Santo and Noriko - Backdated to 3/20/15
Mar. 20th, 2015 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainSanto attempting to get into JVX, take two. Noriko is more agreeable this time around, and Santo does an admirable job of both containing his joy and not awkwardly flirting with her.
Well, Rankin had convinced him. Not that it had taken much, at least, but Santo decided that obviously one of the "tests" for getting into JVX was actually tracking Noriko down. And rather than use the suggested method of sending her a message via the school's boards, Santo decided to just check more regularly in likely places.
He'd check the gym more regularly, he figured. He'd maybe make a point of wandering near the girl's dorm hall (still not going inside, 'cause seriously guys, rules weren't always made to be broken), and he'd check the cafeteria and the kitchen and whatnot more regularly too, he figured. It wasn't like she was never in any of those places, after all. And Santo figured she probably kept some sort of schedule.
Which was why he totally happened upon her in the kitchen on purpose, and it wasn't some sort of happy accident, even though it was the first time he'd looked since resolving to 'step up his efforts' as it were. Or at least, that was Santo's story, and he was sticking to it.
Noriko could in fact pretty regularly be found in the kitchen. Wielding electricity, for running or otherwise, always left her crazy hungry, and she'd just come in from a run outside. Her light denim jacket was thrown on the back of the chair she was currently sitting in, and she was almost done eating a pepperoni pizza, biting into the slice she held in one hand as she used the other to rearrange her schedule of the next couple of weeks, projected in front of her in 3D, courtesy of her Starkphone. It was lying on the kitchen table, right beside her discarded gauntlets.
But she wasn't so focused on it that she didn't notice the mountain of rock that suddenly filled the doorframe, and the appropriate hand gesture closed the window and shut down the 3D projection. "Hey, Santo," she greeted the other kid, shaking slightly too long blue hair out of her eyes. She needed a haircut, and a new dye; her black roots were showing.
Man, Starkphones were so cool. He was still just really using his for speech-to-text for the message boards and his computer and stuff. But that was beside the point. "Sup, Noriko?" he asked, glancing at the emptied plate. Man, how to just bring this up real smooth-like? "Heard about that thing that went down with your team. Heard it went really well, too." Yeah, smooth.
This was take two, wasn't it. Noriko was grateful that she wasn't prone to big smiles as a rule; it made it easy to curb the ones that wanted to twitch up the corners of her lips. But she might as well let him build up to it. "Yeah, they did good." She still hated that she hadn't been around for it, but they'd managed, and she was seriously proud of them.
And relieved. It could have gone to shit really easily, but they'd managed to bring back Nico, and some intel.
"Can't help but think it might be good to have some more hands on deck, though, eh? Of the bulletproof kind, maybe." To his knowledge, nobody on her team was quite as, well, thick as he was. "Look. I did what you said. Gave it some time. Did some stuff with my squads. Heck, I can drink from a plastic cup, now, no problem." Strength control was in the bag, at this point in time. "I can pop my hands off, control them from a distance, and I even rebuilt my torso after someone smashed it into pieces. I think I got a good handle on stuff, and I think I'd be good for the team." There, he said it. He put it out there, and he hoped that was a good enough sales pitch for his second try.
It had definitely been worth letting him get there on his own, but there was still something Noriko figured she ought to make clear, given the way he was talking about it. She finished her slice of pizza, then leaned back in her chair, watching him evenly. "You realize we're not a team the way Les X-quis are, right? Or even Alpha Flight?"
"Yeah. I get that. But it's a way to start towards something like that, right?" Santo asked. "I wanna be a part of something bigger. I wanna be the best I can, and JVX seems like the best way for me to start that way now and early. Kinda like starting college courses early in school, AP stuff, but I was never that great at school stuff. But that's besides the point," Santo said, getting himself back on track, but letting her get a word in edgewise if she wanted.
"I'm just saying," Noriko got back on the track she'd been on, "it's not about what you can bring to the team. It's about what you can get out of JVX. It sounds like you've got a good control over your powers now, and that means you're in the right place to train with us." Telling him 'later' last time had not been about punishing him - it had been, first and foremost, about keeping JVX safe for everyone in it.
"I get that," Santo affirmed again. "It's the training I want. A piece of the action, if it comes along and I'm chosen for it, is all well and good, too, if it happens." Santo didn't want a disaster for which he was needed; rather, he wanted to be there, ready and able, if a disaster came. "And besides," he grinned, "I bet we could totally take those Alpha Flight scrubs. Just sayin'."
