Settling In

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

Reinhart had been here a little over a month now. It seemed like an average school, with above-average people in many respects, but only here did he feel comfortable - by the Lake. He had his favorite spot set out, beneath a large willow, and was briefly reading through the book lying open on his lap, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Things had happened so fast, but he'd yet fully met anyone in this place. Alone, he continued to read on, listening to the sound of the wind playing with the vines drooping above him.

[Bobby Drake]

(( OOC: I’m setting this more or less present-time – April ’08 – and hand-waving around specific memories of the future and whatever happens/happened afterwards. ))

Winter seems unwilling to relax its grip on the Northeast this year, even a week into spring. (Of course, it could be worse… Bobby still remembers the April Fool’s blizzard of ’97… he’d been a kid at the time, excited by the prospect of school shutting down.)

It’s gotten warmer, sure, but there’s still enough of a nip in the air that Bobby doesn’t expect anyone else to be swimming. So he’s a little surprised, when he reaches the lakeside, to find one of the other students there. The kid’s face isn’t familiar – Bobby assumes he’s one of the new arrivals over the last couple of months – and Bobby doesn’t know what his powers are. Is there another cold-resistant mutant at the Institute now?

It would be cool, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that his fellow lake-enjoyer is not planning to swim. Oh well. He drops his towel by the lakeside and kicks off his sandals, then decides to introduce himself.

"Good morning… I don’t think we’ve met, have we? I’m Bobby Drake, resident super-senior." He nods his head to indicate the book on Reinhart’s lap, taking care not to stare at the scar on his face. "Whatcha reading?"

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

"A book" he replied casually, holding it up so that the stranger could read the title. He didn't make eye contact exactly, more a brief glimpse of this part-dressed male before his eyes returned to the page. This was one of the first times someone had spoken to him. Curiosity regarding this person began to well up inside him, as his mind swam with a dozen and one questions to ask - yet, only one seemed to form from his mouth.
"Your not seriously going to swim in that in this weather, are you?" he asked questioningly.

[Bobby Drake]

> “A book.”

Bobby chuckles and rolls his eyes. "Well, that’s reassuring. It seemed awfully small for an engraved obelisk."

He takes a few steps closer to see the cover this guy is showing him, and nods appreciatively. "Ah, a fellow Dick fan… excellent. Not his best, but not bad. Bladerunner was practically unrelated, though. I mean, yeah, OK, there were androids, and the basic issue of how humanity adapts to an increasingly artificial environment was still sorta there, but other than that, they had practically nothing in common." He shrugs a little apologetically and adds "Which, I realize, is more than you actually wanted to hear on the subject. SF geek; guilty."

> "Your not seriously going to swim in that in this weather, are you?"

"Well, I hadn’t intended to take it off, if that’s what you mean… Warren’s still got his little project of videotaping the place from the air going on, and I’d just as soon not bare everything on film." He grins broadly to make it clear he’s just goofing around. "Seriously, though… cold doesn’t bug me." He chills the air around him briefly as a demonstration – not enough to make the new kid uncomfortable or to ice up all the way, but enough to let a thin layer of frost form on his own skin. "They call me ‘Iceman’, sometimes. I know, it’s kinda a goofy code-name, but I didn’t pick it."

He lets normal temperatures reassert themselves, and within a couple of seconds the frost melts/evaporates away. "So, yeah… as long as it isn’t actually frozen over, I swim here year-round, when I can."

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

"I see" said Reinhart, closing the book and setting it aside. "That's your ability is it... to freeze things?" he questioned, paying close attention to the fellow student alongside him. Iceman, he said, and he was right. It was a god awful goofy name. Using his hands to push himself up, he brushed himself down before reaffirming eye contact with the boy. He put his right hand forwards in an open gesture to shake the "Iceman"'s.
"Reinhart. Reinhart van Hinkle" he stated simply, declaring who he was for this person. "And no, I don't have a codename... no one's seen fit to dub me with one as of yet, not that I'm complaining".

[Bobby Drake]

> "That's your ability is it... to freeze things?"

Bobby considers getting into a whole conversation about the details of his mutation, and the stuff he’s learned about it in the last few years, but he can’t figure out a way to do it that won’t come across like some combination of an upperclassman showing off and a mutant cheerleader giving the official pep-talk about how useful it is to practice your abilities and some day you, too, can survive shattering into a pile of snowflakes.

