| The Claw is My Master |
| Summary: | Bryce stumbles over Syd. Literally. Add a bottle of mineral oil, and you have comedy. There's a huge Toy Story reference that Syd doesn't mention. She hasn't seen Toy Story yet. |
| Date: | 2018.06.07 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | {$npc} |
| Scene Runner: | {$runner} |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Location
Back Lawn
A large swatch of green that goes in all directions. To the east and northeast, the lawn goes from the green of grass to the yellowish-brown of sea grass and then sandy beach, the blue-green of the ocean spreading out as far as the eye can see. In the center is a tall overgrown hedgemaze, with dormant flowering bushes at the corners.
Scene
One of the major, massive advantages of steel skin, besides durability, bulletproof, etc etc., is that the sun holds no threat to you unless you get a whole lot closer to it. Syd is lying out on a towel in the grass of the yard, soaking in the rays like the 80s girl she is, without the slightest care that she might get skin cancer, a sun burn, or anything like that. UV, go play somewhere else. Because it's quiet and she's alone, Syd's taken a deep breath, gone into the back of her closet, and put on a bikini. That's why she's in the grass, in hopes that her reflective hide doesn't announce to the whole world that she's not wearing very much.
Flyers, flyers and more flyers. They are all over the place announcing the upcoming prom including the theme, time, location, and cost of the tickets. Bryce is holding one of those flyers in his hand as he heads out of the estate and walks down the steps leading towards the backyard. He is holding the flyer in front of his face that he cannot really see anything in front of him as he heads down towards the beach. He is walking very slowly as though either struggling physically, struggling emotionally, or perhaps both. He is heading directly towards the sunbathing Sydney without even knowing it.
Sydney is likewise blissfully aware, eyes squeezed shut against the afternoon sun, the sounds of surf from the beach below, wind, gulls, and whatnot blowing in her ears in place of the usual loud music. Sometimes you just want to chill. So no, she's not aware of Bryce at all. She languidly draws one arm up away from the sand to rub more of the clove scented mineral oil into it, and that's her only reaction.
Bryce keeps walking almost shuffling towards the shiny teen girl. How can you miss a pretty girl in a bikini especially considering she is shining? Well, this is Bryce. Closer and closer. It is like watching a slow moving train accident. You can see it coming. Everyone knows what will happen, but no one can look away. And then, it happens. His foot catches on her shoulder causing him to tumble completely on top of her. His circlet flashes a cyan color as he is falling. His clothes tighten just before he lands with a thud and solidness that would be totally unexpected from him. "AAAaaah!" he shouts as he falls.
Sydney was almost normally soft when that foot hit her shoulder. Falling, however, increases Bryce's speed enough that Syd's non-newtonian fluid body is effectively a solid mass of carbon steel. Or close enough. Fortunately, Bryce's circlet protects him, and Syd isn't likely to be damaged by a hundred or two pounds' impact. All would have been fine, except for the bottle of mineral oil in Syd's hand. That gets crushed. The lid pops off, and with a quiet glurt! there's clove scented mineral oil everywhere "pFffghah!" Dignity, Syd. Dignity. Syd takes off her sunglasses and finds herself looking at Bryce from a decidedly undignified angle. "Are you alright?" And whose butt exactly IS this that she's looking at?
Bryce wonders what he fell on. Whatever he hit is oddly hard and comfortable. As he starts to try and get up, he notices that he didn't fall on something but on a someone. A girl someone. He immediately flushes and blushes. "I, I, uh, I'm sorry. I, I wasn't paying attention." He is going to get hurt or in trouble or both. He just knows it. Plus, he landed on a girl. What type of guy does that? "What is that sm- I mean, um, excuse me." Now is not the time to worry about smells. As he struggles to get up, he is having a hard time doing so.
Sydney shakes some of the oil off and sits up. So far so good, but now she tries to grab Bryce's arm and help him get up, or turn around, or something. Mineral oil is slippery. Steel is slippery when oily. So is skin. "Easy. Wait. Stop. It's ok. It's ok. Just stop… squirming!"
<FS3> Bryce rolls Psychic Construct: Success.
"I, I'm not squirming," Bryce admits. If embarrassment or blushing was a superpower, he would be incredibly strong right now. Wait? Super power? Bryce tries to get up again though between his weakness and their combined slippiness he cannot make any real progress. Finally a beam of cyan light emerges from his forehead and moves up into the air above them. Slowly it starts to form into a large, blunt looking sword. A second sword forms off of the back of the first one followed by a third. The three start to bend at an 90 degree angle down forming a large claw like in the claw game at the arcade. It starts to come down and slowly closes around Bryce and begins to lift him up. Hopefully he isn't too slippery.
Sydney blinks. A sword? "Wait! Hold it, it's…" then another sword. Then a third. Then the arcade game action. Syd just stares, then looks down at all the oil, and the sand, and her swimsuit. She could be upset, but… no. She cracks up. She sets the wreckage of the oil bottle down on the sand, and doubles over, laughing.
