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| Topic Started: Jun 16 2009, 07:37 PM (139 Views) | |
| Locke Tori | Jun 16 2009, 07:37 PM Post #1 |
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Featuring:Locke Tori Date: Saturday, April 4th Time of Day: Afternoon Place: Library Science and Locke had never gotten along all that well. If there was any way to mess up an experiment, he'd find it. Bean plants never grew, math never worked out, and he didn't even want to think of what would happen if he took chemistry. His friend liked to joke that Locke would probably mix two chemicals together and create some weird type of toxic gas that would bring about the end of chemistry at their school forever. Just like how some people couldn't whistle, Locke was incapable of performing the most simplistic of science experiments. It wasn't that he didn't understand the ideas or the concepts, or even that he had the wrong equations. Locke just sucked at science class ever since he was in first grade, and the consistent D's on his report card were a testament to the fact. A mutual feeling of hatred existed between the two. The only thing remotely scientific that Locke had any skills in had to do with computers and electronics, and that only came from his father's lessons. So for Locke to be spending time in the library looking through the scientific books was more then a little unusual, especially since he wasn't being forced there by a teacher or guardian. Stacked at his feet were texts on anatomy, a strange topic to pick off of a shelf. Maybe if he had it opened to pages on the female body it would make more sense for a teenage boy to be looking at, or if he were artistic in the drawing sense. But neither was the case with Locke. He wasn't interested in sneaking in looks at a naked female body, and his drawings were usually limited to doodles in the margins of paper or whatever the art teacher assigned for the day. He had a book opened up on his lap that illustrated the way that the muscles were shaped on the body, trying to make sense of the scientific mumbo-jumbo that the author felt was needed in order to make the book of any value. Locke stared at the page until his eye went blurry and he got a headache. The temptation to hurl a book across the room had never been stronger. But what had he expected? There wasn't going to be an instructions on how to make your own walking human body. The things he'd been trying to make were only vaguely similar to humans. His most successful attempt at making a golem had had two arms and two legs, but there weren't really fingers or toes on the hands and feet, and the head sort of just was a slightly raised bump between the shoulders that supported the arms. Temper rising Locke closed his eyes to focus on his breathing. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three, he counted off, breathing in for three, holding for three, and exhaling for three. After a second round of this the Californian opened his eyes to try and face the book again. The reason for this self inflicted torture was that he wanted to make another one of those things again, but had not been able to. Maybe the reason was that he wasn't putting it together in the right way, that it wasn't structurally sound. It could be like tossing clay onto a potter's wheel. If you didn't do it just right, if the clay wasn't exactly in the center, whatever you tried to make would be lopsided or collapse on you. Studying how a human body was comprised might make it easier to make something, and who knows, maybe in the process Locke would figure out how to make something more efficient. |
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| Cyclops | Jun 18 2009, 01:31 PM Post #2 |
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"You know thats what the desks are for right?" The young man in the red glasses was stood at the end of the aisle, leaning against one of the bookshelves with a bag hangingover his other shoulder. He'd been watching the boy for about 5 minutes before he said anything, not wanting to disturb whatever it was he was doing. But watching him hunched over like that couldn't be doing anything for his back. "Thats some pretty heavy reading, are you looking for anything inparticular?" Scott moved down the aisle stepping over the discarded books as he went, crouching down to pick one up as he read the title before leafing through it quickly. Anatomy wasn't one of his favorite subjects but he'd been a pretty good all rounder back at school, especially with maths and physics. Maybe there was something he could do to help. He let his eyes skim over the page Locke was reading, following the lines of the muscles that covered the figure on the page and for a brief moment wondered what the boy would want with such detailed diagrams. He could only guess, but was pretty sure even most doctors didn't know the bodies they treated in as much detail as the book seemed to be going into. "Maybe I can help with whatever it is?" The Summers boy squatted down and slid his bag off his shoulder before folding his legs up underneath him. He leant back against the heavy bookshelf and picked up one of the discarded Anatomy texts, randomly opening the page and beginning to read. He'd figured he needed to meet more people, and it was probably best to do so in an environment he was comfortable with...the kid might tell him to take a hike but at least he tried. Isn't that what the Professor wanted him to do?...To try and get on with the others... |
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| Locke Tori | Jun 18 2009, 02:41 PM Post #3 |
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Heavy reading huh? Locke smirked and shook his head in that slow way that people do when they don't especially want to laugh. This guy didn't know the half of it. Not only did the books weigh enough to cause a concussion should they fall on your head, the text was dry, and there were more muscles in the human body than he was lead to believe from gym class. To make matters worse some of the names were similar enough to confuse the Californian. Most of the names for the muscles Locke was pretty sure that you'd have to be fluent in Latin or something to be able to say, and all he had ever taken was Spanish. "I'm just trying to figure out how to make a person with no skeletal structure or head and cut down on how many muscles are needed." Not likely to win any awards for social interactions, normally by now Locke would have kept his mouth shut, maybe even turn on some music and popped his headphones on, but faced with his least favorite subject he had to admit defeat. It wouldn't kill him to get a little help. Maybe a pair of fresh eyes would bring light onto the topic matter. Speaking of eyes, Locke brushed hair over his one as he noticed the shades. A little strange indoors perhaps, but he wasn't going to call