Museum of Natural History

[Hector Vidal]

> " Not yet, but hopefully sometime soon. Been doing a lot of practice. "

Hector joins Danny’s laugh, pleased that his new friend is able to make fun of his own hangups. "Right on, man! Never know when the world’s gonna need saving, right?"

> " maybe some people would like to be carefully checked down to their underwear whenever they come to pick up their date, and then be trailed throughout the evening by the same guys. "

Hector laughs good-naturedly. "Man, I hope you ain’t speaking from experience. Not for me, though – ain’t nobody checks my underwear on a date ‘xcept my date, know what I’m sayin’?" He chuckles and adds "Anyway, so, who are you holding out for, then? You gonna take a shot on more ‘physical education’ with Miss Pretty-in-Pink?"

[Tempero]

>"Right on, man! Never know when the world’s gonna need saving, right?"

"Exactly my thoughts." he says, but ends up contemplating how the world seems to need saving every single day, and then some. The world is a greedy bastard.

>"Man, I hope you ain’t speaking from experience. Not for me, though – ain’t nobody checks my underwear on a date ‘xcept my date, know what I’m sayin’?"

"Experience? Oh, hell, no! My underwear's my business alone. It's the movies, they end up mock educating us about everything Hollywood thinks we need to know. It must be a conspiracy!" he jokes, waving his head a bit. He's having quite a bit of fun talking to this kid, and it's most welcome.

"Who am I holding out for? Have no idea, bud. Still haven't found one. Veronica? Nah, she's way too...well, she's too bombastic for my taste." Danny finally manages to find the right word, having had to struggle a bit against the inhibitions placed upon him. He really is too nice. The original word that came to mind was not a pretty descriptor, but the humongous edit file within his mind immediately ensnared it and found a replacement after some search.

Maybe I should stop being so strict on myself...

[Toni Craft]

"Speaking of our variously pubescent charges, have you seen your brother recently? We seem to have lost track of him." Toni scratches her head.

“Oh he’s around. He’s probably gone off to play with the little lighty-up-thingy in the electricity exhibit. Matty always loved that thing, ever since he was a wee tot.” She pauses and looks up at the vicious mouth of the t-rex. “Or he and Laurie — in her new “me equals tough” persona — are getting it on in some closet somewhere. I’m personally hoping it’s the former, since I really don’t like the images that just got stuck in my noodle.” A wince effectively portrays just how unappealing she finds the whole idea.

"Whatever would I do without you here to protect my honor?"

“Ah, but you see my darling Warr; the question is not “whatever would I do” but “whoever would I do” and there is only one right answer to that question.” Resting a heavy elbow on his shoulder, Toni leans in and gives him one of her trademark kisses, though a last minute moment of ‘this is not how a teacher is supposed to act in open public’ she avoids his lips and claims his cheek instead.

Noticing she’s left a bit of a lipstick mark (even strange iron women like to feel pretty every once and a while) on his face, Toni licks her thumb and tries to rub it off. Reasonably satisfied with her cleaning of Warren’s cheek, she turns to Josh. “So she doesn’t know you two like play ‘bump in the night’ with your prodigious purple pythons? She’s been missing all the…” Hand wave. “Stuff...you two always do?” She grins widely and evilly, steeping her fingers in front of her face. “How astoundingly appetizing. Please excuse me gentlemen; this metal maiden is gonna go ruin someone’s feather-filled heterosexual fantasies with much much joy.”

Toni practically prances off happily, never losing her near-maniacal smile. “Oh Veronica, my dearest little floozikins. May I have a brief but convivial moment of your time?”

[Veronica Devereux]

>“Oh Veronica, my dearest little floozikins. May I have a brief but convivial moment of your time?” Looking up, she noticed one of the chaperone's, Toni she believed her name was, talking to her. Hitting pause on her iPod, she twitched at the girl's choice of "floozikins"."Sure why not?" she breathed. It's not like she was enjoying herself or anything. Taking a few steps off the wall, she crossed her arm and raised a blonde eyebrow at the girl and her psycho-smile.

