|
    |
It's Wednesday, and Elmo has finally been let back into the garage from his forced vacation. To be fair, it's done him good; he looks less tired. Now, however, it's too damn hot to work, and he's slumped alongside a workbench, trying to pretend like he's interested in cleaning parts.
JP could keep someone locked out indefiniately. It was a gift. It might be his only real gift but he could gift the hell out of a door, man. From outside the bay door was the sound of a flywheel whirring, wheeeeeee. No sign of Gearhead, and then… feet appeared from the top of the bay door frame?
Nate had decided to come by the Garage once again. Though…this time he simply arrived with his hands in his pockets. Wearing what seems to be brand new black leather jacket and black pants. Apparently he forgot his shirt. Or just didn't have enough money. Either way. Which means he's flaunting muscles unintentionally as he walks up that driveway. "Hey Elmo." X-Man greets with a little wave in his direction with black gloves on his hand. In the event that nobody has noticed? His favorite color is clearly black. and Yellow.
"Hey, pal," Elmo greets Nate, listlessly. No lists to be found. When he realizes Nate is wearing a jacket minus a shirt, though, he peers at him sharply. "Cripes, don't any of you guys wear a shirt around here?" he complains. "Buncha half naked guys in my garage, the neighbors are gonna file a report." He glances at the bay door, eyebrows going up in pre-alarm. "If you break anything I'm gonna break your damn arm," he hollers at JP's feet.
THe feet bounced and started to drift in a circle slowly "I… yeah hang on. I might be able 'take care that for ya." THey pulled up and on the second try found purchase on the building. "He was rapelling. Great. Don't even ask from what or there may be something ludicrious like a stolen military helo involved. "Elmo is too damn how out for shirts. Hell you's lucky we botherin with shoes but there ain' a lick of good ground anywhere." Yup. Jeans and boots. That's all you get. He upnodded to Nate and did a double take, "You a big fucker ain' ya? You fall outta stuff. You should try this thing." Oh yeah, rapelling life it was today.
Nate Grey looks to Elmo with a soft smile, before he tilts his head. "Are shirts required? I'm just used to this." he shrugs. "Not exactly a whole lot of it where I'm from." then he looks to JP as Elmo yells at him and so forth. "I try." he responds to the compliment(?) that JP gives him before he walks up to him, apparently with a tilt of his head. "Rapelling?" apparently he's never done it before!
Elmo gets up, scowling, and goes over to JP. "The hell are you doin?" It's a question he asks his partner a lot. He looks up at the rappel line. Then gives Nate a real funny look, when he asks about shirts and the requirements thereof. "I guess unless you're a hippie? Are ya?" He eyes Nate's leather getup as if to say that he doubts it.
Vitale arrives at the garage just in time to see JP rapelling, which meant he was just in time to start yelling at JP in Italian. "Che cazzo stai facendo? Che diavolo? Stai cercando di darmi un infarto?" He yells up at the cajun, hands on his hips mother style. He looks over at Elmo. "You just let him up there? This is why I can't leave the two of you alone, you can't be trusted! I'm going to move in and keep an eye on JP. You're both grounded, you especially JP, very grounded, as in your feet should be on the ground."
He only just seems to notice the other man after he's done yelling at JP and Elmo. "Oh, hello, I'm so sorry about all of that. I'm Vitale." He offers the other man his hand.
JP unstuck the line and ziiiip! landed on the ground. "Heh you soun' like you don' trust me, V. Hurts all both my feelins." The look he gave Elmo wasn't one of taking offense but more that look of you want to try that. He winked and with a bounce in his step unhooked his belt from the rig. "Naaaaate, right? Good you back. Nate, V. V… Nate. He fell outta the sky. Broke our porch." He offered, "Beer? We got like at least three left."
Nate looks to Vitale as he apparently seems to shout at JP in Italian. Nevertheless, he looks between the two before he shrugs lightly. "Yeah…sorry about that. just re-learning how to fly." he smiles. "Nice to see you too, JP. Take it you've been well? aside form being yelled at?" he teases, before he nods. "I'll take a beer, if I may." heeeeyyy he has manners!
Though he looks to Elmo with a small smile. "I'm not a hippie, no." he scoffs almost.
