Museum of Natural History

[Hector Vidal]

(( kicking off the field trip thread discussed here and introducing Hector!))

Hector is the first one back out in the lobby after the movie ends, which is really no surprise at all, and he passes the time waiting for the rest of his class by reading some of the posters and brochures they have lying around, which is actually pretty cool.

Not that he’s a huge dinosaur freak or anything, but hunting dinosaur bones in the Gobi sounds like one hell of a cooler way to spend a summer vacation than visiting Grandma Rosa in Florida. Not that he has anything against her, or Florida, either; the point is that hunting dinosaur bones in the Gobi is cool. Plus, he hadn’t known Indiana Jones was sorta a real person, which is also cool. And – “Oh, there you are, Hector. I was afraid we’d lost you.”

"No ma’am," he replies with a grin. "Just following you before you got here." She rolls her eyes slightly, as if to suggest that this is nothing new – which, for him, it really isn’t; he’s sorta infamous for never walking anywhere if he can run – and he ignores it cheerfully, waving vaguely in the general direction of the dinosaur exhibits. "So, are we gonna go see the skeletons? Can I catch up with you guys there?"

She nods and he takes off towards the stairs, slowing down slightly to pass a sour-faced security guard before tearing up to the sixth floor where they have the T-rex skeleton his dad took him to see when he was a little kid, plus a bunch of other skeletons and dioramas and a guy with wings apparently chaperoning another high-school class and…

…he does a bit of a double-take and stares…

it really is a guy with wings! Or, more likely, the guy with wings. He’d seen some stuff about him on television, some Dateline thing his mom was watching once, but actually seeing it in person is a whole different thing. Wow! Wait till the other kids get a gander at this!

He can’t remember the guy’s name, Washington or something like that, and some kind of wing-related codename… Hawk? Falcon? Angel? Yeah, that was it, Angel. Hector wonders who the rest of the folks with him are, and wonders if he should ask for an autograph, and decides to wait until the rest of his class catches up, first.

[Tempero]

Danny doesn't misbehave per se. Rather, he forgets about certain details at the times he is surrounded by interesting things. So of course he has wandered away from the group three times already since they came in through the door. Every time he finds his way back, but the issue is that he keeps doing it.

So, he does it again, of course. The skeletons exhibit is particularly intriguing, so he is there a minute or two before the rest of the group comes in. Off in his own little world of happiness, Danny completely disregards the absence of anyone else, staring at one of the skeletons. Something zips past him, which is later identified as a rather...excitable kid.

As the kid stops and looks off at an unimportant direction (the peripheral vision proves the direction to be Warren, whose presence Danny has rather gotten used to), it is Daniel who stares. He frowns a bit, shakes his head, and looks again. Wanting to double check, he closes his eyes and concentrates. It becomes more prominent, but not much else.

I have never seen that color before...he must be with the group though...

Deciding to end up looking like the responsible one, he walks up to the kid and taps him on the shoulder. After all, he is not an adult, and Danny technically is...so technically he has free reign...right?

"Hey, I'm pretty sure they don't want you wandering away from the group..." he says with a smile, trying to remember the name. He is certain he would have seen the kid around the institute at some point in time, but nothing comes to mind. Well, it just means that in his prior obsession with getting friends, he did not go as far as he thinks he did.

[Hector Vidal]

> " Hey, I'm pretty sure they don't want you wandering away from the group..."

Hector turns around at the tap on his shoulder and blinks dazedly at the unfamiliar face. "No, it’s OK," he responds cheerfully, "Mrs. Abennucci said I could catch up with the rest of the class here." Then his brain catches up to him and he realizes he has no idea who this guy is. Certainly not a classmate, and he doesn’t remember him as one of the chaperones on the bus… so, probably a late-arriving chaperone who was also told to meet the class here.

Either that, or a creepy pedophile, but as long as they stay in public Hector isn’t going to worry about it. Certainly the guy seems nice enough. "It’s my favorite part of the museum, the dinosaur skeletons. I guess that probably makes me sound like a dork. I mean, it’s not so much that I’m queer for dinosaurs, but it’s the part I remember best from the last time I was here, and, well, it is pretty cool. And this is way more information than you really wanted from a complete stranger, and hi, my name’s Hector."