"Yes?" she asked, a tone of annoyance in the background. Although she wasn't enjoying her time her per say, she'd like to walk around, maybe find a secluded area and dance her ass off to some sexually orientated song. As she waited for a reply, she thumbed through her songs again, until "Touch My Body" the perfect sexually orientated song, came through the speakers. Smirking, she thought of all the people she'd want to touch her body."Maybe I could get Josh and Warren to touch my body." she thought to herself, and then let out a giggle.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh grins at Warren's mock-despair. He'd gotten over his jealousy from Warren's fans long ago - but he still remembered the uncertainty over whether he was a fling or not, way back. Of course, at this point, things were pretty permanent, and it was easy to make fun of the situation... but Veronica's flirt game still put up his hackles.

> “Ah, but you see my darling Warr; the question is not “whatever would I do” but “whoever would I do” and there is only one right answer to that question.”

Josh raises an eyebrow and his left hand, where his platinum wedding band encircles his finger. "If I'm not around, the answer is 'no one', actually, unless we're counting his hand." He narrows his eyes and stares mock-seriously at Toni. "Get your own. I worked hard for this one."

> “So she doesn’t know you two like play ‘bump in the night’ with your prodigious purple pythons? She’s been missing all the... Stuff...you two always do?”

His jaw drops slightly as the phrase 'prodigious purple pythons' escapes Toni's lips. It was a good thing the gallery area was loud and crowded. "...Purple pythons? Toni, umm..." Josh is at a loss for words, but he colors slightly. "And we don't usually make out in front of students, thanks. Veronica hasn't been around very long... but I'm surprised it hasn't come up. " I always thought it was kind of obvious. I mean, we're always around each other, we're affectionate...how about, my last name is now Worthington? But it's true, I don't usually kiss Warren in front of students. And what happens behind closed doors in our suite is no one else's business.

> “Oh Veronica, my dearest little floozikins. May I have a brief but convivial moment of your time?”

Josh blinks and looks over at Warren. "I should probably stop this... but Toni's another chaperone." He leans back against the wall, pulling Warren slightly closer. "Well, I certainly won't enjoy it. Nope. Not at all."

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Or he and Laurie — in her new “me equals tough” persona — are getting it on in some closet somewhere. I’m personally hoping it’s the former, since I really don’t like the images that just got stuck in my noodle. "

Which seems unlikely, given that she was standing in the dinosaur exhibit glaring at Allerdyce just a few minutes earlier. But Warren is surprised to hear that Toni doesn’t actually approve of her brother’s relationship with the Collins girl… her current crisis of adolescence notwithstanding, they’ve always struck Warren as reasonably good choices for one another.

Of course, his baseline for Institute relationships has been set by the various disasters Drake has been involved in, not to mention the ongoing Harassment Suit of Damocles that is the irrepressible Mr. Keller, so he admits that his judgment in the matter may not be ideal.

Before he can explore the matter, though, Toni has moved on, and Warren just rolls his eyes heavenward at her subsequent antics… especially when Josh joins in. Admittedly, it’s somewhat absurd for him to be embarrassed by their discussion of his sex life, genitals, and masturbatory habits given his not-entirely-unearned reputation for exhibitionism, but nevertheless there it is… perhaps Josh’s shyness has been rubbing off on him.

> " I should probably stop this... but Toni's another chaperone. Well, I certainly won't enjoy it. Nope. Not at all. "

Warren squeezes Josh’s shoulders fondly, then sighs melodramatically. "There are days I wonder whether Matthew is in fact the older Craft sibling. Certainly, he’s the more mature of the two." He shakes his head and adds "Speaking of whom, I should make a quick round and make sure he’s OK, him and the rest of the stragglers. Try not to leave too many dents in the museum walls while I’m gone, OK?"

Shaking his head and chuckling quietly, he heads down the stairs towards the electronics exhibits, listening carefully for familiar voices.

[Matthew Craft]

The electricity exhibit is just always so cool. Matthew loves putting his hands on that lightning ball thing and watching the purple streams of energy get pulled towards his fingers. And there’s that big metal ball thing that makes his hair stand on end when he touches it. It’s not as cool as the lightning ball, but it’s still neat.

