(2018-06-14) The Greased Pig
RE: The Greased Pig
Summary: Syd finally gets to talk to Bryce about the incident on the beach. You know, with the mineral oil. She thought he was embarrassed because she laughed. Not, quite. They talk origin stories. (Takes place after Unplanned Obsolescence)
Date: 2018.06.14
Related: http://coralsprings.wikidot.com/log:2018-06-12-powers-out and http://coralsprings.wikidot.com/log:2018-06-07-the-claw-is-my-master
NPCs: {$npc}
Scene Runner: {$runner}
Players:
sydney..bryce..

Location

Billiard Room
The Billiard Room has no pool tables. Although someone has made some efforts and there's a few board games and a deck of cards with some books on a shelf along the wall. A half finished puzzle with basset hound puppies takes up one of the tables.

A few small sofas and wingback chairs make conversational areas, throw rugs decorating those little areas. An entertainment center with a TV, Blu-Ray player and a gaming console system has been set up. A pair of French doors lead to the back patio.

Scene

With the classes ended and the school dismissed the day before, the school population has noticeable decreased. One of the remaining students is Bryce who was debating whether or not he should stay or not but has since decided to stay. Mostly at least. This is Bryce. He is currently in the billard room at one of the game table though he doesn't have any books or games on it. Instead he has a bunch of 6 inch squares that have all seemed to be cut by hand. There are about 7 crumbled pieces neatly stacked in a pile on the corner of the table.

Sydney wanders in. "Oh hey. I was wondering if you were still here at the school." She is because…where has she got to go? Back to the foster family that put her here for her (and their) safety? Mmm. Probably not. Syd brushes absently at her hair with one hand and tucks the left side of her hair behind her ear. Need a haircut soon. Definitely. "Good job with the roller coaster. I gotta tell you I was biting my nails until you got them to the ground safely, but you did it."

Bryce is only a bit startled when he hears Sydney address him. He was just about to make a new fold on his paper, but he ends up pausing. Flattening the paper, he looks up to Sydney and says, "Oh, uh, hi." He gets a bit embarrassed and looks back down at the paper again. He swallows and tries to force himself to look up in order to not be rude. Thankfully, she brings up the events of the other day at the theme park. He actually gets a bit excited about the events. "I, I couldn't believe that it worked. I only did it once before when, when, uh …" and he is embarrassed again. He tries to shake that feeling away. "But Rain said that I should try and, and I felt like I should listen to her. I was glad that it worked."

Sydney nods. "I did the only thing I could think of, really. I figured if I fell off the track or something, as long as they weren't higher than the next hill, they'd just… roll back and forth until they ran out of energy basically." She watches Bryce, and rolls to her feet effortlessly. "Yeah, about the other day. I didn't mean to embarass you, laughing at that trick. Turned out to be a really good trick. I was laughing at… us being all slippery and sliding all over the place. It was like playing on the slip and slide when I was little. Or like you sometimes see drawings of a greased pig competition, where they oil up a pig and whoever catches it can take it home. And eat it, probably. I just thought it was funny, and it'd been a long time since I really laughed. Once I got started, it was hard to stop. I'm sorry."

When she brings up the events of the other day, Bryce looks down unable to look at her. He does get a curious expression on his face and looks up to ask, "Slip and slide? People play that? I've, I've never heard of it. It sounds quite painful and, and, well, slippery." Having such a sheltered childhood, Bryce missed out on all the toys. When she apologizes, he shakes his head and says, "You, you don't have to apologize. I didn't think you were, um, being mean or anything. Besides, I am the one who messed up and landed on you and felt, er, saw, er … " he is getting more flustered. "Uh, uh …"

Sydney blinks. "You're still worried about that? Shit, I'd mostly forgotten." She chuckles a little. "Don't worry about it. I forgive you." She cocks her head and looks at Bryce. "Why's it such a big deal? I mean… in junior high, it was all I could do to keep some guys' hands off me. I learned to throw a pretty good punch from that.

Bryce nods his head a bit and says, "I've, I mean, I'm not used yet to being around, well, people my own age. When I was growing up, I was only around, well, doctors and nurses and, uh, scientists. Oh, there were some staff to. People staff not like wood staff or anything." He is glad he made that clarification. He wouldn't want his explanation to be confusing. "I think that is part of the reason I'm, well, so, um, me-like. I'm not use to talking to people, much less, uh, pretty girls … especially ones dressed, er, like that."