the dude out on it. Bright lights could cause some killer migraines for Locke. "There's over six hundred skeletal muscles in the human body, most of which are a part of a pair. That doesn't include the other two types of muscles, smooth and..." he paused to flip back a few pages. Maybe he should have his laptop open to take notes with. "Smooth and cardiac. I don't think I'll need a heart. I mean there isn't any blood, and I think it's might be my brain that's in the thing..." Of course what he was babbling on about would sound a little strange and disturbing without the proper context. Locke realized he was starting to sound like he was Frankenstein, preparing to make another monster come the next big storm. "Let me try to explain. I made this... thing, a person thing, out of the dirt, and when I was in New York, I made a hand that was crawling around out of the concrete floor. Since then I haven't really been able to make anything. So I thought, maybe if I know how I work, I can figure out how to make this work." An impressive amount of talking for someone who had been spending most of their time in their room. Kendra back in San Fransisco would have been proud of him, but Locke really could care less about her opinion. "The problem is there's so much junk going on under the skin that I don't know what would be safe to get rid of or not, and clearly the people who thought up this stuff didn't really want people to understand. I'm Locke by the way." |
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| Cyclops | Jun 19 2009, 11:42 AM Post #4 |
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Scott listened in silence as the boy spoke, letting his eyes move over the pages as he leafed through the book, not interrupting as Locke explained very comprehensively what he was trying to achieve. He tried not to look to surprised at the idea of a walking pile of rocks, but wasn't sure how good his acting skills were. It seemed like quite a complicated matter for someone so young to be working on but then Scott was already beginning to figure out that mutations wern't the only gifts that certain students had been born with. Many of them had very keen intellects and sharp minds. "Well I don't know much about rocks and dirt, and my anatomies a bit rusty but if the things you animate are controlled by your power, then they already defy any laws setout by the scientists." It was just a thought as he closed the book and leaned back again, letting his head rest against the shelf, his eyes closed. The boy was talking about manipulating inanimate matter. He'd already done it without any formal knowledge or training which made Scott think that perhaps the problem was one that wasn't solely based on the extent of his anatomical knowledge. Then boy told him it had worked before. "What was going through your head at the time you made the hand? Maybe its connected to the way you think, or a confidence issue? You know like an athelete visualising what they're going to achieve to get in the right frame of mind?" The explanation was making sense to him but he wasn't sure it was making sense to the boy who had introduced himself as Locke. He certainly wasn't an expert on mutant powers but he did know a thing or two about confidence issues. "Think of it...everything you do can be affected by the frame of mind your in from writing your homework to running a race. If you don't believe you can do it then often you fail before you start. Maybe thats all it is. Have you tried talking to the Professor about it? He seems pretty clued up on these things" He gave the guy a smile and held out his hand, "Scott. Scott Summers" |
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| Locke Tori | Jun 19 2009, 11:11 PM Post #5 |
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This was one of those moments when stupidity says hello to you and kindly informs you that it had stopped by for a visit a little while ago. Of course the things he had made weren't necessarily restricted to conventional scientific means. Locke should know that. After all hands didn't go walking about on their own, unless you were a member of the Adams family, and two inch tall dirt people didn't wrestle with the one Easter lily that refused to die, no matter how pathetic looking it was. Still, he needed more then just "because you're a mutant" for an answer. It took facts to make any sort of informed decision. The whole mutant thing wasn't enough. After all the school had other mutants, and he knew for a fact that that Mason guy didn't make little things from dirt. A mutation was too big of an unknown to chalk everything up to. Still, Scott had a point about being able to make things without all this research. Pride made Locke want to believe that his time spent suffering through the medical jargon hadn't gone to waste. "Maybe those times it was just me mimicking what I see and those sheets they hand out in elementary school with the different parts of the body on them. And hey, maybe this would make it easier. Not necessarily to make the things, but to move them and stuff. Concrete is heavy man." Now the question wasn't just how did he make those things, but what he had been thinking and feeling. The explanation that Scott gave made sense. Even playing tee-ball as a kid the coach would occasionally spout off nonsense about visualizing the goal and getting your head into the game. This might have been because in more then one game the basemen would wander off to follow some bug or blow on a dandelion puff. When Mason had tried swiping his backpack the first time Locke clearly knew what he had been thinking. "With the hand it was how familiar the ground felt under me, and how I didn't want this jerk getting away with my laptop. I'm not sure if it was because I knew what was in that concrete or what, but I doubt it was a factor with Fluffy." Fluffy was what Locke had decided to dub the little person thing that he made in the plant pot back in San Francisco. It was a ridiculous name of course, because rocks and dirt were just about the biggest opposite of fluff possible. Given the lack of clear directions on what he was doing however, what difference did it make what he called those things? Locke shook his head no on the Professor thing. Of course he had met the man shortly after arriving, but other then figuring out the issues of becoming enrolled here, not much conversation had happened. Part of it was from intimidation, for Xavier did have a powerful look and it made Locke feel transparent, but part of it also was that despite trying to run from silence, Locke still enjoyed his privacy, peace, and quiet. Who was he to impose upon someone trying to run a school just because he wasn't able to make a person again? "It's.. weird talking to him, or anyone really. There wasn't much need to talk on the train up here." Edited by Rogue, Jun 20 2009, 02:12 AM.