But he’s lost track of time and the rest of the Xavier people. Seems they wondered off to the next exhibit without him, his girlfriend included. Scratching his head, Matthew gives the lightning ball one final poke and then wanders off toward the stairs.

“Oh, hey Mr. Worthington. Sorry if I’m holding the group up.” He passes the winged teacher on the way up the stairs, and scurries into the dinosaur exhibit. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like anyone is in a rush to leave yet; they’re all busy admiring the skeletons and other assorted fossils.

It doesn’t take all that long to find his girlfriend sitting with whom Matthew could definitely consider his ‘arch-nemesis’. He still really doesn’t like that Pyro guy, and frankly, he has no idea why he and Laurie so suddenly started getting along. Though it probably had something to do with her change in personality, not that she’d ever talk about it though. Sigh.

Putting on a smile (that may just be a touch fake), Matthew plops down next to his girlfriend and leans back to gaze up at the t-rex skeleton. “Pretty cool, huh?” Sure, he could probably think up something more tactful and intelligent to say, but then again, he’s not known as the school dinosaur nerd.

[Hector Vidal]

> " It's the movies, they end up mock educating us about everything Hollywood thinks we need to know. It must be a conspiracy!"

"Wait up, wait up – are you trying to tell me that all phone numbers don’t start with 555? That’s crazy talk, man!"

> " she's way too...well, she's too bombastic for my taste. "

Hector shrugs. "Not into the head-cheerleader types, huh? That’s cool… less competition for the rest of us." Not that Hector himself is particularly effective ‘competition’ in that area – the “cheerleader types” in his school don’t even notice him – but there’s no room in the traditional adolescent male one-up game for that sort of admission. Besides, he’s emerging as one of his school’s track stars, which should change that pretty quickly… not that track gets as much attention as football, but it should still be good for something.

(He quickly stuffs into the back of his mind the thought of how much he’s been holding back at track practice. It’s one thing to beat everyone else’s time by over a minute on a 2-mile run, that just makes him a natural athlete. It’s quite another thing to take the whole thing at a sprint and not be breathing hard at the end of it – that would make him a freak. Not that he can actually do that, he reminds himself forcefully… that one time had just been a fluke, is all. Besides, it’s not like anybody saw him do it.)

"More into the librarians, I bet."

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Oh, hey Mr. Worthington. Sorry if I’m holding the group up. "

"No worries, Mr. Craft. Just making sure you’re all OK. Incidentally, have you seen -- " he trails off as Matthew runs up the stairs past him, out of earshot, and shrugs good-naturedly as he continues his quest for stragglers.

[Jack Russell]

"Are you sure you're okay?" The mens' bathroom simmers in a scent of warm blood going stale and dry, and Jack takes a bat of encouragement at the air freshener mounted above the counter. It rewards him with an exhausted puff of vanilla, which in a way vaguely gives the room the impression of an aftermath of a massacre of cookies or muffins. With the following silence, it would have been suitable.

Finally lifting his head from an awkward bow over the sink, Arthur pulls a hastily folded tissue from his nose, seeming to anticipate a hot drip into the curve of his upper lip. Jack watches the tendons in his neck flex, but the blood has stopped, and Arthur relaxes. Nonetheless shaken, Arthur busies his hands and folds the tissue again, pressing it into his palm and using it to cover the handle of the sink as he turns on the water--cold. "I am fine," he murmurs at last. "I assure you.. this is..... normal."

"Uh.. bleeding profusely from the nose is normal?" Jack quirks a brow in disbelief, keeping his distance to give Arthur his space.

"In telepaths," the music professor adds wearily, wiping the evidence of his nosebleed from his face. They are the only ones in the restroom, but even then Arthur is clearly trying his best to keep from making a scene. Although he has his best efforts in mind, a suddenly swooning blind man--and bleeding, no less--in the middle of a busy museum is the worst case scenario for someone who doesn't want to attract attention.

Jack had known for a long time that Arthur was a little meek, but if he'd known something like this would happen, he would have probably argued with Arthur for pressing to accompany his foriegn-exchange students so as to provide them with a familiar chaperone. For someone so slight and shy, Arthur was remarkably steadfast.