Sydney reaches out to put her hand on Bryce's shoulder and pat it softly. "It's a pretty tame bikini. You should see Saoirse's new swimsuit. One piece, cut down to there." She gestures there somewhere near her bellybutton. "I wish I had the guts to wear something like that." She rubs Bryce's shoulder a little more. "Do you seriously think I'm pretty?"

Bryce looks first to her hand on his shoulder and really hopes this isn't a prelude to the punch she just mentioned. Then he follows her other hand when it points to how low Saoirse's swimsuit goes. Bryce's eyes widen just before he clasps a hand over his eyes. Then his ever present curiosity kicks in. It's about the only thing as powerful as his embarrassment. His fingers part a bit forming the Vulcan V so he can look through with one eye. "What type of guts do you need in order to - no, no, no. Never mind." Snap close the fingers just like a movie prop. When she asks the question, he nods his head and says, "Um, yes." It is the truth though he isn't sure that is the right answer.

Sydney smiles at the compliment, then laughs. "Guts. Bravery. Wanting that much attention." She nods a little ruefully. "She's definitely got the body for it. I could probably wear one, but I'd be like I could feel everyone looking at just my chest. I wouldn't be comfortable. At all. She has to worry about falling out, too. I can just… lock mine down so they don't move much."

Sydney adds, "I also don't have the hips for a suit like that. She does.

Bryce removes his hand from his eyes and puts them over his ears. "Could we, um, could we please not talk about ch…..about … er.. things -falling- out? Please?" He looks at her with pleading eyes that could put a puppy to shame. "As for guts, um, I think your, er, guts looked good when you climbed that roller coaster. I, I would be way to afraid to do that."

Sydney chuckles and closes her eyes, "You are… adorably innocent. I should hit you up next time I need to polish some rust off my shoulderblades. It's a booger to do without bending my elbows backward and twisting my head around, and body distortions like that give me the willies. The feet… well I didn't have to look at them much. I was just hanging on to the rail and moving them foreward. There wasn't much risk until I was keeping the car from rolling down. Until I had passengers… if I'd fallen off the track, it would have hurt, but it wouldn't have done me any lasting damage."

Bryce seems confused as he puts his hands down. "You get rust on your shoulder blades?" He leans over a bit as though to look at her shoulder blades even though he knows they are covered by her clothes. "Oh, falling, falling is bad, but I think, I think my armor would protect me. Mostly. I've actually thought of another, um, possible way to use my powers, but, um, to be honest, I've been too scared to try." He sits back normally again and says, "The sad part is, maybe sadder part, is that I don't know if I'm more scared of success or, um, failure."

Sydney nods. "I get rust everywhere sooner or later. I have living cells, so I have water on board. My metabolism is oxidizing iron. There's water in the air, and I like pools and the shower. That's why I was oiling my skin when you tripped over me. It keeps the air away from my skin a little more. Polishing out the rust is… like you and showering and shaving. It's a constant maintenance thing." She listens. "Is there a way to try it in controlled circumstances? Where if you fail it's just… disappointing?"

Bryce thinks about the issue of rust and says, "I, I never thought about rust but since you are, um, metal, metallic?, then I guess rust would make sense. I, I should have thought about it. I'm sorry. But since you, erm, density can shift, could you use that to help counteract the rusting quality?" But now the comment about the rusty shoulder blades at least make sense. "Wait, you want me to, um, wouldn't a girl be better, do better at that?"

Sydney chuckles softly. "I was teasing you a little. And complaining." She takes a slow breath. "I was made as a prototype for a supervillian. I was basically the last stage of animal testing…some girl they bought for cheap off the street. When they made the first supervillian, a guy named Iron Fist, he and I used to polish the rust off of each other. It wasn't a sex thing…he wasn't like that about me…it was just…friendly. It took some getting used to. I'm made of living cells fused with nanomachines. They're like stem cells, so they can be any part of my body. So I have a rigid substructure like you have a skeleton, but it's rigid the same way I make my skin rigid. I can let it go and… puddle basically on the floor. I'm like a thick pudding when I do that. Oh. And I snore when I sleep that way."

"Complaining?" Bryce says softly. He then listens intently as though applying all of his mind to her story. His brows fall when she speaks of a girl being bought cheap. That doesn't sit well with him at all. "So, so you were that girl before they .. made you into this?" He is silent for a second and then asks, "Do you, do you remember, um, it happening? Did it hurt?" He really seems concerned.

