InsaneJournal

Santo and Petra (backdated)
Who: Santo and Petra
When: 2/27, midafternoon
Where: Outside the dorms
What: Meet up and chat about rocks, hats and powers.


Santo headed down and out of the dorm on Sunday morning, finding himself a nice sunny spot where he could do some of his reading. Soon enough, however, he'd found a far more interesting chapter in the book than the one he was supposed to be reading. The one he had a test on first thing Monday morning. But he figured hey, he'd be more prepared in a month when they got to the stuff he was reading now.

Petra had felt bad about not being able to meet Santo when she had said she would but it had taken her longer than she thought to finish Jamie's Land Rover and by the time she was done it was past hours and she hadn't wanted to get in trouble during her first week by sneaking out. To make up for it she'd taken a trip into Salem center to find the PERFECT material to use to make something for him. Now that it was finished all she had to do was find him and give it to him. But that was proving to be the problem. He wasn't in his room and no one she asked had any idea where he'd gone. Well, the sun was shining and the snow had melted so Petra slipped on her coat and took her search outside, swinging the decorative bag with Santo's present inside. Outside was always better, in her opinion.

A few minutes later and she'd found him; or what she assumed was Santo. How many humanoid granite people could there be, really? "Santo?" she asked timidly, not wanting to interrupt his reading. "Hi, I'm Petra."

Santo looked up, flipping the book closed with a satisfied slap. Distractions were amazing things! And so were new people. He'd figured she'd gotten busy the other night. After all, she'd said she was working on something and he'd gotten busy himself. He sat up and grinned at her. "Petra! How'd you guess it was me?"

She smiled, glad he didn't seem too upset. "Well, I just looked for granite and there you were! Sorry I didn't show up before. My project took me longer than I thought and then it was curfew and I didn't want to get in trouble." She held out the brightly colored bag with a grin. "But I made you something to make up for it!"

Santo shook his head. "It's cool. I mean, I figured you just got busy." He opened the bag and peeked inside, then pulled out a hat. "Oh wow. You made this?" he asked, setting the bag down so he could really look at the hat itself. "Should stand up to me pretty well."

"That's what I thought! I figured, if it was meant for rock climbing, it'd be okay for you. And if it wears out it's okay, I'll just make you another. If you like it. And you don't have to!," she added hastily. Not everyone liked handmade things.

Santo put the hat on and struck a pose. "What do you think?"

He did like it! "It's very you," she replied with a grin. "Do you like the colors? Climbing rope only has so many options so I picked a colorful one. And if you want anything else I've got more rope. Like, I could make a pillow or something? Do you use pillows?"

"I love the colors," Santo assured her. "I'm all about the bright and bold stuff. Got to go that way when you're my size. I mean, what am I going to do, disguise myself? Not gonna happen. And yeah, I use pillows. I've got these special super foam things."

"Maybe- maybe I could make covers for them or something? If you want? I don't want to impose or anything," Petra said, looking away. She'd never been good at making new friends; San Francisco was proof of that. She always seemed to go overboard.

"Dude, really?" Santo asked. "Cause right now they're just foam. I had these covers for them, but one of them tore, and then I wore the other out. I'm, you know, hard on stuff." Not that that was hard to pick up on. "Wouldn't be imposing. I mean, you'd be doing me a favor!"

"I totally could! And there's fabric and stuff that's supposed to be really good for rock climbing. Maybe we could get some of that?" she replied, excitement obvious. "I can sew and stuff and pillow covers aren't hard at all. And since I know rock, I can probably guess pretty well what'll work."

Santo laughed. "Yeah, that would be awesome!" He sighed and shook his head. "I mean, okay, they made sure my stuff's nice and sturdy. I've got uniforms and all that and they're fine. But it's all basic stuff."

Petra smiled, reaching out to pat Santo's arm. "But you need nice things too. Just because your mutation makes it, uh, not easy, doesn't mean it shouldn't happen," she said kindly.

"See, that's what I've been saying, but I can't knit," he said, holding up his hands.

"Hmm," Petra reached up and took his hand, looking it over critically. "Well, I don’t know of any knitting needles that could stand up to rock, but..." She paused to think, holding his large rocky hand between her two small ones. "There's finger knitting. And macrame. That's just making knots. Can you do that? Tie knots, I mean."

“Yeah, I can tie knots," he told her. "Really, that's all it is?"