"Well, here's to hoping we never have to," Noriko replied as she stood, to drop her bottle in the trash and grab another energy drink from the fridge. She cracked it open and took a sip, taking a seat again and reaching for her phone. "I'll add you to our calendar. It's intensive training, and we only take people who will commit to that." People who wanted to stick with a slower pace could stick to the squads, and the squads alone.
"You can bet I'll be able to keep up," Santo said, firmly. No way he was backing down from this. "Can't wait to meet the rest of the squad."
"I'll let them know we've got another new member," Noriko confirmed with a nod, her attention on her phone as she called up the school directory to grab Santo's e-mail and share the calendar with him.
Man, even when she was all business, she still managed to be cute. It was going to be pretty awesome, working with her. "Another one?" Santo asked, realizing after a beat what she said. "Anyone else been joining the ranks recently?"
"Vance Astrovik," she answered distractedly, pasted the e-mail in the right field, and confirmed. "There, you should have access now." She'd send an e-mail to everybody in a minute.
"Can't say I know the guy." Vance sounded like a dude's name, at least. He would probably meet him relatively soon anyway. Which would be cool. "Great way to meet new people, I guess. Anyway. We got anything on our plates for today, or what?" he asked, fishing his phone out of his hoodie pocket and fishing around for the calendar access she'd just sent him.
"Tomorrow," Noriko answered. "Danger Room session after class." Which would apparently be about throwing Santo in the deep end and seeing how he managed. She remembered his post about using the DR for, well, recreational purposes, and her brow furrowed a little as her concerns came back. "You can't break it, can you?" Better safe than sorry.
"The Danger Room?" Santo asked, for clarification. "Haven't tried to break it. Can't say I've gotten a lot of opportunities to try to."
"I thought you were all over it for your... frisbee," she settled on. She couldn't remember what sports he'd wanted to play in there, but she liked the image of the rock giant going after a tiny plastic disc, what could she say.
"Yeah, well, when you put a post up and half the responses are people trying to jump down your throat about their precious little piece of technology being used for, god forbid, someone to have fun, it makes you a little reluctant to dive in. Not to mention it's been kinda hard finding people who are actually up for it. I mean, sure, I've had the odd game with folks in there, but nothing really like, super-heavy in terms of me cutting loose full-strength, you know what I mean?" Santo hadn't even found the upper limit on his strength, yet.
"Then we're having a meeting with the techs before you join us in a sim," Noriko stated, and it didn't exactly sound negotiable. The last thing she wanted was to end up damaging the DR. She was already texting Kitty to get her opinion.
That was fine with Santo, really, and he nodded. "Probably a good idea. I'd hate to actually, y'know, break anything." No reason to give the people who'd chewed him out for the idea of cutting loose in the Danger Room with some games further reason to try to keep him from it. Nerds were a weird bunch, in Santo's estimation.
Text finished and sent, Noriko looked up at him. "Yeah, you wouldn't be the only one." They relied on it way too much for their training, and they weren't the only ones.
"Yeah I bet," Santo said with a nod. "Y'know, this sounds kinda funny, but I bet it'd be good for you guys to use me as a training dummy. Or something." Probably shouldn't have left himself so open for insult, but... "I dunno how many of you guys could actually, y'know, take someone like me down."
Her phone buzzed with an answer from Kitty, and her lips pulled down a little for a split second, before she typed a first text, and then a second to answer her. "Yeah, I... have no idea," she admitted, looking back up at Santo. "You don't feel pain, right?"
Santo shook his head. "No pain," he confirmed. No nerve endings helped a lot with that.
"Well, we can look into it," Noriko stated, frowning a little as she thought about how to go about it and yet still ensure Santo's safety. "If you do have a weakness, best if we figure it out together." Rather than out on the field, if he was ever going to see action. Her phone buzzed, and faint annoyance stole across her features before she fired off another couple of texts.
"Full disclosure, biggest weakness is cute girls," Santo replied with a grin.
"As long as you don't let that distract you during training," Noriko replied evenly. She wished they had more girls on the team, actually, but there were fewer girls at school to start with. She figured that might be why JVX was so off balance.
"I'll only show off a little," Santo said, giving a very obvious wink to her.
Noriko's eyebrows raised at the wink, but she was rescued from having to answer by another text from Kitty. She frowned as she read it. "Yeah, looks like Kitty isn't sure what the Danger Room can take from you exactly," she told him as she typed her answer.
"So... that means... what, exactly," Santo asked, wondering if this was going to be the new reason he was denied entry into JVX.
"That we're gonna try and figure it out, and if we can't or we find it's a no-go, you'll have to hold back," Noriko replied pragmatically. Holding back would suck, though.