Elmo laughs when Vitale shows up and immediately starts scolding JP. "Nate, this is Vitale. We call 'im Medico. He's our healer. And our ma." He grins at V, clearly teasing him. "Nate wants to join up." He thwaps Vitale lightly on the arm, affectionately. Then he gives JP a 'oh yeah??' kind of look and studies the rappel line, dangerously intrigued.
Nate also totally shakes Vitale's hand. "Nice to meet you Vitale." he smiles lightly. "I'm Nate."
"I don't trust you, JP, every damn time I come by, you're always hurt and sometimes Elmo too because of whatever ridiculously dangerous thing you've decided to take up as a new hobby." He continues chastising. He shakes Nate's hand, his grip firm as he offers the other young man a charming smile. "C'mere, JP." He demands, clearly intending to check him for injuries. "Yeah, I can heal, pain transferrence, I take the wound and I can rapidly heal it myself." He explains for Nate while he sticks his tongue out at Elmo. "Someone's gotta be the team ma, so you know, if you join up I /will/ chastise you for getting hurt and being reckless.
JP shrugged calmly and laughed, "Yous might wan' back some of that shit up with some facts, V. One? I ain' ever gon' stop livin. Two? Sparplug's right. You's startin t'sound like my nana. And last? You need some fuckin fun, mon ami. You wound up tighter than a nun I swear. Ain' healthy. I survive this long. I don' need no lecture on survivin t'twenty-five." He was doomed to be harped on either way. To Nate he shrugged, "Eh I just assume it s how their voices soun' naturally. I' used to it. How the flyin goin?" He didn't…address Elmo exastly, but he did idly let the rapelling line whip in a circle like a pocket watch.
Like a cat getting a ribbon wiggled at it, Elmo can't resist, and snatches at the line. "Gimme that." Nate may have manners, but Elmo doesn't. He examines the line, squints up it, getting a feel for how it works.
Nathaniel chuckles as Elmo apparently snatches the line from JP, though Nate tilts his head almost confusedly at the fellow, he just shrugs and goes about his business, sippin' on his beer. His eyes shift to Vitale as he chuckles. "Duly noted. Well, not like I have anywhere else to go, so I hope to be a part of this little family." he says with a chuckle almost amusedly. "You might be harping on me more than them." Though his gaze finally resettles on JP. "Going good. Clocked above 50 mph finally." he sighs. "I wonder if I'll ever be back where I was but…C'est la vie."
"Hey, I'm the only one allowed to chastise anyone here. You can't chastise me for chastising you, Jean-Pierre." Vitale grumbles back at JP once he is also chastised for chastising in the first place. He holds up a finger and points at JP. "Hey! I have plenty of safe fun. I have fun when I come over here, don't I? I have fun when I kidnap Elmo and take him places, plenty of /safe/ fun." He frowns at Elmo when he grabs the rope and throws his hands up. "You know what, fine, you go do whatever you want, I'm gonna stop healin' you when you get hurt from fun." They all know that's not true.
He turns to Nate. "Why have you forgotten how to fly, if you don't mind me asking?" He asks.
JP muttered, "Safe fun is nothin but handjobs fer housewives. That ain' livin, man." he looked jsut confused. Quite seriously he turned to Elmo and said, joking all aside, "You and I are gon' need t'siddown an have a serious talk about this. All this… fear…? This ain' healthy. Now you don wanna heal me? That fine and in fact I respect that- you standin up t'me who offere dyou an out, but I ain' livin behind no more bars real or otherwise." 'safe' and operating in pretested and approved boundaries was not nor ever will be soething JP Bonaventure could ever find agreement with. He fixhed out a beer and handed it to Vitale, "Relax. It' be fine. Nate? f'now? Pull up a chair. At the very least you don' have t' worry bout bein all prostitute." Destitute, JP, the word is- oh never mind he won't remember anyways.
Elmo leans back, letting the line hold his weight as he hangs on it. "Are you still tagged in?" he asks JP. He raises his eyebrows when JP is suddenly the one doing the chastising. Reaching out, he thwaps JP lightly twice. "Sorry, Jeanushka." A Yiddish pet name, that Nate is probably utterly unfamiliar with. "C'mon, make it go, huh?"
Nathaniel looks to Vitale and JP, simply shaking his head at the latter. "I think you're looking for Destitute, not Prostitute. Two very different things." He shrugs lightly, apparently not taking offense. Though his gaze shifts to Vitale as he's questioned why he forgot how to fly. He's silent for a few moments, before he takes a deep breath. "That…is a very long story." and that's all he says about that.