So he leaves it at "Yeah, pretty much."

> "Reinhart. Reinhart van Hinkle. And no, I don't have a codename...
> no one's seen fit to dub me with one as of yet, not that I'm complaining".

Bobby laughs and shakes the kid’s hand. "You want to keep that up for as long as you can, trust me. Professor Xavier was an incredible guy, but coming up with cool code-names was not his great strength." Sometimes, Bobby was convinced the Professor had done it deliberately, as a way of subconsciously reassuring his students that he wasn’t reading their minds. After all, if he were, he’d come up with more popular suggestions, right?

"So, if you don’t mind my asking, how’d you end up joining our little gang of loud, proud mutants?"

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

"The same as everyone else, so I've come to learn. One day, I woke up and something... happened. Later on, I was found by some people claiming they can help me get on with my life and learn to control this 'gift'" he said, adding extra emphasis on the last word to note that it hadn't done him an awful lot of good so far. He retracted the ignored hand and placed it in his back pocket, whilst he let the other hang loosely by his side.
"It's taken... it's taking, rather, quite a long time to fully adjust to this place however, even without the Mutant's - I come from England, you see, so everything still seems like a novelty and not like something what will be permanent".

[Bobby Drake]

(( OOC: what’s with “ignored hand”? * points to first sentence, fifth paragraph * ))

> "One day, I woke up and something... happened. Later on, I was
> found by some people claiming they can help me get on with my
> life and learn to control this 'gift'"

"Mm." It’s a noncommittal and vaguely sympathetic murmur, which feels appropriate given the lack of anything specific to sympathize with. "Yeah… like you said, it’s kinda like that for all of us."

Bobby is curious about the details of Reinhart’s mutation, but he’s learned over the years that it’s best not to ask new arrivals that question… the reactions are too unpredictable. "For me, it was accidentally snowing out a baseball game. Very messy, very public. Coming here felt like the end of the world… except really, my life didn’t really start before I got here. " He shrugs. "Not that it’s like that for everybody, of course, but either way I’m guessing you’ll settle in soon enough. England isn’t all that different… at least we speak something resembling the same language, right?

So what do you miss most? About home, I mean?"

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

((In the post previous, he extended his hand to shake yours in a greeting but you didn't accept or acknowledge it in your post, so he took it as an ignorance of it.))

"Home?" he asked, thinking back. There were alot of things in truth; the school he was at, the friends he had, the respect he had earned in the area... but nothing he missed specifically. Here, he was free of his obligations and familial duties. He was also now free to do what he wanted, a future all of his own.
"Not alot", he said simply, "but if I were to pick anything, it would be the tea. I've tried and I've looked, but it seems everyone over here is incapable of making the perfect cup of tea. Home was just a midpoint for me, somewhere to get myself nestled before something happened". He leaned back against the tree lightly. "Atleast with your abilities awakening it has comic value, though".

[Bobby Drake]

(( OOC: First sentence, fifth paragraph: “Bobby laughs and shakes the kid’s hand.” Not a big deal, though.))

> “If I were to pick anything, it would be the tea.”

"Tea, huh? Never developed a taste for it myself… mostly a coffee drinker, when I need the caffeine. Though I keep trying to quit… it’s a poor substitute for getting enough sleep." He shrugs ruefully. "At least I never took up smoking."

> "At least with your abilities awakening it has comic value, though".

"Guess it depends on your perspective, I suppose. At the time… well, I hadn’t told anybody I was a mutant; I wasn’t really thinking of myself that way, and all of a sudden there I was, outed in front of everybody – the entire school, my parents, everybody’s parents. I pretty much wanted to die, right then and there." He shakes his head, bemused. "Looking back on it, though… I think maybe you’re right. I was wound so tight back then. I guess I still am, really, just about different things." Things that matter more, he thinks grimly.

"So I take it there was nothing funny about your own “awakening”?"

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

((My bad. Still trying to get used to your style of RP Posting. Very distinctive and well done mind you!))