"I can hold back," Santo confirmed. It would suck, sure. "It's not like I don't do that every day. And honestly, I don't wanna break anybody or anything that doesn't need breaking, y'know?"
"Appreciated," Noriko assured him, and frowned at the next text from Kitty. She texted back without missing a beat, temper flaring.
At times, Santo could be a bit thick, but he wasn't stupid or completely unobservant. "Everything, uh, okay over there?" he asked, raising a rocky eyebrow.
"Yeah, fine," Noriko answered, hitting send and looking up at him. "We'll figure it out."
"You're right about that," Santo affirmed. "One way or another."
Her phone buzzed again, and the text seemed to have her relax some. She rewrite with one single word, then put the phone down. "Looks like we'll figure it out as we go along."
"Sounds good to me, chief," Santo said with a nod. "So I'll catch you tomorrow, a bit earlier, so we can maybe figure this out? Or am I just gonna show up on time with everyone else?"
"I'll let you know if we can get some time to figure it out beforehand, otherwise just show up on time," Noriko confirmed with a nod. She wasn't very fond of the nickname, but given the earlier wink, she preferred it to some alternatives she had been dreading.
Santo nodded again. "I'll keep my phone sound on." Vibrate obviously did nothing to let him know of anything going on. "And hey, thanks. For giving me a shot." He offered his hand, grinning just a bit.
"We're open to everybody who wants in," Noriko stated, standing up to put her hand in his. She really hoped he had his strength under control, but at least if he damaged anything right then it would be her hand rather than her gauntlet, still lying on the table. "And you very clearly do," she added, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. Yeah, there was no denying Santo's motivation, even if his brand of enthusiasm wasn't one she could relate to.
His strength control was perfect, in this case. His sense of humor, however, might have left a lot to be desired from her, though, considering that the moment they shook hands, his popped off at the wrist, still gently secured around her own. "Oh man, chief, you're stronger than you look!" Santo exclaimed, poorly feigning surprise.
Noriko knew the kind of thing he could do, but her heart still skipped a beat before she realized that no, it was all good, no reason to freak out. She composed herself and awkwardly held the hand back out towards Santo. "Yeah, um. Take that back?"
He couldn't help but chuckle, and the fingers uncurled from her hand and it zipped back to his stump, fastening itself back to his wrist seamlessly. "I'm getting pretty good at that, I think," Santo said, grinning. "Anyway. I'll catch you tomorrow, chief. Gimme a buzz if you need anything."
"See you tomorrow, Santo."
Well, Rankin had convinced him. Not that it had taken much, at least, but Santo decided that obviously one of the "tests" for getting into JVX was actually tracking Noriko down. And rather than use the suggested method of sending her a message via the school's boards, Santo decided to just check more regularly in likely places.
He'd check the gym more regularly, he figured. He'd maybe make a point of wandering near the girl's dorm hall (still not going inside, 'cause seriously guys, rules weren't always made to be broken), and he'd check the cafeteria and the kitchen and whatnot more regularly too, he figured. It wasn't like she was never in any of those places, after all. And Santo figured she probably kept some sort of schedule.
Which was why he totally happened upon her in the kitchen on purpose, and it wasn't some sort of happy accident, even though it was the first time he'd looked since resolving to 'step up his efforts' as it were. Or at least, that was Santo's story, and he was sticking to it.
Noriko could in fact pretty regularly be found in the kitchen. Wielding electricity, for running or otherwise, always left her crazy hungry, and she'd just come in from a run outside. Her light denim jacket was thrown on the back of the chair she was currently sitting in, and she was almost done eating a pepperoni pizza, biting into the slice she held in one hand as she used the other to rearrange her schedule of the next couple of weeks, projected in front of her in 3D, courtesy of her Starkphone. It was lying on the kitchen table, right beside her discarded gauntlets.
But she wasn't so focused on it that she didn't notice the mountain of rock that suddenly filled the doorframe, and the appropriate hand gesture closed the window and shut down the 3D projection. "Hey, Santo," she greeted the other kid, shaking slightly too long blue hair out of her eyes. She needed a haircut, and a new dye; her black roots were showing.
Man, Starkphones were so cool. He was still just really using his for speech-to-text for the message boards and his computer and stuff. But that was beside the point. "Sup, Noriko?" he asked, glancing at the emptied plate. Man, how to just bring this up real smooth-like? "Heard about that thing that went down with your team. Heard it went really well, too." Yeah, smooth.
This was take two, wasn't it. Noriko was grateful that she wasn't prone to big smiles as a rule; it made it easy to curb the ones that wanted to twitch up the corners of her lips. But she might as well let him build up to it. "Yeah, they did good." She still hated that she hadn't been around for it, but they'd managed, and she was seriously proud of them.