Especially because he knows they would probably never believe him.
His eyes eventually shift to Elmo. He might need to start reading his mind if he keeps speaking in that weird language he's not only never heard of, but doesn't understand. He says nothing though about it.
Vitale doesn't speak while JP returns with his own chastisement, taking a step back and dropping his eyes to the floor. "I wouldn't actually not heal you, JP, you had to know that. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything to you. Rappel from a roof, jump off a building, do whatever you want, I'll be here to heal you. You don't answer to me." He says quietly and gives up on anymore conversation, no more defense of himself. He takes the beer from JP and hushes, going to sit down.
JP grinned to Elmo and slapped him on the shoulder, "That's the spirit. "An' hell yes i'm tagged in. When you done, we sent Elmo up." With that he let the flywheel spin to pull Elmo back up the building. "You run inta Spider-Man you tell em oh hey we can do that too." That said he looked back to Elmo and pointed up. See? Fun! Quiet seiously he nodded and patted Vitale on teh shoulder with a squeeze, "Have faith in me. S' all I ask. God knows I ain' got shit else man." There was that wry grin and he looked back up to Elmo moentioning to the guys, "Merde. Shoulda given em a squeegie an' a bucket while he's up there, huh? Also? 50 ain' bad! Friend a mie might be able t' help you out with some a that. Been thinkin on the issue weirdly, but you wanna get some zip bak? Well Sammy might be yo' fella t'help."
Elmo grabs Vitale in a one-armed hug as he goes by him. "Vushka, you know we love you." He lets go, then yelps in total glee as the flywheel spins and hauls his much lighter weight right up the side of the building. He gropes for the clip and attaches it to his belt. Then swears vividly. "Fershlugginer—How do you keep this from flattening your crotch?!" He gets a boot on the building to ease the pressure, laughing.
Nate looks to Vitale as he seems to completely surrender any notion of conversation with JP. Feeling a little sympathetic, Nate just pats Vitale on the shoulder before he looks at JP. "I'm assuming you guys have been together as a group for a while?" he asks inquisitively, before Elmo's exclamation takes his attention away.
"Geez…" he shakes his head wit ha chuckle, taking another little sip of his beer.
Vitale allows all the physical affection, rubbing Elmo's arms when he hugs him and pats JP's hand, but he doesn't offer much in way of response to JP, not interested in arguing any more with anyone for one night, feelings a little raw as likely JP's are as well. "I got faith in you." He says, voice still trained quiet, as if he's had a life time of taking the submissive approach to a conversation. "Yeah, we have, we're more family than team, I think." He offers to Nate.
JP squint watching Elmo sip up the wall. He grinned, "Know what's funny? I can make em dangle there like a bug all damn day." He wouldn't, but he could. A grin formed as he was not the only one that was jsut thrilled with this idea. To Nate he noted, "V ain' wrong. We are like a family. Well… like mine. Less like his." He looked to Vitale letting the former matter go in favour of the more important argument, "You can tell em I said so too." To Nate, while the flywheel behaved because JP wasn't going to fake drop anyone. It's a great way to get a window kicked out. "I came up here t'find my brother. You seen a cat or a possum or a gator around? Eh prolly him. I met… shit… darts?" He squint to Vitale trying oto remmeber first meeting. Pointing up he laughed, "Elmo ? Last December. It' June something right now. If that helps. But …yeah. we all kinda figured out these people don't always have what they need to help 'emselves out. We do. Got vision. And? I don' wanna see no giant robots come through an' step on everythin. I happen to like this shit."
Elmo's propped up on the wall, dangling from the line like a fly from a spiderweb, cussing in Yiddish and laughing, apparently having a great time. "Dem zakh iz krashing meyn beytzim! Okay, lemme down before my dick falls off." He lands, wincing and grinning. "My landing's better'n yours," he says cheerfully to Nate, before unhooking himself. He thwaps JP again, this time giving him a delighted sideways glance.
JP calls back to Elmo "I keep my junk from gettin crushed by hookin the rig up to you instead of me. Neat trick huh?"