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| Cyclops | Jun 24 2009, 03:31 AM Post #6 |
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"Whose Fluffy? Wern't we talking about some kind of dirt man just now?" The puzzled look on Scotts face would have been understandable to anyone who had been listening to the conversation the two boys had been having. It wasn't every day you had a discussion with someone on the best method to create am earth based humanoid, and Scott wasn't exactly qualified in that area. But he wasn't one to give up easily. "What about ignoring what you've read and focusing on how your own body moves? You can't see the muscles underneath but you know they're there don't you?" He rubbed his chin for a moment in thought then closed the book infront of him, placing it on the pile Locke had been working through. Maybe it was easier than they were both thinking? But then again maybe it was alot more complicated, he didn't know but there was little harm in trying. "You said you'd made a hand before now? What if you focus on your own hand, the way it moves and feels. Try and copy that again. Perhaps a whole body is to much to soon? I know its not much but its always a shot right?" He hadn't spoken this much to anyone in a long time and it was actually pretty good to relax and socialise with someone, even if it was a complete stranger. And being out and about certainly beat the cell down in the basement, he even had a room in the dorms now aswell, which had helped to lessen the feeling of being an outcast from the group but he still had a way to go before he was properly resocialised. Scott listened as Locke spoke about the Professor, nodding his head in agreement with what he said, knowing full well what he was talking about. "Yeah he gives off that impression doesn't he? But he is here to help, all you have to do is ask him. The worst he can say is not now right? And theres always the other students...or even Mr Lensherr if you can put up with his 'superior race' mentality" |
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| Locke Tori | Jul 7 2009, 11:52 AM Post #7 |
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"Fluffy's the dirt thing. I needed to call it something. Fluffy worked enough for me," Locke muttered, feeling a little foolish. When he had said it the first time Locke hadn't been paying too close attention to what he was saying. "I think that might have been the day my sibs had pet day in pre-k." It was a pathetic excuse really, but better to admit that he got caught up sometimes in the twins activities then to sound less than masculine. The sad truth was Locke had been too involved with the twins social life as of late, and not enough of his own. Still being able to talk to someone his own age meant that he hadn't completely turned into a dull bag of bones, which was a big relief. "You know, it feels like forever since I had any sort of conversation with someone over the age of five. How pathetic is that?" With a heavy sigh Locke let his book slide onto the pile with the others. If he looked at it again he knew that he'd chuck it at the nearest wall, library or no. He didn't want to think about this anymore, how the human body was constructed, how it was able to move. At least Locke could rule off a future in medicine. Maybe that would be about as helpful as today's research would be. He bowed his head forwards and scratched behind an ear. Scott was trying to be helpful, he knew that, but every suggestion just made him realize how little he knew, and for someone who depended on facts and consistencies, unknowns weren't happy news. "How did this all become more complicated? Making a human shouldn't be that hard right?" It was a half joke, and not that good of one. |
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| Cyclops | Jul 18 2009, 01:08 PM Post #8 |
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Scott listened quietly to the boy as he spoke, nodding his head every so often to show he understood what he was saying. "Its certainly not pathetic, we make do with what we have, if 5 year olds are all you have to talk to then, yeah you won't get the deepest conversation ever but its still talking right? Try going a month without anyone but yourself to talk to then you'll understand pathetic" He tried to smile reassuringly, closing another one of the books that lay open on the floor beside him, leaving it on the pile with the others scattered around Locke. He could see the boy was getting disheartened by everything he was reading and going through, and god only knows what he was thinking about all the time with all that biology and physiology stuff running through his head. Maybe it was time to take the theory and put it into practice. "Get up, we're going outside. Theres no dirt here and you said yourself your not making much progress with the books so lets go work through it somewhere more comfortable. You can introduce me to Fluffy" He stood up and offered his hand to the boy still sat on the ground, he wasn't sure what he was doing but practice was better than hiding in the libary worrying about how the human body worked, and the both of them looked like they could do with the fresh air. Edited by Cyclops, Jul 18 2009, 01:10 PM.