And relieved. It could have gone to shit really easily, but they'd managed to bring back Nico, and some intel.
"Can't help but think it might be good to have some more hands on deck, though, eh? Of the bulletproof kind, maybe." To his knowledge, nobody on her team was quite as, well, thick as he was. "Look. I did what you said. Gave it some time. Did some stuff with my squads. Heck, I can drink from a plastic cup, now, no problem." Strength control was in the bag, at this point in time. "I can pop my hands off, control them from a distance, and I even rebuilt my torso after someone smashed it into pieces. I think I got a good handle on stuff, and I think I'd be good for the team." There, he said it. He put it out there, and he hoped that was a good enough sales pitch for his second try.
It had definitely been worth letting him get there on his own, but there was still something Noriko figured she ought to make clear, given the way he was talking about it. She finished her slice of pizza, then leaned back in her chair, watching him evenly. "You realize we're not a team the way Les X-quis are, right? Or even Alpha Flight?"
"Yeah. I get that. But it's a way to start towards something like that, right?" Santo asked. "I wanna be a part of something bigger. I wanna be the best I can, and JVX seems like the best way for me to start that way now and early. Kinda like starting college courses early in school, AP stuff, but I was never that great at school stuff. But that's besides the point," Santo said, getting himself back on track, but letting her get a word in edgewise if she wanted.
"I'm just saying," Noriko got back on the track she'd been on, "it's not about what you can bring to the team. It's about what you can get out of JVX. It sounds like you've got a good control over your powers now, and that means you're in the right place to train with us." Telling him 'later' last time had not been about punishing him - it had been, first and foremost, about keeping JVX safe for everyone in it.
"I get that," Santo affirmed again. "It's the training I want. A piece of the action, if it comes along and I'm chosen for it, is all well and good, too, if it happens." Santo didn't want a disaster for which he was needed; rather, he wanted to be there, ready and able, if a disaster came. "And besides," he grinned, "I bet we could totally take those Alpha Flight scrubs. Just sayin'."
"Well, here's to hoping we never have to," Noriko replied as she stood, to drop her bottle in the trash and grab another energy drink from the fridge. She cracked it open and took a sip, taking a seat again and reaching for her phone. "I'll add you to our calendar. It's intensive training, and we only take people who will commit to that." People who wanted to stick with a slower pace could stick to the squads, and the squads alone.
"You can bet I'll be able to keep up," Santo said, firmly. No way he was backing down from this. "Can't wait to meet the rest of the squad."
"I'll let them know we've got another new member," Noriko confirmed with a nod, her attention on her phone as she called up the school directory to grab Santo's e-mail and share the calendar with him.
Man, even when she was all business, she still managed to be cute. It was going to be pretty awesome, working with her. "Another one?" Santo asked, realizing after a beat what she said. "Anyone else been joining the ranks recently?"
"Vance Astrovik," she answered distractedly, pasted the e-mail in the right field, and confirmed. "There, you should have access now." She'd send an e-mail to everybody in a minute.
"Can't say I know the guy." Vance sounded like a dude's name, at least. He would probably meet him relatively soon anyway. Which would be cool. "Great way to meet new people, I guess. Anyway. We got anything on our plates for today, or what?" he asked, fishing his phone out of his hoodie pocket and fishing around for the calendar access she'd just sent him.
"Tomorrow," Noriko answered. "Danger Room session after class." Which would apparently be about throwing Santo in the deep end and seeing how he managed. She remembered his post about using the DR for, well, recreational purposes, and her brow furrowed a little as her concerns came back. "You can't break it, can you?" Better safe than sorry.
"The Danger Room?" Santo asked, for clarification. "Haven't tried to break it. Can't say I've gotten a lot of opportunities to try to."
"I thought you were all over it for your... frisbee," she settled on. She couldn't remember what sports he'd wanted to play in there, but she liked the image of the rock giant going after a tiny plastic disc, what could she say.
"Yeah, well, when you put a post up and half the responses are people trying to jump down your throat about their precious little piece of technology being used for, god forbid, someone to have fun, it makes you a little reluctant to dive in. Not to mention it's been kinda hard finding people who are actually up for it. I mean, sure, I've had the odd game with folks in there, but nothing really like, super-heavy in terms of me cutting loose full-strength, you know what I mean?" Santo hadn't even found the upper limit on his strength, yet.
"Then we're having a meeting with the techs before you join us in a sim," Noriko stated, and it didn't exactly sound negotiable. The last thing she wanted was to end up damaging the DR. She was already texting Kitty to get her opinion.