It is working. Bryce's face is now a mixture of surprise and embarrasment. He didn't really think it would work, but he tried to try something. However, things rarely go Bryce's way for too long. The claw is metallic even though it is created by his powers. He is slippery from the oil. He is clearly starting to slip. The claw starts to move him away so that he isn't directly over Syndey. He is almost clear, but he is starting to slip out. First one leg and then an arm. He is trying to figure out how to turn himself so that he is standing up when he completely slips free failing straight at the ground a couple inches from the laughing Sydney. "uh….uh….oh"
Sydney slowly manages to get her laughter under control, clutching her stomach. "Oh my god…" She tries again to reach out to Bryce, still giggling. "Man, I hope you're ok…Oh my god, I haven't laughed like that in so long…"
When Bryce hits the ground, the claw disappears. Bryce doesn't move for a bit and just lays there. He finally talks though he doesn't look up when he does. "I … am - so - sorry." He shakes his head which wasn't good because his face is in the ground. "I, I wasn't paying attention." He is confused why she is laughing and not mad at him. He doesn't answer the question that she asks about how he is doing. "Are, are you okay?"
Sydney reaches over to try and help Bryce at least onto his back. "Dude, I'm fine. I'm pretty much bullet proof. Don't worry. Are you ok? You could have broken your foot. Or. You know. Slipped." She snorts and giggles again.
Oiled and flipped and flopped. Bryce is starting to feel like a pancake now. When he is turned over, he starts to work to sit up. It takes him a bit as he does finally answer her question. "Uh, physically? I, I guess I'm about the same. My, um, power protects me from some things." He just wished it protected him from other things. He doesn't answer if he is okay or not in other ways. When she says that he could have slipped and then laughs, he seems really confused. "Um, I did slip. I mean after I, uh, tripped."
Sydney shakes her head. "Bryce, right? We met the other day. I'm Sydney. And I wasn't laughing at you, it was just… slipping everywhere, and then until the claw came down to pick you up…it was like a Bugs Bunny cartoon except nobody got blown up." She rubs some of the oil into her skin. It's unlikely to take all of it. "This is just mineral oil. Same stuff as baby oil only with a different scent. It won't hurt you. Treat it like a grease stain in the laundry. Should come right out." Syd glances down and tries to look nonchalant about adjusting her bikini top. One wardrobe failure a week is her limit, for pete's sake, and she already had that with Laz. "I was just soaking up some rays…"
Bryce nods his head and says, "Um, yes. I'm Bryce." Who else would do something like this? He goes to look at her and then sees what she is wearing and how much she isn't wear. His face blushes another shade of red as he turns to look away. The look on his face is a mix of embarrasment again and like he doesn't want to see too much and invade privacy. "I'll, I'll try to clean up, uh, later." He just sits there on the ground. When she brings up the claw, he says, "I used it once to get a book but never, uh, tried it like that before. Didn't even think, well, thought I would mess it up too."
Sydney blushes and draws her arm up over her bust protectively, then frowns a moment and forces the arm back down. If she's gonna wear a bikini… what was it her foster mom said? Shoulders back, head high, walk like the goddess you are? Something like that? Yeah. Besides. This poor guy isn't exactly threatening. She settles for trying to put one oily hand on his. "Sorry. Just… didn't want to… you know. Fall out." She gives his hand a squeeze. "Hey, you tried a new thing. That's kinda why we're here, right? I mean… I learned that my skin is slippery as hell when oily… and um… well anyway, you know what I mean."
Bryce shuts one eye when she puts her hand on his as though he is expecting her to crush his hand, but she doesn't. She just leave it there. He seems surprised. He opens his eye normally only to go wide eyed when she mentions things falling out. He almost asked her what was going to fall out but a rememberance of what she was wearing prevented him from asking the question. "Uh, ah, um…" is his inital reply. Then when she speaks of trying new things he says, "I, I guess. I came because, well, I need to learn to control my powers before they, uh, hurt me. But I also kind of want to help people too, but, but I'm not sure." He then says in a rather serious yet naive manner of his, "Maybe you should carry some on you like, um, like a defensive ability or, or something."
Sydney nods, and does give Bryce's hand a gentle squeeze. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, except that I don't know where I'd carry it. My clothes are usually the first thing to get torn to shreds when I'm in a fight. I weigh six hundred pounds and my skin is way stronger than my clothes. Even when I'm not wearing a bikini." She blushes again. "Why would your powers hurt you?"
Bryce's eyes narrow as she talks about the trouble she has with her clothing. Instead of thinking of the revealing nature of her body when her clothing tears, he thinks of ways to try and help. "If you got something that was, well," he then stops himself and shakes his head. "Nevermind. Probably, probably not a good idea anyway." He looks down their hands when she gently squeezes his hand. He swallows a bit and then looks at a spot on the ground when he answers her question about his powers. "My, um, my mind is too strong for my body. So it is actively trying to, well, weaken and hurt me. I have to try and, uh, suppress it, but it is growing stronger. The doctors said that if, if it gets too strong for the suppression then, well, um, my body couldn't handle it and would, well, shut down."