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| Locke Tori | Jul 19 2009, 07:29 PM Post #9 |
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"There's the dirt that's in the potted plants, but that isn't what you had in mind," Locke pointed out. He was balking because to him, it was still much too cold to go outside. Eighty was his bare minimum, and even back home it wasn't usually that hot. Locke was just one of those people that should have been born on the Equator. With a resigned sigh the Californian took the hand offered and stood up. At least he had his jacket with him, since he figured the library was going to be cold. "I wish it was summer already," he mumbled as they made their way outside. That was about all that he said on the walk out into what for Locke might as well be the Alaskan wilderness. So what if there wasn't snow? Sunny it might be, but the wind managed to find its way into his jacket and slice straight through him, like he was butter. Locke started shaking with the cold the second the wind blew past him. It was hard to believe that it was fifty something. From inside the mansion everything looked less frigid, but then again there was heat on inside the mansion. Somehow he knew that the ground hadn't defrosted yet, that there was a layer of frozen earth at least two or three inches down. It was hard to explain how he could tell this without the use of a shovel, and feeling it through the soles, worn-down admittedly, and socks. “It’s going to be hard. The earth’s tired, stiff,” Locke tried to explain to Scott, without sounding like he was making excuses. He knew that others weren’t as happy about being a mutant as he. Locke actually liked his powers, as complicated as it was for him to make one of those things. There wasn’t really much he would rather have if he were to be a mutant. Perhaps he would like to be able to heal up that eye of his, but for now, other then making him look like a monster, it wasn’t an issue. Falling into the breathing pattern his father had taught him to keep from bursting into violent tantrums was second nature to Locke. His eyes shut as he tried getting a feel for the ground beneath him. There was a slight buzz underneath his feet, something that he had learned nobody else noticed. The buzz was always there, growing sharper and more focused as people approached him. It wasn’t that he could see people or things like he could with his good eye, but it was like each thing in his range, formed a puddle, or a shadow that he could feel. With his eyes closed he could still tell where Scott was standing. Piece by piece his mind dropped away, sinking into the earth until he was it. Like always it started with a hand, accompanied by a loud groan of the earth, as the meaty and grotesque thing tried pulling the rest of a body up. The frozen portion of the earth kept together well, but the hand was misshapen, a thumb and three fingers. It was all that Locke could manage to pull together with the tired earth. As he tried forming the arm that was attached to the hand, Locke stood stock still, his body an odd mixture between tense and relaxed, as if he were under some sort of trance. Edited by Locke Tori, Jul 21 2009, 06:25 PM.
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| Cyclops | Jul 26 2009, 07:06 PM Post #10 |
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Scott grinned as the boy groaned and commented about the potted plants. "Your right, thats not exactly what i had in mind, comon" The alaskan born youth was reasonably comfortable in his jumper and jeans as they left the libary and headed out into the school grounds, away from anything i could break. Well that was the plan, he didn't actually have any idea what Locke was about to try so maybe the whole school was about to be flattened? He brushed the thought aside as they kept walking. locke complaining about the weather, "In Alaska this is summer, if your very lucky. Are all you city boys like this?" They walked for about 20 minutes till the school was behind them a distance and they were relatively alone, stopping by a small grove of trees and rocks in the green lawns of the school. The blades of grass still looked a little off colour, but everything looked fine to the Summers boy. He leant against a nearby rock and kept smiling, hoping it would encourage the other guy, "Well lets see what you can do with this tired old earth then shall we? Hey if it works works now just think what you'll be doing in the summer when things aren't frozen" He tried to sound as positive as he could, but Locke didn't seem to notice, he was already standing stock still, almost like he was asleep on feet...then the earth started to move and Scotts jaw dropped as he took an involuntary step away from the growing pile of dirt, and a step closer to Locke. "Um Locke...please tell me thats you doing that...Locke?" |
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