Summary:A group of the Young Avengers and friends get together over schwarma for a study session. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
     |
A good number of the Young Avengers are in varying degrees of ongoing education. Some are in college; others pursuing alternatives following a GED. All come from different backgrounds, with different levels of skill and ability.
For Kori, the only thing saving her from despair is the aid of her friends and a diligence bordering on the obsessive. Still, some allowances must be made for space princesses trying to understand a wholly alien biological system.
"Explain to me again why you consider yourself pursuit predators," Kori requests of the little study session. She shoves her notes aside and reaches for her schwarma, hungrily chewing on it. "I know very few humans who can run even a linear mile, let alone enough to chase a prey animal into exhaustion. And your teeth! Wholly unsuited for eating meat."
"Omnivores are more adaptive, less dependent on pure protein, and therefore able to adapt to a wider spread of biomes and temperatures." Sarah says absently from where she's sketching in a notepad as she peers at her laptop. "Though i wouldn't say we're pursuit predators by any means. Our brains are our strength, rather than physical athleticism."
That said, the Apache has been…well. Hovering, just a bit, over Kori since the attack. Part of it is pure guilt that she wasn't there to help…she had no idea that the campus would be the one place some crazed Tamaranean would figure out where Kori was going to be, after all.
But nevertheless, she feels guilty.
Kate Bishop glances up from what she was reading; a completely uneducational magazine. She'd done her studying already but that didn't mean she couldn't come out and socialize or help others. Her feet were kicked up on an empty chair across from her as she leans back in her own relaxing a bit. The magazine is lowered with a thoughtful frown. "These days we aren't," she admits with a rolling shrug. "But back when we had to hunt we were. We wouldn't try to outrun prey. We'd follow it for days wearing it out by following their tracks. And," she adds plucking up a pen from the table to twirl it between her fingers, "We'd use weapons we created to kill, not our teeth."
"Of course that's just what science says recently about us any way. No one really knows how we hunted back then. We're social creatures so could easily have just been in packs."
Pete checks in every so often, even with his classes (which he is currently acing), He feels beholden to Koriandr more than anything else. He feels a little responsible for her education, both her college education and her general education. So, when he gets the message that they are going to the Shawarma Palace, so Peter shows up with his civilian backpack over one shoulder. wearing his usually baggy t-shirt, jeans, and beat-up tennis shoes.
He knows a few people here, but not all of them. He does notice Kori, because she is Noticeable, and walks towards her, raising a hand to wave to her."
Tommy Wisdom was not among the Young Avengers group proper, though he has had associations with three of its members. The young sorcerer teleported himself in an allyway near this eatery after taking a trip to another dimension. What an adventure. Note to self: Do not break a promise to a cyclops.
Anyway.
He enters through the door. He doesn't seem to recognize anyone until he lays eyes on Rainmaker. He remembers her! He even gives her a little wave, uncertain if she remembers him.
Kori spots Peter and a delighted expression crosses her face. "Friend Peter! Your timing is most timely!" She rises from her seat with that unearthly ease that suggests she might be cheating against gravity a little and crashes into him with a trademarked full-body hug. He's twirled once and set on his heels. "I am glad you are the here! We are discussing human evolution," she tells him, and starts trying to more or less drag him towards the table.
"Tamaraneans are omnivorous as well," she tells Sarah and Kate, to pick up the thread of conversation again. She settles into a seat close to Sarah and starts digging out her textbooks from her backpack. "But that is due to a very limited amount of available nutrition on my planet. Our vegetation mostly resembles your fungus and the animal life is terrifyingly efficient at hunting, even for a Tamaranean warrior. Scientists suspect this may be why we evolved our fnorklir receptors."
She bites her schwarma, looks at the others. "Photosynthesis," she clarifies, remembering the English word.
Kate Bishop lifts a hand to wave to Peter in greeting though she doesn't call out. He's already been scooped up by Kori for all the hugs. Kori hugs really were pretty awesome she had to admit, and finds herself grinning at the pair when he's dragged back over. "Hey Pete. We're trying to explain early hunting methods or something." Then Kori says a weird word and she crinkles her nose. "Firko… That sounds Swedish," she determines with a solemn nod. "Wonder if the languages are similar somehow. Nah."
Her gaze skirts past those at the table toward Tommy to nod in greeting to the unfamiliar face. Seemed he knew some of the people here after all. Far be it for her to be rude. Instead she looks back down to the magazine in hand, twirling her pen absently. "You know I bet if you took this dating quiz, Kori, it'd be off the charts."
Sarah hmmms. "The things that let you absorb solar radiation?" she wonders, leaning into Kori just a bit as she settles in close, watching her, then nods to Kate. "I haven't gotten too far along in my biology and stuff for that sort of thing, so I'll take your word on it." she admits. "STill catchign up in a lot of cases." She smiles and waves to Peter and Tommy as she sees them.
Peter is glomped, but he's used to it by now. She does set him on his feet again, and he smiles to her. "Before I start, I wanted to say that I'm glad you're okay, Kori." He looks to the others, then reaches into his backpack and takes out his anthropology text. "I can provide some info on the biological imperatives on hunter-gatherer communities and how they transition from the nomadic hunting archetypes to settling down into the agricultural era." He smiles to the faces he doesn't know. "Uh, hi. I'm Peter Parker."