Nate nods lightly to Vitale. "Good to know." before he ends up looking at JP as he speaks apparnetly about the groin. huh. "You mean to say he's a shapeshifter?" he asks about JP's brother. "No, I haven't seen anything like that. If it was that prevalent, I think I would have noticed." he teases him lightly. Nevertheless, he looks at Elmo with a little smile as he tries to land. His comment makes Nate grin. "If you like, I can mimic flying for you so you can try to land that way." He remembers showing Elmo his particular skill in telekinesis.
"He is, only can change into animals, prefers to be a cat. I'm rather fond of his panther form, though his mountain lion is really useful. He's amazing, we all love him a lot." Vitale says, incredibly fondly. "We'll take you, as long as you don't mind Italian, French and Yiddish cussing. We take care of our own, our own being mutants. Everyone's family here. I can heal you when you get beat up from falling during your attempts at flying, but I do think we could hook you up with Jay or Sam and they could help you figure it back out."
Elmo jerks his thumb at JP. "This guy was tellin' a bunch of little mutant kids that Santa's reindeer are mutants. That's why they can fly. It was the cutest frickin' thing I've ever seen." His eyes get real wide at Nate's offer. "YES. We gotta do that! Hey I got this project I'm working on, maybe you could help me test it before I jump off the roof with it." Guiltily, he looks at Vitale, then goes over to him and ruffles his hair. "I'm not really gonna jump off the roof. …Yet."
JP waved his hand, "You kiddin? He flashy enough without the help. You teach em that Iron Man landing there'll be no livin with em after this." The grin, though, actually encouraged this. Looking back to Nate he nodded, "Medicao ain' lyin. Pulled the bullet outta my chest. Meeeeeeeerde, I thought i was toast." Even so he was laughing about that one. "Stronger 'an any cup a coffee I'll say that much. Of which? Yeha let's jsut… never do that again. That was just…terrible alla round."
Nathaniel seems to smile just a little bit at Vitale. "Well, if you'll accept me, I might as well stick around." He smiles lightly then. Well….guess that means he's part of the group now. or at least it's apparently cool with most of the team if he is. Nevermind that for now though. Elmo's reaction causes the Psionic to laugh. "Heh…alright, alright, don't get too excited now." he teases him lightly before he looks to JP. "Heh. Good to know his healing ability isn't for show."
Vitale leans back into the ruffle when Elmo assures him he's not going to jump off a roof yet. "I just wanna be there when you do. In case you do get hurt." He asks. "I got a new thing now with my pulse, I can just give you the heart attack you'll give me too." He teases.
The application process wasn't a lengthy one for the X-ternals. JP just has to like you, you gotta agree to help take care of the mutants of New York and each other and you're in. "Yep, I pulled quite a few bullets out of JP, wasn't just the one. It's just.. gruesome but I promise that it really doesn't hurt me as much as it hurt you. I've healed plenty of bullets in my time." Vitale explains. "Welcome to the team, Nate."
Elmo stands on his toes in order to smooch Vitale on the cheek. It's queer as hell and he just…kind of does it, all natural-like. Then he gets stars in his eyes, looking at JP. "Iron. Man. Landing." He points at Nate, very seriously. "I like you. We'll keep ya, whaddayasay, boss?" He asks JP, because as he told Nate earlier, JP's the shot caller. "You should get him to show ya some of his tricks. He's got a lot of 'em up his sleeve."
JP hooked his thumbs into his belt-loops. He added sardonically, "Yeah it ain't f'show at all. Pretty sure mah' gift to Mutant kind is makin rules an' keepin this garage from fallin apart." He paused and looked to them and back to Nate arching an eyebrow, "Yous seen the robots. Them big rotten red robots?" He nodded slowly and thought about it for a long while quietly. "You need a place t'crash we got a few ways t'help hook you up. They ain' fancy but they function." That look though as laissez faire as he was, seemed to be thinking a thought. "I gotta look into a couple things but… this could work out, mes amis. But you need t'couch, we got one now." Nope, not fancy. Though that he-who-runs-the-yard just offered up a couch was fair indication that the guy was on the welcome list. One just needed to know how to speak Bonaventure. And with that he took the clips from Elmo and hooked it to his belt. "I'm a go work on this." And willing the flywheel to spin and the counter at the other end to pull, JP was flying up at the building, though he panded foot out like the good thief he was. Damn impressive! "Yup… that…still hurt the knees." okay, less impressive but it looked cool at least.
Worth it!