He gives Danny a friendly wave, having gotten out of the habit of handshakes in the last few months without quite noticing, and gestures excitedly in Warren’s general direction. "And, hey, did you notice him? I mean, I know it’s not polite to stare and stuff, but man, he’s like a for-real celebrity! I’ve never seen one in person before. And, man, those wings are awesome. He can fly with them, and everything. That would be totally cool."

Somewhat belatedly, it occurs to Hector that Mr. Chaperone here might be one of those people who has a problem with mutants – he’s noticed that older folks are more likely to. Come to that, there are other kids in his class who make cracks about mutants all the time too. ‘Course, they’re the same kids who give Hector flak for being Hispanic and Jimmy flak for being Jewish, and Hector doesn’t pay them much attention. But, regardless, he decides changing the subject might be a good idea.

"Did you get to see the movie? The IMAX thing, I mean, about the paleontologists and stuff. It’s pretty cool. Hey, did you know that Indiana Jones was modeled on a real guy? I hadn’t known that."

[Tempero]

>"Mrs. Abennucci said I could catch up with the rest of the class here."

The who did what now, huh? Danny stops and gets a distinctly blank expression on his face for a moment as the realization that maybe this kid is not with the institute group sinks in. So...I made a mistake...but he's still a mutant...is he hiding it?

The experience, if nothing else, quite plainly reveals that he should be more careful when approaching someone whom he definitely knows as a mutant. Stupid vision piece of crap...why can't it tell me the way to the nearest pancakes? That had become a new obsession of his-- morning pancakes. They just suddenly became one of his favorite foods, as if overnight.

Danny chuckles at the kid as he goes off on a lengthy tangent until he finally ends with his name. Extending a hand to hake, he feels like an idiot as all he receives is a wave.

"Well, I'll give you a little secret-- I also really like this part of the museum. Seriously, dinosaur skeletons are cool. I'm Danny, by the way, nice to meet you." he replies, smiling genuinely. It feels nice to have a normal conversation for at least a moment, since it fiercely seems that in the past few months all he had been talking about with his contemporaries were DR simulations, reflections on various bad stretches in life, and then there was of course the whole "spent the summer telling my life's tale to a shrink" thing. Dinosaur bones are tame, safe, they're not going anywhere, and they're not dangerous.

And then Hector decides to go off blatantly pointing at Warren, and the words just prove that Hector indeed is not from the institute.

"Warren? Yeah, his mutation is pretty cool...but it's very complicated too..." he remembers he learned that in a very uncomfortable way, for both of them, "And yeah, he's a pretty cool guy to be around. Kind of get used to him after a while, though." Danny says, knowing full well that it is not getting used to Warren that's his problem, but rather forgiving himself. He still needs a lot of work on that. Still, he no longer avoids him...that's a bonus.

"No, I didn't get to see it, but yeah, I did know that...my uncle told me when he first brought me here..." he replies, looking at the skeleton. It really is impressive.

[Hector Vidal]

> " Warren? Yeah, his mutation is pretty cool...but it's very complicated too... And yeah, he's a pretty cool guy to be around. Kind of get used to him after a while, though. "

Hector stares at Danny with suddenly increased respect. "Wait… you actually know him? That’s pretty cool, man. I mean, he’s been on television and everything… my big sister had this huge crush on him last year. So, are you famous too, then?" The guy doesn’t look particularly familiar, but then again Hector doesn’t usually pay all that much attention to the latest boy bands and stuff.

[Tempero]

>"Wait… you actually know him? That’s pretty cool, man. I mean, he’s been on television and everything… my big sister had this huge crush on him last year. So, are you famous too, then?"

Danny realizes just how different the worlds they live in are. To him, Warren, Josh, Ororo, the rest of the "Famous Ones," and mutation related disasters on a daily basis seem nothing to wonder about. He's been living at the institute for long enough to be weirded out when something doesn't go wrong.

"Yeah, I know Warren." he confirms, and then chuckles at the sister comment. "Many people do."

