(2018-10-09) The Future's So Bright...
Future's So Bright…
Summary: Syd meets Shades at the docks to help him carry his stuff up. Turns out he's a fanboy.
Date: 2018.10.09
Related: None
NPCs: {$npc}
Scene Runner: {$runner}


Coral Springs Dock
Not only is there a new school, but apparently there is a new island as well. This one is much larger and a lot more cliffy and forested than the previous one.

The docks are quite nice, with a heating and air conditioned building that has vending machines and restrooms so students can wait for the ferry in inclement weather.

To the left of the docks is a small park like area, the rest is left as nature intended it. Mostly rocky shore, with waves and riptides that make any swimming here dangerous. A winding, flower and tree lined cobblestone path curves up a hill and signage indicates that the school is at the top.


Sydney heads down to the dock, enjoying the fact that it's warm (and dry) today. She's supposed to pick up a new student and help him carry his gear up to the Athena dorms. Eh, why not? Things were slow in the library anyway, and this falls into "other duties as assigned." She yawns and stretches as she gets there, and gets out her Ipad. She writes CORBIN on it in the largest font she can find and holds it up as the ferry docks.
GAME: Save complete.

Shades stumbles off the ferry, trying to juggle pushing a rolling suitcase off with one hand, a gym satchel bulging to the point of looking like an overstuffed sausage in another, a very fat backpack on his back, all while trying to keep his umbrella up and providing maximum cover. The last of which just seems wholy needless, given the lack of rain. After getting to the dock, he looks around for a moment and then starts towards the girl with the sign holding his name and OH MY GOD. "ARE YOU THE GIRL FROM CHICAGO?!" he hollars, voice cracking with excitement.

Sydney blinks and looks around herself as though there was some other girl from Chicago here. "Uhh… yeah? I'm Sydney. Are you Corbin?" She's far enough from her native city that people in the street (or the dock) typically don't recognize her from the news.

Shades runs as best he can towards Sydney, which isn't very fast as his luggage threatens to escape with every step. "Oh man, this is SO cool!" He's grinning from ear to ear. "Um. Hi! Yeah, I'm Corbin, but I- uh, sorry, I'm just." Once he's at Sydney, he sets the gym bag down, and reaches around back to pull out a phone, an older model that looks refurbished. "Could I get a picture?"

Sydney smiles, looking a little puzzled. "Sure. Did I get famous back home and nobody bothered to tell me or something?" She waves him over to do the 'Selfie with Celebrity' thing. She also takes off her own shades, for the full effect.

Shades practically skips over to snap the picture, pushing a few buttons after doing so. "Uh… I mean," his grin turns a little sheepish. "I mean, maybe, I just- like, I read about when you got found, and didn't think you'd be here- but of course you are, that just makes sense and-" Deep breath. Deeeeeep breath. "Oh. Um, yeah, hi, I'm Corbin, but, uh, I mostly go by Shades now." He taps the sunglasses with his phone, before tucking it back in his pocket, and starting to struggle the gym bag back into his luggage-moving assemblage.

Sydney puts her arm around Shades for the picture and smiles, baring steel teeth. She's warm to the touch, and her skin has way more give than you'd expect from her heavily muscled, polished steel appearance. She puts her ipad back in her messenger bag/purse. "Welcome to Coral Springs, Shades. Here, let me help you with your luggage." She reaches out to take the gym bag and the rolling suitcase if he'll let her.

Shades easily lets Sydney take the luggage, and finally gets to uncrunch his neck from holding the umbrella. shifting it to a now free hand. "Oh, man, yes, thanks." He still sounds a little star-struck and dazed. "You look *just* like him, you know? Except your eyes are different, but I mean, that's not so weird cause like, my eyes don't look like my Mom's." He starts to walk down the dock, and then hesitates. "Uh, which way are we going?"

Sydney points up to the courtyard with the gym bag in one hand. "Up that way. Have you chosen a team yet?" She thinks about the other comment, and glances over at Shades. "You mean Iron Fist? Yeah. I was the prototype for what they did to him to make him that way. The lab animal, really." She grins. "You're like the second person I've met here who remembers he even existed." She heads up the direction she pointed.

You head towards Coral Springs Courtyard

Shades's face falls a little at Sydney's comment. "I- oh, man, I'm sorry." He nervously shifts the umbrella back and forth between his hands. "I mean, I- I just kind of assumed that, like, you were his, ya'know. Daughter. Or something. Not, uh." He looks towards his feet for a moment, and then shakes his head, looking up and smiling again. "Oh! Team, yeah, I'm gonna be an Athenian! Like, all the best heroes are Athenians, cause I mean, fighting the fights no one else can, liberty and justice, they're like, the best." A beat, as Shade's brain catches up with his mouth, followed a by a sheepish, "I mean, the Consortium is, ya'know, also cool."

Sydney smiles. "Truth, Justice, and the American Way, more or less. Yeah, Athena's the right place for you." She walks up the hill without any meaningful effort, and turns West toward the Athena hall. "Cool is what we do. Apply the right amount of force at the right time for a longer goal and the greater good. And nah. I'm no relation to Karol Kolczyk. But for all that he was a bad, bad man, he always treated me like I was. We were friends. Sparring partners. He took me out dancing once. So it's all cool."