"How's it going, Sarah? Long time no see." Tommy greets her, before his eyes shift to the other members at the table, namely Pete first. "Hey there." Then he looks to everyone at large. "Tommy Wisdom. Nice to meet you, people-I-Don't-Know." He says that last bit with a sense of humor in his tone.
"…need any help with the studying?" He asks curiously, amusement in his eyes.
"I am so not good at biology though."
"My thanks, Peter," Kori tells him, and his arm's given a pat and squeeze to go with a sincerely grateful smile. "It was most unnerving, but… I am grateful no one was hurt."
Kori twists to look at Tommy when he addresses the group. With great ceremony she walks over and offers him a welcoming hug, though it's perhaps a skoosh less enthusiastic than the one Peter got.
Mostly just minus the twirl, really. "Greetings, friend Tommy Wisdom! I am Kori Anderson, and you are welcome to join us," she declares. Kori's one of those people incapable of modulating the tone of her voice, dulcet though it is.
She returns to her seat and settles into it next to Sarah once more. Seated, her hair almost touches the ground behind her, though weirdly it never seems to stop moving and is never in her way. Kori twists and cranes her neck, moving into Kate's personal space to squint at the words in the magazine. "I don't see any charts, friend Kate," she says, with the reluctant tone of apology one takes when one is sure they're missing a point that's important to a friend.
Kate Bishop wiggles her fingers in Tommy's direction. "Kate Bishop, nice to meet you. Grab some food if you want. I've got the tab." Daddykins did at least but heck if she wasn't going to use the card when she could. "Mm… It's a phrase, Kori," she explains with a grin. She does flip a few more pages over to show the apparent 'results' of the quiz which are in a numerical format. "It means you'd skew the results or not quite fit in what they expect the results to be. It's just for fun anyway. There's absolutely no science about *this* quiz." Nope. Not at all.
"And not much in the way of science at my finishing school either. They expect me to become a proper socialite and get married to someone of a good lineage and all that pukey stuff."
"Didn't expect to see you here, Tommy, but welcome all the same." Sarah says warmly. "Feel free to join us, of course." Pete of course is already joining the groupd. She tilts her head slightly, listening to Kate. "We should see if we could find you a test on pop culture here in…the States, Kori. Might be helpful." she says.
Peter settles in, then pulls out the beat-up-looking laptop and opens it. "Okay, note that unless time travel is used, which is never a good idea, we know what we know based on evidence. Theories are set up and are either proven right with additional evidence, or disproved…so we do what we can, Kori, since development is almost never concurrent, you will need to understand how these processes came about on Earth. Now, we start with the early nomadic tribes that hunted large animals like the wooly mammoth…"
"I'm slowly finding that people don't expect me much anywhere." Tommy tells Sarah with a bit of a wink and fingergun, before suddenly the tall modelesque alien is scooping him up in a hug. "Oof! need…to…breathe!' Then he's released, and he makes a joke of coughing like she was squeezing the life out of him. "Nice to meet you too, Kori." Then he looks to Kate and he smiles. "Nice to meet you Kate. Glad you've got the tab, because I can't afford anything at the moment." he teases her, pulling upa chair.
Then Peter talks.
"Neeeeerd." He whispers.
Kori's eyes start to glaze over almost immediately. Peter means well, but the golden-skinned girl is not the academic sort and definitely more of a tactile, kinesthetic learner. But she nods appropriately when he looks up at her for confirmation, her attention staying with him intermittently and more consumed by the schwarma in front of her.
"You're expected to get married?" she inquires of Kate, trying to murmur (a little) so she's not just speaking over Peter. "Why? You're a warrior. You are better served fighting. Didn't you have any male podlings in your clutch for that purpose?" she asks, sounding baffled.
Kate Bishop points her pen in Peter's direction with a little jab. "Right, like I said, none of us know for sure. Just scientific theory of the whole pursuit predator thing." She does grin a bit and add, "Geek," toward Pete a bit fondly. Everyone had their strong points, and from the sounds of it, academics was his. She wouldn't rag on him too much. Tommy's remark gets a chuckle. "I got a card, might as well use it and let dad pay the bills while I can."
It's Kori's whisper which earns a slow, deep breath as her grin slips just a little. "I'm an only child. The school he has me at does expect that kind of thing, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it. It's just…" she crinkles her nose a bit. "High society doesn't expect much of it's children other than staying rich and marrying other rich people. It kind of sucks."
"Not everyone feels women are worth more than being a baby factory." Sarah mutters, shaking her head slightly as she reaches out to pat Kate's leg lightly. "You're more than that. We know it. No matter what people like that think you should be, you've got talent." She grins. "I mean, you're cute too, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't define you."
Peter looks at Tommy with a wry look. In his head, the part of his brain he calls Stupid Mouth cranks some mental machinery into motion.