He outright laughs when asked about being famous. While he most certainly wants to be on the team, and all of his efforts usually go to that goal, the fame part does not even remotely cross his mind. Besides, even if he were part of the team already, there's a gut feeling that he would probably end up being the least prominent member. After all, Warren's very hard not to notice, Josh's TK and Bobby's cryokinesis are very cool powers, and then you have Ororo descending and making nature itself go against the "bad guys." Who would ever notice a white haired kid who just glows at allies and foes alike? It's not like people really notice when a mutant goes all out with his power... he thinks, and the nagging little fear that his power alone is not adequate enough to make the team resurfaces.

Damn kids doing what I pay professionals to do...

"No, I'm not. I just live in the same place as he and the rest of them do. What about you, Hector? Are you famous for something?" a dumb question, but somewhat of an attempt to pry some mutation-related information out of the boy. A new color always makes him want to know what the mutation does, and he never copies a power until he has consent. Now, he's not even sure the kid knows about the mutation.

[Veronica Devereux]

Ahead of the group, a young blonde came into the exhibit, an iPod plugged into her ears. Only one of the earphones were hooked in her ear, the other lay uselessly on her shoulder. Taking this time to rest, Veronica sat near one of the models and closed her eyes, listening to the angelic voice of a woman bleed out of the earphones. The woman was singing something about Christmas, and it lightened the girl's mood, even if it was May.

Sighing and opening her eyes, the icy blue orbs scanned the surrounding area, but did not register the two boys off in the distance conversing. Standing back up quickly, the girl flattened out her pink tank top and matching skirt, annoyed at the sudden appearance of the wrinkles. Because of the slit that ran up to her thigh, anyone could easily spot a blue and pink design running up from her ankle in the shape of a butterfly.

Yawning, she shook the sleepiness from her eyes and turned up the volume of her device, just in time for anyone in the room to hear the woman sing"All I want for Christmas is you!" taking the last word up about two octaves into a whistle-like note, which seemed to alert the blonde. She began to walk around the exhibit, tracing her fingers over the models as the sound of her pink heels echoed against the marbled floor.

[Hector Vidal]

(( OOC: Hi Vero!
Incidentally, I'd suggest we not worry about taking strict turns on this thread for now -- go ahead and post when you wanna. ))

> " No, I'm not. I just live in the same place as he and the rest of them do. What about you, Hector? Are you famous for something?"

"Hah! Yeah, I wish. Nah, closest I ever came to fame was playing the lead in our school play last year." He’d been proud of that performance, especially after his Performing Arts teacher had told him he had some real talent, and he was looking forward to trying out for other stuff, but of course it was just high school. "Though, who knows? Maybe some day I’ll be in a movie or a TV series or something like that. It’d be cool. Not to mention the money, and the girls."

Thinking about it now, he remembers an argument his mom and sister had a couple of years ago, something about a concert or party or something that “Angel” had been going to go to that Lucia and her groupie friends wanted to show up for. Mom had absolutely refused, screaming something about the guy taking advantage of young girls… though, now that he thinks about it, there was something on Slate last year about “Angel” getting married to some guy, in Massachusetts. Guess Lucy’d’ve been disappointed, he thinks with a chuckle.

> " All I want for Christmas is you! "

He jumps a little at the sudden noise, then does an appreciative double-take at the blond girl with the side-slit dress. "Wow. Speaking of girls… man, is she hot or what?"

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Yeah, I know Warren."

Warren doesn’t visibly turn around at the sound of his name, but it catches his attention and he tunes his sensitive hearing briefly in on Danny’s conversation with what appears to be a local high-school kid. He smiles briefly, approvingly, at Danny’s use of his given name… he’s been trying to get away from the whole “Angel” thing; increasingly it just seems to alienate his audience.

Not that he’s really had that much of an audience since he lost his funding, granted. Which still rankles a little… sure, he understands that being able and willing to travel on no notice is part of what made him a popular interview subject in the first place, and that the whole side-story about his father and Josh and everything has cluttered the field, but it still leaves him feeling like he’d just been paying people to listen to him all those months.

> “ …my big sister had this huge crush on him last year…”
> " Many people do."

That earns a slightly broader smile. He’s been getting less of that sort of attention too, since he stopped spending his nights at clubs and concerts… though still enough of it to make Josh twitch when he goes through his fan mail. Unnecessary, but sweet in a jealous-husband kind of way. Check it out, he sends over his mental link to Josh, Danny has apparently made a new friend.