Reinhart thought back to his own one. The argument, the pent up anger, and the incident. He thought that he might as well share as Bobby had because, at the end of the day, what good can secrets really do? Smiling lightly, he lowered his gaze to the floor and spoke in a lowered tone. "My 'awakening' made me stab my father- or atleast, making him believe he had been stabbed" he said with a heavy sigh. He knew he'd have to explain what his ability was now, it wasn't fair to Bobby otherwise.
"Illusion Projection, they call it, the ones who brought me here. I can create complete illusions mentally to appear in any way, shape or form of my will, and anywhere I can... and what's more, if a person comes into physical contact with one of these illusions, they'll believe that it's real. They'll feel it, smell it, think they can touch it and pick it up. It's like some sort of telepathic hypnosis, which requires touch to affect the people. I'm no where near close to controlling it however, the only time it's ever happened was... well, the time it came forth" he finished, breathing deep. Cat was out of the bag now, anyway. He'd hoped he had gained enough of Bobby's respect to not judge him on his actions for before - to Reinhart, reputation and respect were the bones upon which his old life were built upon.

[Bobby Drake]

(( No worries. And thank you! But now I’m curious: what’s distinctive about it? ))

> "My 'awakening' made me stab my father…”

That catches Bobby’s attention, and makes his own freaking out over ruining a baseball game seem even more petty by comparison. At first he takes Reinhart literally, assuming he has some kind of blade-manifesting ability, but as the boy explains his actual mutation he becomes somewhat more curious. "So you manifested an illusion of a knife, or something like that? I bet he freaked out… still, I bet in a few years you’ll both be able to put that behind you. I mean, it’s not like you actually stabbed him, right?"

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

((Just in the sense that you actually go ahead and quote parts of dialogue from another person, and react to that. I mean, in the sense of me explaining things in a block and you then picking it apart, it doesn't make sense chronologically, but it gives alot more exposition of character which is quite nifty in my eyes.))

"Well... he more than freaked out. He saw the blade, he saw the blade enter him, and because he made contact with it he felt the blade go into him as well. It caused him such pain and distress, that he had a heart attack and nearly passed on afterwards... and as for putting it behind us" he said, pausing for a moment to run a line down the fresh scar down his left cheek, "I don't think I'm welcome there again in this life time. In my family, this is the mark of disownment. I'd been living rough, trying to walk to the nearest settlement when the people from this insititute first found me.

So there we have it. The story of my coming about here" he finished, looking up and trying to gauge from Bobby's facial expressions as to how he was percieving Reinhart.

[Bobby Drake]

(( Ah, yeah. I once tried to stitch an RP session into an actual story-like narrative and realized it had branched into a tree structure no real-life conversation could ever have. But, oh well… as you say, it gives more opportunity for character interation. ))

Bobby winces at the “punch line” to Reinhart’s story, biting his upper lip in sympathy. "Oh, man. That’s gotta hurt." It’s not entirely clear whether he’s referring to the simulated stabbing or the being disowned by his family, or perhaps both. "That’s pretty hardcore, though. In my family the mark of disownment was my mom not sending cookies." He shrugs apologetically and adds "Sorry… lame joke. Nothing funny about it, I know."

He sits down, leaning his back against a tree-trunk, and tries again more seriously. "I don’t know if this helps at all, but a lot of mutants end up estranged from their families for one reason or another. My own parents haven’t spoken to me since… well, it’s a long story, but suffice to say that a, um, teammate of mine burned their house down. To be fair, that was after my brother called the cops, but never mind; my point is, you aren’t alone. I mean, I know it’s not the same thing, and I know it doesn’t make losing your family suck any less, but it’s better than being alone, you know?"

God, he thinks to himself, I totally suck at this. The Professor would have come up with some inspiring anecdote about families being reunited, or something like that… me, I come out with John burning my house down. Just shoot me now…

[Reinhart van Hinkel]

Reinhart chuckled lightly and politely. "It's ok, there's no need to try and make me see the bright side of things. One important fact you need to learn about the van Hinkle's is we like thrusting our young to the wolves. I've had to stand on my own two feet for longer than I can remember. As upsetting as having your family turn their back on you, we were more dysfunctional than you could imagine" he said with an awkward laugh. He really didn't mind talking about his family, but it was a subject where he had no clue where to begin. How could he describe being groomed as the perfect heir, smothered and bullied at the same time? No, it was best left unsaid. That was, after all, his past life now.