Sydney nods slowly. "Yeah…that was me. It seems like a long time ago now. Subjectively it was two and a half years ago. Objectively…something over 35 years. Yes, I do remember. And if I didn't, the flashbacks would remind me. It kind of… you realize that there's a limit to how much pain you can feel. Beyond that, it stops getting worse, at least. When they took my nervous system apart it got just…strange. I stopped trying to make sense of it and just…rolled with it." She closes her eyes, and shudders. "The one thing that kept me going… the one thing that made it not just…torture… was I knew they wanted me to survive. They weren't trying to kill me or maim me. That would have come later, during testing to destruction. We never got to that part. I kept finding uses for myself that they valued." She looks at Bryce. "Complaining that it's…hard for me to trust someone that far, I guess. I might get away with it with you, because I think your brain would explode if you actually groped me."

When she starts to tell more of her story in answer to his question, Bryce's eyes start to water some. He has to blink a few times to keep the tears in. He reaches out his hand to put it on her shoulder as she did for him. He gets close. About a couple inches away and then his hand just pauses like he wants to but can't. After a few seconds, he puts his hand back down and he just listens. "I, I know what it is like to have, um, your body taken away though mine didn't hurt like yours did. I, I - " he doesn't want to make this about himself. "Grope you?" He just caught the last thing she said. Trying to quickly defend himself, he says, "I would never do, uh, that… not because, I mean, you are pretty enough and I mean, your … uh.." he starts to make curve shapes in the air but then that embarrasses him. "I mean, I would because you are, but wouldn't, er couldn't because, well, it wouldn't be… uh."

Sydney takes the hand in hers, unless Bryce pulls it away. "Because you respect me? Because it wouldn't be right? Because it's… mine to give, not anyone else's to take? Something like that?" Tears tend to beget tears, and Syd can feel her own starting up. "I told you I knew what the gilded cage was like. Once they were done making me… I had a friend…I had a purpose…other than his and my trying to pound the snot out of each other every day for sparring practice, nobody was trying to hurt me…as long as I kept busy. It wasn't all bad. And I got… I don't know. The times he was gone…Iron Fist, I mean, I could have walked away. There's nothing they could have done to stop me. And I just… didn't.

Bryce jumps a bit when she takes his hand. He clearly isn't use to physical contact. Especially female physical contact. In answer to her questions, the usually verbose teen just nods his head. "Some-something like that." He listens more not really sure what to do with his hand now. "But, but at some point you left? got away?"

You say, "I was taken away. I still don't know why, but Iron Fist decided he didn't want me tested to destruction, or that he was going to die soon fighting heroes, or who knows why, but after a nice dinner and a little dancing, I wound up in a freezer they used to hide mob victims in an olive oil barrel. He died the next day, and nobody else knew I wasn't just another corpse. 35 years went by, the owner died and the place went bankrupt and the marshals got suspicious about the barrels when they inspected the place. I thawed out in the medical examiner's lab. Then I woke up."

Bryce tries squeezing her hand having read once that is the type of thing guys do. "I, I wish I could say something that would help, but, but I'm not really good at that which is kind of odd. I have so many words in here," he says pointing to his head with his other hand. "But, but they don't always come out the way, well, that I want. At least, at least you are here, with, um, people who want to work with you instead of, um, on you. And people who like you for being … you. I know I, um, do."

Sydney squeezes back, very gently. "Thank you. That means a lot." She draws the back of his hand to her cheek. "I try to be cheerful most of the time because…yeah. Things are a lot better. And I'm happy to be alive. And we definitely have to find a solution for you, too."

Bryce clearly doesn't know what to do with his hand on her cheek. He tries to lightly touch her not that he is worried about hurting her, but he is more worried about what he should do and shouldn't do. "Solution for me." Bryce nods his head some and says, "I, I don't know if the solution for me is in my head, my suppressor or, worse, um, with my dad." He shakes his head and the back of his hand tenses when he says mentions his dad.
GAME: Save complete.

Sydney kisses Bryce's knuckles softly before letting go, since he seems to be uncomfortable, and that kiss isn't going to make it any better. "Or some other option we haven't thought of yet. Slavery's not the answer. I like you for you too.

Brain blank. Bryce's eyes open a bit wider. His mouth drops a bit. All from the soft kiss to his knuckles. When she lets go of his hand, he slowly lowers it to his side while looking at it. When she mentions other options, he blinks back to his senses and looks up at her. "Yes, the options we see, um, today, could be different tomorrow. I guess that is what learning is about."

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