*I have a full lab in my basement. I manufactured a drone with a range of twenty miles. I developed a next-generation hip-replacement array for a major company. I have an IQ of 250, with is 17 points below Tony Stark, so there's an excellent chance that, at any moment of the day, I am smarter than you on most scientific subjects."
Slight pause.
"I am the BIGGEST nerd at this table and most others, and I am PROUD OF IT. So,,,we on the same page Tommy?*
Whoops, send that one back to the drawing board. No sense airing THAT one out here.
So he verbally responds instead, "And proud of it, Tommy…Kate…." He looks back to Kori, seeing her eyes haze over. Yeah, he's losing her again. Time to get creative.
He opens the laptop until the screen is facing directly up, and then activates the holo-emitter and taps a few keys, Suddenly, the air above the laptop is populated by ten small humans and a larger mammoth. The hunters are sneaking up on the mammoth from behind. "Tactics are required when dealing with an animal twice the size of an elephant…"
Tommy looks over at Sarah, then to Kate. "Please tell me you don't abide by that. Tell the rich folk to fuck off and do what you want. You only get one life. Make it count by doing what you want, not what everybody else wants.' Tommy the Orphan learned that very early on in life. But then he looks over at Pete as he proudly proclaims that he's the man in the nerd game, Tommy grins.
"I am so not questioning that. You're the nerd." he lifts his hands and a smirk crosses his face.
"Ahem." Kori lifts a finger to get everyone's attention, assuming a posture that positively radiates aristocratic regality. The finger's levelled slowly at Peter to make sure everyone's looking at him— and that probably includes a few patrons of the restaurant, given Kori's inability to maintain a quiet tone of voice.
"Friend Peter is a best friend of mine from the school of highness. And I can confirm what he was dubbed at Midtown: that he is indeed the King of the Nerds," she declares, as solemnly as if she was handing down a royal edict.
Who knows, maybe she just did.
Kate Bishop flashes Sarah a smile, and then nods toward Tommy in agreement. No, she certainly didn't intend to do that at all. Not at all. When Pete agrees he's a nerd she snorts faintly. "Hey don't get me wrong, I'm a straight A student myself, you're just…" He turns the laptop around to display the holographic means of tutoring. "Reeeeally into it. Give me music, dance, fencing or archery any day over calculations. Even if I know how to do them doesn't mean I enjoy it. You clearly do, and that's cool," she assures with a dorky thumbs-up along with a grin that deepens at Kori's declaration. "Well there we have it."
"Everyone's got their own talents." Sarah says simply, eyeing the holographic display, then shrugging a bit. "And I'll totally take you at your word." she adds, but holds up a finger. "However. I know the /queen/ of the nerds. And I would bet she'd give you a run for your money." She grins a bit. "She's a friend from my…high school…." she says, with only a slight pause before saying it. "I just reconnected with her lately. "And not only is she brilliant…she's on par with Kori here for, well…everything else." she says simply.
Peter nods. "Well, now that the honorifics are set, let's focus on the subject at hand. I already tested out of this subject and I am willing to share my notes. But if you have questions, now is the time to ask. Better you get the subject clarified now that have to wing it on the test."
Tommy looks at Kori as she makes her proclamation. He chuckles. "Not questioning it." He teases her. Then he looks to Kate.
He knows that look in her eye. "Good." Is all he says, before he looks to Sarah. "Agreed." he seems to agree that everyone has a talent. But then he falls into a silence. This was now out of his field.
Kori gives Sarah a befuddled look. "On… par? I have heard this word, when talking about the gaming of the golf. But I have never golfed. She surely is much more the par than I am," the Tamaranean points out.
Her attention shifts to Peter and she nods. "Yes, I do have questions," she confirms. "My first one is how Tommy and Sarah know each other! I thought I knew all of Sarah's friends, because all of my friends are also Sarah's friends, and so I thought all of Sarahs' friends are *my* friends, but this is a friend of Sarah's who was not a friend of mine before tonight, so now I wish to know how they are friends," she explains, her tone perfectly matter-of-fact. Those intense, almost luminous green eyes turn their unblinking stare onto Tommy, waiting with patient expectation.
"It's another way of saying 'equal to'…for golf, it's the score you have to match to be 'on par'. For Caitlin, it would mean she's both athletic and beautiful at the same time, much like you." the Amerindian says thoughtfully. "As to Tommy, I met him during a little situation…I hadn't had a chance to introduce him around to anyone as of yet." She motions to Tommy, if he wants to explain the circumstances."
Peter raises an eyebrow. Yeah, definitely not part of the curriculum, but he sits back, tapping the space bar to halt the digital hunt on the laptop. He falls silent, letting Tommy have the floor. He's more of an expert on this subject than he is, anyway.
A brilliant smile crosses Kori's face at the explanation. "More friends are /always/ welcome," she assures Tommy. "Come! Enjoy with us the Schwarma, and the feasting of the lamb," she tells him. "It is a custom of the students f college, and I enjoy the customs of America very much."
With food and drinks in hand, the efforts of studying resume— though as the night winds on, they become more pepperd with joking and good cheer than diligent scholasticism.
Oh well. College is only four years. Friends are forever!