It’s a good thing – one of the reasons the Institute does these sorts of field trips is to give their students more experience mingling with more typical people. The kid Danny is talking to seems friendly enough, and doesn’t seem to have a problem with mutants – not as surprising as it could be, as Warren has noticed that the younger generation is more likely to take the existence of mutants for granted.

Pity they’re not the ones running things, he thinks grimly, and goes back to scanning the room to keep track of the kids he’s shepherding before he gets too caught up in thinking about the future of human-mutant relations. (He’s been doing that a lot, lately.)

Veronica is, as always, easy to spot... though she seems less interested in looking at the exhibits than in being one. Not that he's got any right to talk about that; he's been accused of hte same thing more than once... and not without justice.

Most of the rest of the class is less obvious, but easy enough to pick out from the crowd once he looks.

[Tempero]

>"Though, who knows? Maybe some day I’ll be in a movie or a TV series or something like that. It’d be cool. Not to mention the money, and the girls."

Danny smiles and nods, inwardly thinking, And let's not even get on the topic of you being a mutant.... For a moment, the thought that Hector might end up a team member before he himself gets any closer than he is right now appears, and Danny tries not to let it bite, but it does in that psycho-analytical sense where he feels like no matter what he does, there is no movement (up or down) from his current standpoint.

Finally getting rid of that biting little guy in the back of his head who keeps trying to make him brain pry people and then wallow in massive pools of self pity, Danny tries to find a topic to start up. The need to come up with one is alleviated by Hector's proof that he is, indeed, in the midst of puberty.

Warm green eyes go to trail Hector's own, and he finds himself looking at another fellow mutant. Does this kid have some sort of subconscious mutant radar for a power, or does he naturally attach himself to everyone out of the ordinary? he thinks, but the laugh and joke are contained within the privacy of his own head, so he shrugs.

"You mean Veronica? Yeah, she's a looker..." Danny replies, taking a moment to follow the younger kid's example. Hey, just because he's all good and..well, just because he's Danny, it doesn't mean that he can't give into certain temptations at certain times. Perhaps the reason I always mess up and go overboard in DR sessions is that I control myself at other times?

[Veronica Devereux]

Resting one of her pink nails on the surface of the iPod, she pressed down and the song immediately changed from the upbeatness of the previous song to a slower, more ballad like tone. The sound of a violin and piano cut through the air as the woman's voice came out soft, and then worked its way up. Shuddering, she felt as if was someone was staring at her. Glancing quickly over her shoulder, she noticed the two boys from earlier staring at her.

Bringing a hand up to her hair, she flipped it over her shoulder as she winked, waggling her fingers at the boys. Scanning the room, she spotted Warren."God, he's like Josh. Hmm, maybe I could have them both?" she asked herself as her eyes began to roam all over Warren's body. He was relatively cute, but the wings pushed him to full fledged sexiness, but not as sexy as Josh of course.

Giggling over the singer's voice, she walked over to another model in the exhibit, and began to read the inscription under it.She wasn't one for museums and all, rather music and clothes. However, it was a chance for her to get out and feel free, even if she was bounded by the chaperone's. Looking up from the small plaque, she ran her index finger over the tip of the horn of a triceratops. "Wow...It's so...Interesting." she muttered, running her hand over the skeleton now.

[Pyro]

Invading when I should be watching screenings of realist films... mwahaha...

< Wow...It's so...Interesting
"Yeah, right. If by interesting you mean 'Kill me now before they make me pretend to care about this bullshit'"

The spluttering half-chortle which began that sentence and the 30 odd feet of snark permeating the rest of it signifies two things; John's here- perched on the podium near the tricerotops (soaking up the death glares from a museum attendant who'd 'helpfully' pointed out that this was a no smoking area) - and he's fucking hating every minute of it.

You'd think after the debacle the last time the Institute let him out on a 'field trip' they'd have been a little more wary - especially now, after seeing where deteriorating mutant-flatliner relations was leading in that whole fucked-up future thing. But apparently this qualified as educational and beneficial and a whole lot of other -als which made it a worthwhile waste of an afternoon, and it had been spelled out pretty damn clearly that he couldn't continue to skip out on the -als and expect to graduate any time in the next century.