Scratching the back of his head, Jack takes a cautious look at his fellow collegue's face, wondering what he'd say if Arthur had a streak of blood left behind on his pale visage. "Any idea what might've caused it..?" He gives up on trying to intervene and actually do something; Arthur had at least taken his advice on tilting his head back.

Shrugging it off, Arthur turns away, tentatively sweeping a small pile of bloody tissues into a garbage can with a turn of his arm. "It is hard to say.. ah.. hemorrhage perhaps.. common with an intense amount of information all at once." He pauses to wring his hands. "I expect I shall not handle artifacts again any time soon.," he adds as an afterthought. "The children.. they would not understand if I told them. The words would not translate properly.." Looking distraught he shoves his hands beneath the still-running faucet and tries to rub the past from his palms.

Watching from afar, Jack scratches the back of his head. "Listen um.. why don't I watch them? I mean uh.. you just look at stuff in a museum."

Arthur starts, shaking the soap from his hands. "Jack, really.. I couldn't ask you to--"

"You're not. I'm offering." Jack tries out his stern, professor voice, but it feels weird. Arthur's eight years older than him at least. "You can just meet us in the lobby later."

It takes more than a few minutes to coax Arthur into spending some stress free time by himself, time that didn't involve touching anything or trying to translate multiple times for a flock of five students that all hailed from different parts of the world. But Jack at last emerges from the mens' restroom, feeling good about himself. He always felt as if he could make up for all the things he'd done in his past by helping other people. He turns a corner, trying to scope out the rest of the group and the lost herd of foreign students, only to be greeted with: "Profesor Coleman está bien?"

Just shy of five feet tall, one of the foreign students looks up at him with a questionable expression, her fine brows arched above the rim of her glasses. He recognizes her as the troublemaker of the group--Pasquale.

In that moment Jack realizes he doesn't know any Spanish or Italian.

"Er sorry.. what?"

Scrunching up her nose a little, the face of concern starts to fall to frustration as she begrudgingly tries again in her basic English. "Profesor Coleman .... ees.. oh-kay?"

"Oh! Yeah.. he's uh.. fine." His relief is short-lived when another student approaches, seemingly asking Pasquale a question, to which she replies in rapid, mumbling Spanish and the two exchange back and forth.

A sharp tug on his pants leg pulls Jack from trying to make sense of the language that sounds like gibberish to his ears. He looks to his side, then looks down again, peering into the wide, round eyes of the youngest of the group. "Dove è Signor Coleman?" she asks in a small voice, looking to be no more than seven years old. For the life of him, Jack can't remember her name--something that starts with M.

Jack tries to say something, but resorts to hoisting the youngest in the crook of his arm where she appears content, as he attempts in exasperation to communicate with the four others in the group after the last two members had appeared. They are huddled together, curious but uncertain. With the exception of Pasquale, some of them had only been in the institute since Christmas, and the rest shorter than that.

"So uh.. let's.. go..," Jack looks around and catches a glimpse of Toni's red hair,"...over there." He points and indicates with a nod of his head, reinforcing what he said if any of them even understood. Slowly, the group of six advances towards everyone else, and Jack breaks briefly away from the group to explain the situation to Josh.

"Uh.. yeah.. Arthur had a little.. accident.”Leaning against his shoulder, the Italian girl is preoccuppied with clapping her tiny hands together and producing a small ball of iridescent light over and over again between her palms. Jack blinks--distracted--and hesitantly pokes her wrist as if she were a malfunctioning doll. ”So um.. I’m taking over with his kids for a while..”

[Laurie Collins]

Geez, what crawled up his butt and died? Laurie thinks, a little startled, as she catches Matthew’s gaze and watches his features sink into a scowl. She’s on her way to being alarmed (he’s not mad I left him behind is he? We wanted to see different things and I said we’d meet up later…) when she realizes he’s looking slightly to the left of her face, at John. Oh, yeah, Matthew’s one irrational dislike, got it, she recalls with a little bit of exasperation. John’s a little annoying sure and in the past, before she’d seen the really scary things the world had to offer, she’d been scared half to death of him but he isn’t as bad as Matthew makes him out to be, really.

“Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she says half-heartedly, leaning against him as he sits down and smiling up at him wryly. “For about five seconds.” She yawns exaggeratedly and mimes sleeping on his shoulder for a moment. “How was the…electricity thingie?”

[Tempero]

>"Not into the head-cheerleader types, huh? That’s cool… less competition for the rest of us."

Danny chuckles and shrugs. "Hey, whatever I can do to help the less fortunate," he teases, wondering whether Hector really would consider himself less fortunate if he knew that he is a mutant. Maybe he does know, and is just extremely good at hiding it.

The thought seems far-fetched at the moment, but he allows for the possibility, merely because he does not know the kid. At all. They've only been talking for a few minutes, really. So, is it weird that Danny finds it so easy to talk with him? Well, at least it's easier than talking to some of the people at the institute. Then again, half of those have monumental emotional problems of their own. He tries not to look at John, he really does.

>"More into the librarians, I bet."

"Oh, so no we're stereotyping? It really doesn't matter who it is, as long as the right stuff is there. It's not just looks, but they do play a part, you know. I'm not one of those who go around claiming beauty doesn't matter." he responds, wondering just what attributes would make a perfect partner for him. He's never given it much serious thought.

[Hector Vidal]

> " Hey, whatever I can do to help the less fortunate, "

Hector rolls his eyes and smirks."Mighty kind of you, amigo… if I run into anybody who needs the help, I’ll be sure to point ‘em your way."

> " Oh, so now we're stereotyping? "

That earns a full-throated laugh. "And two points to the white guy! Guilty as charged." He clutches his chest and stumbles melodramatically. "Ya got me, pardna… "

> " I'm not one of those who go around claiming beauty doesn't matter. "

"Good for you! There’s a couple of them in my class, actually; I dunno if they’re waiting to come out of the closet or to hit puberty." He shrugs. " Maybe both."

[Toni Craft]

“Yes?”

“Ah Ronnie, I’ve heard an interesting little rumour floating about the metaphorical grapevine,” Toni tugs the girl closer with an arm around her shoulder and points across the exhibit. “Finding the glamourous gliding gentleman and the savvy sophisticated school-boy a wee bit fascinating, are ye? And by fascinating I mean totally hot and sex-able.” She targets a finger at Warren and Josh.

Toni leans back a little and casually inspects her fingernails as she keeps talking. “You know, I don’t do these sorts of heart to heart things often...or ever, really...but I’m gonna make a special exception for you.” She plucks at Veronica’s skimpy shirt, pulling off a rogue thread. “I used to be just like you, falling over every last little piece of eligible male ass that just so happened to notice my irresistible charm and supermodel-like good looks. There was a time when I was even trying to get our dearest Josh over there to give me a few minutes of his time in the janitor’s closet. But those were the good old days.”

With a reminiscent sigh, Toni continues. “You see, Ron, Josh just wasn’t really big on the whole nookie idea...at least, not the type of nookie I was looking for. Warren was the same way. I just wasn’t their type.” She leans down close to Veronica’s ear. “Now I’m gonna let you in on a secret so that you don’t waste your time tryin’ to convince those two boys over there that you’re totally willing to put out...not that anyone really needs any convincing of that…” Another pluck at the dramatically small top.

“They’re married. And I don’t mean married to some strange women that we’re going secretly loathe for the rest of our lives and strive to make their lives living hells by siccing our snakes on their tiny little Yorkshire Terriers. I mean married to each other.” She grins and proud. “They’re gaaaaaay, and no matter how tiny your clothes get or your intensely you try to get them into your receding pants — believe me, I’ve tried everything — they’re always gonna be gayer than Richard Simmons’ and George Takei’s secret love baby.” Toni lets her recent blerb sink in. “Now I think that maybe you had better stop bothering the poor dudes because you’re never gonna win. So why don’t you try to get some other guy in bed...Like that Julian kid. He’s totally a man-whore if I’ve ever taught one. Go see if he’ll make out with you in the Native American exhibit or something, okay? Okay.”