not being allowed to sink deeper into this hole you're trying desperately to."

Bobby had touched on the one thing that was frustrating her the most. She felt like sometimes she was the only one who realized that if things were so hopeless, they wouldn't still be here. Wouldn't actually be doing better than surviving. If all they could do was survive day to day, there'd be no time for playing in the snow or fireworks. But they could make time for those.

"Is it really so bad out there we should just give up?" she asked, looking away so he didn't see her eyes welling up. She didn't want to believe that, but it was breaking Bobby.

Maybe she was being naive. Lorna hoped Bobby would be honest with her if she was.

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frostbyte
2011-01-28 03:09 am UTC (link)

"It is that simple. Finding out what someone needs is where it gets hard."

Bobby sighed heavily at her question, dropping his arms behind him and looking skyward again. "Not for everyone," he replied. "Not for us. But for others? Probably. It's not about what's good for any one person, Lorna, but for everyone as a whole and that's where you lose people. That's where...it all starts to get murky. We still want to live these lives, have these connections that have meaning, but in the end the only thing that matters is science and numbers. The kind of things that have always dictated survival, even before we knew they were there."

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geek_magnet
2011-01-28 03:15 am UTC (link)

"Tell me about it," Lorna scoffed wryly.

She listened to what Bobby was saying. He was right in a way, but he was also very wrong. "We need both, Bobby," she told him. "We need to live and survive, or else what's the good of surviving?"

Lorna dashed away the tears. "You know me," she told him. "I'm a scientist. But we're not just animals, Bobby. Humans have more needs than just surviving day to day. Or else we never would have gone beyond basic primate family groups. If we regress back to the point where we really believe it's just a numbers game, then we have lost the point of surviving. We've lost living. And that I refuse to accept."

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frostbyte
2011-01-28 03:19 am UTC (link)

"Chateau and hut, stone face and dangling figure, the red stain on the stone floor, and the pure water in the village well--thousands of acres of land--a whole province of France--all France itself--lay under the night sky, concentrated into a faint hairbreadth line. So does a whole world, with all its greatnesses and littlenesses, lie in a twinkling star. And as mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so, sublimer intelligences may read in the feeble shining of this earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it."

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geek_magnet
2011-01-28 03:24 am UTC (link)

Lorna let out a scoff. "Oh God, you've been reading Dickens," she muttered darkly. "No wonder you're depressed."

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Bobs," she reminded him. "But that's how I intend to walk it. There's as much good in humanity as evil. Or else we wouldn't be here, slugging it out in the trenches. If it were really every man for himself, would we have gotten this far in two years?"

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 03:42 am UTC (link)
	"That's the whole point, Lorna," he replied, standing. He stuffed his hands into the back of his waistband and looked out over the field, heedless of the swift drop below them. Iceman would never slip. The slanted roof with its frozen dress held no threat to him. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	geek_magnet 2011-01-28 03:47 am UTC (link)
	"That's bullshit, Bobby," she argued. "And you know it. If we were only out for ourselves, we wouldn't trade with the others. Our abilities allow us to do things they can't hope to. Maybe we can't save them all, but do you really think we've tossed them to the wolves?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

frostbyte
2011-01-28 03:53 am UTC (link)

"Look into the future, and what do you see there? And if we do nothing can you guarantee we'll be there? Stop calling to heaven. Stop praying for answers. Just know that divinest intervention is the hand of man." Below them on the field, some of the ice caricatures moved. "But when does it finish? Just where is the ending? How far is too far? When are we past the point of bending?"

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geek_magnet
2011-01-28 04:06 am UTC (link)

Oh god, he'd really lost hope. Robert Francis Drake, the living personification of everything light and happy in the human race, had lost hope for the future. Lorna really couldn't believe it, but it had to be what was wrong.

She levitated to her feet, not backing down. "There are no guarantees in life, Bobby," she reminded him. "No quick and dirty outs. Everything has a price. We're paying it now for doing the best we can. Do I believe it'll pay off eventually? Hell, yes. Not because I believe in some magical higher power or some better place you go to if you're a good person. I don't."

Tears were welling in her eyes, but there were tears of anger. "I stopped believing in God when I was a little girl who had have her hair dyed every two months so that my classmates wouldn't find out I was a mutant. Why would God make me different in such a small way and make everybody hate me? Simple. There is no God. We make our own paths and the only people we have to answer to at the end is ourselves."

Floating in front of him, Lorna was practically crackling with green energy surrounding her. "You're right about the divine intervention of man. It is up to us to be angels or demons. To try to help others or grind them under our heels to get ahead. What I don't get is what has happened to make you think you're a demon?"

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	frostbyte 2011-01-28 04:40 am UTC (link)
	"They disappoint, they disappear, they die but they don't. They disappoint in turn, I fear. Forgive, though, they won't." He stepped off the roof, a step appearing under his feet, and another and another, supporting a steadfast descent to the snowy ground below. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geek_magnet
2011-01-28 04:43 am UTC (link)

Okay, two things were pissing her off right. One, Bobby was walking away from her and two, he clearly wasn't fucking listening. "Oh hell no," she spats as she followed after him. "This is not over, Robert Drake."

This entire quoting thing was bullshit. He was avoiding dealing with her questions, basically all but ignoring her. She wasn't about to let that go.

"What the hell happened to you?"

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frostbyte
2011-01-28 05:04 am UTC (link)

Bobby hopped down, skipping several steps that curved inward in an arc to catch up a landing under his feet as he went. "Running away? Let's do it. Free from the ties that bind. No more despair or burdens to bear out there in the yonder." Okay, now he was just fucking with her. "Running away, go to it. Where did you have in mind? Have to take care, unless there's a 'where' you'll only be wandering blind. Just more questions. Different kinds."

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geek_magnet
2011-01-28 05:13 am UTC (link)

That was it. Apparently Bobby really had just fucking stopped caring. Lorna didn't know which emotion caused her to lash out physically. The anger, the hurt or the flat out denial that he could be like this.

Regardless, there was definitely an electric sting behind the slap across his face.

"Fuck you, Bobby," she snarled, hovering in front of him, literally trembling in fury. Part of her wanted to give him exactly what he thought he wanted, just slamming her powers into him and his ice stairs and being done with it.

But he wasn't getting off that easy. Lorna hesitated a moment more, then turned and flew off towards the barracks.

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frostbyte
2011-01-28 05:21 am UTC (link)

Bobby felt the blow coming and planted his feet, head snapping to the side with the force of her slap. He let her have her parting shot, before obliterating the ice about him. The fall felt nice, and he tucked his legs up as the ground came hurtling toward him, shifting to ice as he landed and hearing the crack echo.

It took him a moment to stand - reshaping his legs was always easier when he didn't move - before standing, shifting back to flesh and walking off down the shoveled lane.

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