[Hector Vidal]

> " You mean Veronica? Yeah, she's a looker... "

"Yeah, I’ll say… " replies Hector dazedly as the girl waves at him. Eventually, it occurs to him that waving back would be an appropriate response, but by then she’s moved on to ogling the winged guy.

It takes a second for him to actually process Danny’s comment, then he looks back over his shoulder and adds "Wait, you know her, too? Man, you’re a lucky bastard… so, what’s she like? I mean, besides the habit of color-coordinating her shoes and fingernail polish." Which was altogether too twee for his tastes, granted, but he’d be willing to look past that minor flaw. Especially once she starts fondling the museum exhibits.

Hector is pretty sure she’s not supposed to touch them, and he takes a dry-mouthed glance around the room to reassure himself that nobody is planning on stopping her anytime soon. Nobody is, but he notices a sulky-looking older boy sitting on a pedestal nearby who starts talking to her. "Does she have a boyfriend?" he asks over his shoulder. "Or a sister?"

[Laurie Collins]

Laurie looks up from the plaque she’s zoned out while reading, a little irritated at her continued inability to concentrate on what should be interesting her, and scans the area again, looking for Matthew. They’d split up a little earlier when she’d seen some bird-flight exhibits she wanted to take a look at and he’d gone off to some interactive exhibit thing with plans to meet by the dinosaur bones where she is now and where he is not. Should probably have asked if that exhibit had something to do with music vibrations or something, might never see him again if it does, she thinks, fondly amused, wandering over to a bench between where Veronica’s rubbing her hands on some dinosaur bone and John’s snarking at her from his perch on a podium.

She doesn’t try to insert herself into their conversation or ask if they’ve seen her boyfriend- even she can imagine at least ten cringe-inducing responses John could get out of that one- just gives them both a small smile and a wave before turning her attention back out to the museum at large. Then she’s letting out an audible burst of giggling as she sees Danny and a younger boy she doesn’t recognize watching Veronica. Danny’s fairly composed but the unknown boy looks like he’s going to need his jaw scraped off the floor if he ever wants to move again. She covers her mouth with one hand as she realizes the reaction might be a little mean- freshmen can’t help it she supposes and it isn’t as if Veronica is discouraging the attention- but can’t resist looking over at John, the only other possible amused person in the vicinity and raising her eyebrows slightly at the whole thing.

[Veronica Devereux]

>"Yeah, right. If by interesting you mean 'Kill me now before they make me pretend to care about this bullshit'" Cringing at the new voice, she glanced over at the new comer and rolled her eyes. Turning to face him, Veronica crossed her arms over her chested and tapped her nails on her arm."you know, if you're going to complain, I suggest you do it to someone else. I cam ehre to get away from all of that bullshit, and I don't want to hear it." she spat as she turned on her heels, causing the skirt to flare up slightly.

Making her way to the other end of the museum, she stopped in front of one of the glasses that covered half of the exhibits, and decided to admire herself for a few seconds. Running her hand through her hair, she tried to smooth it out. Shrugging off the urge, she twidled a lock of blonde hair in between her index and thumb finger as her eyes once more wandered over to the two boys.

>"Wait, you know her, too? Man, you’re a lucky bastard… so, what’s she like? I mean, besides the habit of color-coordinating her shoes and fingernail polish." Giggling at what she heard, she looked down at her fingernails and her shoes. They did match, but, she didn't want to clash. I mean, who would want to look tacky in a museum? Who would want to look tacky period? Grinning, she thumbed through the songs until she found one that seemed to sound right, another up beat, grroving type of song.

Forgetting she was in a museum for a minute, she began to sway her hips to the beat as she made her way to another part of the museum. there were few people int hat section, allowing for more room to dance. Closing her eyes, she stopepd dancing once she realized she was in a public place, where people could look and laugh at her. Now, she wasn't one for being embarrassed, unless she was in an unfamiliar place with strangers.

>"Does she have a boyfriend?Or a sister?" Sicne she was out of the line of view of the boys, she shook her head as she listened to the questions. She was single and loving it. Well, most of the time at least. She liked being able to roam from guy to guy as she pleased, but she hated the feeling of curling up in bed at night, save her kitten, Ronron. Speaking of animals, she needed to feed her own when she got home. There were too many count, but she knew they all needed loving sooner or later, just like their owner.