You head towards Ares/Athena Lobby

"So," Shades, once inside, finally closes the umbrella, tucking it under his arm. "Uh. What's it like, here?" He nudges the sunglasses up the bridge of his nose from where they had slipped during the walk. "Like. I mean." His head seems to be on a swivel at all the sights. "Is the food good, or-" He suddenly hesitates. "Uh. Do you- I mean," He mimes taking a bite of a sandwich.

Sydney nods. "It's ok. Some people get touchy about power questions. I'm not one of them. I eat metal, mostly. It still comes from the kitchen. Curried lugnuts are a perennial favorite for me." She grins. "When I eat normal food, mostly meat and salad, it's really good too. What's it like here? Surprisingly normal. I mean…yeah, we're all powered. When someone has a meltdown it can get bad in a hurry, but for the most part, people here have been awesome. I'm not thrilled about the uniforms, but you get used to them. Saves a lot of time figuring what to wear, right?" She smiles. "Thing is, the teachers here are powers themselves. They know what it's like. I've made more friends here than I ever had in school back home. Even in 1980."

"I KNEW IT!" Shades gives a sudden shout and fist pump. "I knew you had been hidden since Iron Fist's last-" His mouth clicks shut almost audibly. "I mean- I'm sorry, it's just…" He sighs, and spins a hand trying to assemble a thought. "It's like- okay, there's like, a whole thread over at this one forum about theories about who the mystery girl found in Chicago was. Like, lots of folks figured you must've had some connection to Fist, but not many thought you were actually like, that old. But I always thought that made the most sense. Some kind of suspended animation thing, right?"

Sydney laughs softly. "Oh geez. I wish I'd known people were wondering. Yeah, Karol broke me out of the lab we were both made in. Which is to say he told the guards to get the fuck out of his way and they did… and we went out for dinner and dancing at Johnny Bianchi's. And at the end of the evening, he led me back to the walk-in freezer and had me flow myself into an olive oil barrel. When you lower my body temperature below 40 degrees, my metabolism stops. Next thing I knew the medical examiner was thawing me and my barrel, and I woke up starving and thirsty, and rather surprised to be in 2018. Basically the science team had scraped me off the street in 1980, made me into what I am now to test the process before doing it to a made man. I was nobody special before that. Just another street girl with a short, unhappy life ahead of her. I'm told my picture was even on milk cartons. Now…it's different. I'm learning to be different."
GAME: Save complete.

Shades says, "Sorry. But I mean," his normal grin returns. "This is all just so cool, right? Like, I've read SO MUCH about Coral Springs, but I never thought I'd actually be going to school here!" He waves the umbrella around like an overlarge wand. He's practically skipping as he follows. "So, what's your favorite class?" His eyebrows suddenly rise from behind the glasses. "Ohmygod, is there like a- a training room for like, powers and stuff?" His voice cracks a little again with excitement.

Sydney laughs. "A lot of what you read about Coral Springs is just rumor. It's a school, first and foremost, and you have to learn your regular academic subjects just like anywhere else. But yes, learning to use your powers is part of it." She thinks about the training room. "You mean like the danger room in those comic books. Not exactly. There's gym class, and you get some of it there. There's outdoor exercise, and you get some more of it there. And there's Arena Fetch, which is a team sport. You can also spar and work out with your friends. Also, we do sometimes wind up going on missions. For real, life and death. Usually with faculty supervision, but not always.

Shades briefly flickers- for less time than it takes to take a breath, he becomes just a Shades-shaped shadow, looking like an inky black mist, before resolidfying. "THAT'S SO- I mean- Missions, that's! It's, just, wow!" He's practically vibrating. "I'll totally go to regular classes to do like, and with other actual superheroes."

Sydney laughs. "So do you have a room assignment yet? Um… and do you identify male or female…or what? And superheroes in training. Important to bear that in mind.

"Oh yeah, I'm in- uh," Shades reaches into the blazer, pulling out a letter that looks like it has been folded and unfolded to the point of almost coming apart. "Uh, yeah. I'm supposed to be in room 203. And, I'm a boy?" He glances down at himself. "Is that not obvious?"

You say, "I kind of figured, looking at you, but I've learned not to assume anything about that since I got to this century. Male, male pronouns. Gotcha. I'm female, cisgendered, female pronouns, in case you wondered." She leads Shades to the Athena Mens floor.

"Oh, cis- yeah, that's cool." Shades tries to pull himself up to his full height, which is marginally less impressive than he probably intends. "Yeah, one of my crew… of my friends, his big sister was trans. Which, I mean," He shrugs, a little uncomfortable. "She didn't say anything til she moved out of her house, tho. Lotta folks still kinda, ya'know." He makes a scrunchy face, waving a hand ambivilently. "But it's just like the way supers were treated not so long ago. So, probably changing too."

Sydney nods. "Yeah… most of us never set out to be powers. It just kind of… happened." She grins and finds the directory. "Well, here you are." She'll help him into the room with his luggage, but that's for later.