That was fine with Santo, really, and he nodded. "Probably a good idea. I'd hate to actually, y'know, break anything." No reason to give the people who'd chewed him out for the idea of cutting loose in the Danger Room with some games further reason to try to keep him from it. Nerds were a weird bunch, in Santo's estimation.
Text finished and sent, Noriko looked up at him. "Yeah, you wouldn't be the only one." They relied on it way too much for their training, and they weren't the only ones.
"Yeah I bet," Santo said with a nod. "Y'know, this sounds kinda funny, but I bet it'd be good for you guys to use me as a training dummy. Or something." Probably shouldn't have left himself so open for insult, but... "I dunno how many of you guys could actually, y'know, take someone like me down."
Her phone buzzed with an answer from Kitty, and her lips pulled down a little for a split second, before she typed a first text, and then a second to answer her. "Yeah, I... have no idea," she admitted, looking back up at Santo. "You don't feel pain, right?"
Santo shook his head. "No pain," he confirmed. No nerve endings helped a lot with that.
"Well, we can look into it," Noriko stated, frowning a little as she thought about how to go about it and yet still ensure Santo's safety. "If you do have a weakness, best if we figure it out together." Rather than out on the field, if he was ever going to see action. Her phone buzzed, and faint annoyance stole across her features before she fired off another couple of texts.
"Full disclosure, biggest weakness is cute girls," Santo replied with a grin.
"As long as you don't let that distract you during training," Noriko replied evenly. She wished they had more girls on the team, actually, but there were fewer girls at school to start with. She figured that might be why JVX was so off balance.
"I'll only show off a little," Santo said, giving a very obvious wink to her.
Noriko's eyebrows raised at the wink, but she was rescued from having to answer by another text from Kitty. She frowned as she read it. "Yeah, looks like Kitty isn't sure what the Danger Room can take from you exactly," she told him as she typed her answer.
"So... that means... what, exactly," Santo asked, wondering if this was going to be the new reason he was denied entry into JVX.
"That we're gonna try and figure it out, and if we can't or we find it's a no-go, you'll have to hold back," Noriko replied pragmatically. Holding back would suck, though.
"I can hold back," Santo confirmed. It would suck, sure. "It's not like I don't do that every day. And honestly, I don't wanna break anybody or anything that doesn't need breaking, y'know?"
"Appreciated," Noriko assured him, and frowned at the next text from Kitty. She texted back without missing a beat, temper flaring.
At times, Santo could be a bit thick, but he wasn't stupid or completely unobservant. "Everything, uh, okay over there?" he asked, raising a rocky eyebrow.
"Yeah, fine," Noriko answered, hitting send and looking up at him. "We'll figure it out."
"You're right about that," Santo affirmed. "One way or another."
Her phone buzzed again, and the text seemed to have her relax some. She rewrite with one single word, then put the phone down. "Looks like we'll figure it out as we go along."
"Sounds good to me, chief," Santo said with a nod. "So I'll catch you tomorrow, a bit earlier, so we can maybe figure this out? Or am I just gonna show up on time with everyone else?"
"I'll let you know if we can get some time to figure it out beforehand, otherwise just show up on time," Noriko confirmed with a nod. She wasn't very fond of the nickname, but given the earlier wink, she preferred it to some alternatives she had been dreading.
Santo nodded again. "I'll keep my phone sound on." Vibrate obviously did nothing to let him know of anything going on. "And hey, thanks. For giving me a shot." He offered his hand, grinning just a bit.
"We're open to everybody who wants in," Noriko stated, standing up to put her hand in his. She really hoped he had his strength under control, but at least if he damaged anything right then it would be her hand rather than her gauntlet, still lying on the table. "And you very clearly do," she added, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. Yeah, there was no denying Santo's motivation, even if his brand of enthusiasm wasn't one she could relate to.
His strength control was perfect, in this case. His sense of humor, however, might have left a lot to be desired from her, though, considering that the moment they shook hands, his popped off at the wrist, still gently secured around her own. "Oh man, chief, you're stronger than you look!" Santo exclaimed, poorly feigning surprise.
Noriko knew the kind of thing he could do, but her heart still skipped a beat before she realized that no, it was all good, no reason to freak out. She composed herself and awkwardly held the hand back out towards Santo. "Yeah, um. Take that back?"
He couldn't help but chuckle, and the fingers uncurled from her hand and it zipped back to his stump, fastening itself back to his wrist seamlessly. "I'm getting pretty good at that, I think," Santo said, grinning. "Anyway. I'll catch you tomorrow, chief. Gimme a buzz if you need anything."
"See you tomorrow, Santo."