She nodded happily. "That's all it is. You have to follow a pattern and stuff, and what you can make will vary depending on what cording we can get, but you could totally make stuff. You could probably make clothes for yourself even, since, uh, you know," Petra blushed a bright red. "Modesty isn't a huge issue for you, I guess."

Santo might have blushed, but he couldn't and anyhow he'd had to get over the whole body thing a while back. Except he did keep pants on all the time. "Yeah, not so much. Why hide all this, right?"

"Well, you do have that rock hard ab thing going on," Petra joked, still blushing but far more relaxed. "Speaking of which, would you mind?" she asked, stepping back and making the twirl around motion with her finger. "Professional curiosity, I assure you," she quipped with a wink.

"Oh, you want a show, huh?" Santo stood up and did a slow turn so she could see it all. He had pants on, of course, but his shirt was hanging open.

"You're all granite? Do you get to pick the stone?" she asked, all trace of a blush gone as her scientific curiosity took over.

"Sort of," he told her as he turned again. "I'm mostly granite. There's some bits and pieces of other stuff in there, but granite was what was around when I manifested. See..." He paused, then sat down again before continuing. "I'm not really, you know, rock. I mean, I am, but only sort of. At least, that's what I've been told. I exploded, sort of. And after that happened I made myself a new body out of rock."

Without thinking Petra called up a seat of her own as Santo sat. It wasn't much more than a small pillar of sandstone, nothing fancy. "You...exploded? So you were, uh, flesh, before and now you're rock? But you made yourself up out of whatever was around, right?"

Santo nodded. "Least as far as anyone can tell. They took a core sample and did all sorts of scans. I don't have organs or anything. Just solid rock."

"Core...samples? Didn't that hurt?" Petra asked, suddenly quite concerned. She liked this guy so far and if someone hurt him well she'd- She'd give them a stern talking to, that's for sure.

"Nah. It was like, pressure. You know? Like, have you ever had stitches?" he asked her. He'd gotten ten in his hand when he was a kid and was suddenly put in mind of them. "Like, they numb you up a lot, and you know it would hurt if you could feel it right, but instead it just feels like something's pushing somewhere you didn't know could be pushed on."

Petra nodded. She'd cut her knee when she was twelve and when he explained it that way, she knew exactly what he'd meant. "So, uh, okay, you can tell me to go away if I'm being nosey or something, but," she looked down at her boots for a moment before looking up at Santo and asking, "Can't you feel at all? Like, touch and heat and cold and stuff?"

"Yeah, I can, but it's... It's not the same as having skin," he told her. "Like, I know it's cool out here right now, but I don't mind it. Same when it's hot. Doesn't change me much, you know? I get warm, I get cold, but it doesn't affect my circulation or anything like that. But, you know, if you touch me I know you're touching me."

Petra sighed in relief. She didn't know why it mattered all that much to her that Santo could feel things, but it did. "That's good. Because there's kinds of stone out there that are more reactive and stuff, that you could maybe-" She stopped. "Can you make a new you, even? Like, if you had a pile of one thing, right in front of you, could you make a new you out of it?"

"Never tried," he admitted. "I didn't want to, you know, get stuck with three arms or something."

"Yikes, yeah, I can see that," Petra agreed. "Still- stone," she said with a grin, reaching out and tapping his knee. "Really, way awesome. And if you ever want to, well, experiment I guess? You can totally come to one of my practices. Sometimes there outside, sometimes they're inside. We could see if I could give you horns or something," she joked. "But only if I knew I could undo it, okay?"

"Horns would be awesome!" he told her, laughing. "Even if you couldn't undo it... though man, I'd need holes in my hat."

Petra laughed. "I'd make you another if we did that. But, you know, if you wanted me to, I totally would. Give you horns or whatever. If I could." She shrugged. "I'm not sure? I mean, I could MAKE them, but could we make them part of you? I really don't know."

“Maybe we should talk about training together," Santo suggested. "Not all the time, but sometimes, maybe? It might be cool."

"I would really like that!" Petra agreed, standing and throwing her arms around, or partly around, Santo in an impulsive hug. "I've never had anyone to really train with before."

Santo hugged her back, gently, and grinned. "Me neither, really. And hey, I bet they'll be glad we're volunteering, you know?"

"Totally! God, this place is SO much better than San Francisco already!" Petra laughed.

"Well," Santo said, hugging her again before letting go. "I'm glad you're here."

“Me too!" she agreed. "And I'm glad you're here. I think we're going ot be great friends!"

"Dude," Santo told her, grinning. "We're great friends already. You made me a hat!"