Sydney ponders that. "So… mental powers… and they take up what… more energy than your body can produce from food? Is that it?" She ponders that. "That's a toughie. I mean… there's really not room to put like a second stomach and intestines in you… and even then, blood would still be a problem…
Bryce nods his head and says, "Um, something like that, but, but because the issue is more psychic power than physical power it seems to take a different toll on my body. Once, um, when I was younger … " he pauses as though trying to figure out how to say what he wants to say. "I, I had some big problems and the doctors couldn't find a way to deal with it for a, for a while at least." He is trying to be vague as he doesn't really like to talk about what happened.
Sydney draws her legs up to sit in lotus, and absently rubs mineral oil into them. Absorbing the spilled oil is cleaning it up, right? "So did they give you any long term hope? I mean… "hang in there, we're working on it?" or like that? Or maybe… you could feed on other people's psychic energy… if they agree to it, obviously…
Bryce shakes his head. "My, my dad figured something out but, but my mom rescued me from him which means no more doctors either." He makes it somehow sound like a good thing. "They didn't think there was much, um, hope." When she mentions feeding on psychic energy, he shakes his head vigorously. "No, no that would be even, um, worse. I even had to discharge some extra psychic energy the other day just to be, er, safe."
Sydney ponders that some more. "I guess I don't understand the problem. Why did your mom take you away from your dad and the doctors? I mean… if it's causing you this problem, hey at least with him you had some hope."
Bryce turns to look at Sydney's face forgetting a moment how she is dressed. "My dad is, um, well, he is evil. He would capture or hunt everyone here at this school. Anyone who has, uh, powers is bad in my dad's book. Except for me….he makes an exception for me…for now. He doesn't know I'm here. My mom freed me." He is silent for a moment and then softly asks, "Do you know what a gilded cage is?"
Sydney nods slowly. "A situation that's so pleasant you almost forget you're a slave, and that your life is in someone else's hands that you can't trust." She looks away a little. "Been there, done that."
Bryce nods his head and says, "That was my life too…for all of it except the last year. Instead of trying to kill my powers and, and ignore me and, uh, buy me off, my mom actually tried to help me, teach me. She, she had someone else help too, but, but it was too much of a problem so, uh, they sent me here." He starts to look down and notices his eyes go to her chest. He quickly looks up and says, "I, I wasn't trying to, er, I mean, when I … " he starts to stumble over his words without saying anything.
Sydney looks over at Bryce balefully, and shakes her head. "I didn't grow 'em there deliberately. They just… showed up. I had no say in it at all. But I figured… hell with it. I don't care if people do look, I want to wear something pretty and go lie in the sun." She snorts softly. "Guess that's easier to say than to do." Her arm miiight be trying to come up and cover her chest again, but it doesn't quite get there.
Bryce nods his head and says, "I, I guess there are some, um, costs to being able to do what we can do." He slowly tries to get up to his feet. It takes him a few tries to get up. Finally standing again, he looks down at her being careful of where his eyes go. "I, um, I should try to get this out out of my, my clothes." He reaches down a hand and says, "Do you, uh, want help up or do you think you will, er, stay here and tan a bit."
Sydney takes Bryce's hand, but doesn't put any weight on it. She rolls to her feet carefully, legs coming smoothly out of lotus. "Yeah… your body can't keep up…and I'm all…" she gestures toward her chest, "decorative." She shrugs. "What're-you-gonna-do?" She looks at Bryce. "There's gotta be some way to make it so you can live," she says firmly. She bends over to carefully roll up her towel, since it soaked up a lot of the oil. It squilches in protest, and she chuckles a little at it. For those looking, her backside is nowhere near as interesting.
Bryce shrugs his shoulders and says, "As, as far as I see it, I, uh, only have four options. One, learn to control and channel it better. Like, um, a jet is dangerous to the untrained. Don't know if that will actually, uh, work. Two, learn to fine tune the suppressor to keep the level at a, well, manageable level. Three, go back to my dad and let him control and, uh, ruin everything. Four, fail. Go into a coma or, uh, worse."
Sydney tries to stay mad at Bryce for looking down her top, but just… can't. He at least stopped and is trying to be good. She wipes her hand and arm with the towel, if there's a dry, non-oily spot on it left, and hugs him softly around the shoulders. "Five. Something we haven't thought of yet. There are some scary smart people here, from what I read. There's gotta be something we can do."
"I, I was trying to learn stuff, but, well," Bryce starts. He tries to keep his eyes from looking where he shouldn't. He wants to be a gentleman. "Well, someone told me that, well, it isn't really helpful, doing what I was doing. So, so I don't know anymore."
((And there we wrapped. Figure the steel girl spent the rest of her evening in the laundry room, still giggling from time to time. It feels good to laugh.))