2019-09-10 - Nerdgasm

Summary:

Caden finds out some information about the metal he was investigating for Koa and calls Hank and Illyana in.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Tue Sep 10 04:22:18 2019
Location: Institute - Foyer

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

hank-mccoycaden-prydeillyana-rasputina

The last few mornings had been rough for Caden. Rising early, feeling tired still despite a good solid six or seven hours of rest, still a bit restless. But he didn't let that stop him as he kept on the tail of the strange black and gold metallic object that Illyana and her WAND friends had tasked him with finding out all he could. Which, for the last week, was pretty much nothing. A whole mess of nothing.
Until…
It had been a moment when Caden leaned forward in his computer chair eyes widening as he started to get the feed. Raiding that Russian deep web information depository had brought a lot of intel forth. The likes of which he was still decoding. Though several search strings were triggered and his system alerted him to what turned out to be a great haul.
"Jackpot!" He'd said as he scrolled through the data, then smiled a little, "Oh man, hacker cliche." And then his eyes widen, "Annnd, I'm talking to myself." He grins a bit and then looks in the mirror hanging on the back of his door. Definitely a bit bedraggled, with some bruises and a sharp scratch along his jawline.
Grabbing his phone he shook his head and started to text both Hank McCoy and Illyana. « Hey guys. I've got some stuff you might want to see. Come on by in…» He looked up and crinkled his nose, then typed in, « 30 minutes? If you can. If not we'll catch up soon. »
That done he sends the text, then rolls on up from his desk to get showered and presentable.


Hank replies. «Thirty minutes. I'll be there.» Down in his lab he sets up the final 'brewing' of his stage II trial serum to defur, and then has time to clean up himself, lab work can leave a Beast rather fragrant. Thinking that Caden is probably abusing himself again, he also grabs a plate of sandwiches and some drinks from the cafe, and brings them up with him.

He only knows this because HE does the -exact- same thing. If he didnt't have Cat as his lab assistant he probably wouldn't eat half as much as he does!

A knock at Caden's door. "Mister Pryde?"


It's always something of a tossup as to if Illyana is going to see her text messages or missed phonecalls anytime soon. But it seems that luck is with the Shadowcat, as when he gets out of his shower Illyana is lounging in his bed and flipping through one of the books he's got lying around.

For a change, Illyana isn't in black leather. Today it's worn jeans and simple T-shirt but she's still got those heavy boots on. Laying on her stomach across Caden's bed, her legs are bent at the knees and her feet kick idly back and forth. But they're not on the bed!

"It's open!" Illyana calls out as Hank knocks. She doesn't actually know if it's open.


Emerging from the shower and with a towel around his waist, Caden stops as he espies the Illyana lying in his bed reading his latest issue of Hardware Weekly and likely finding /nothing/ about it very interesting at all. Except maybe for the advert about the RONCO 9000 UTVGA monitor just because it has a particular diabolic mascot to go with it.
"He-hey." Caden says, a smidge disconcerted but then dismissing it as he smirks at her, "Hey Hank!" He calls out louder, "It's open. Nice of you to /knock/ unlike _some_ people." Though his smirk steals any sting from those words. He busies himself by grabbing a quick change of clothes from his chest of drawers, the wooden frames thumping and thunking shut as he gets each bit needed.
"Be right back. But the info is on that USB drive on my chair. Take a gander." He ducks back into the bathroom and shuts the door. And locks it. The weirdo.


Invited in twice and with hands full Hank doesn't even slow down as he effortlessly opens the door with one foot, while balanced on the other. Dressed casually, he's wearing a goldenrod short sleeved shirt, unbuttoned, and black khaki shorts. Comfy!

"Hello Caden, Yana…I come bearing victuals to feed the body, as this project will likely feed the mind."

The sandwiches are roast beef, nice and rare, on an asiago focacia roll, with horseradish, red onion, arugula, /sliced/ asiago, and tomatoes. The drinks? Doctor Brown's cream soda and Root Beer.

A grin to Yana as he sets the food and drink in reach, then head reads up on the data on the drive. "Oh…very interesting. 'White Devil', mm? Curious."


Illyana Rasputina rolls over a bit on the bed so she can read a pen lying over on a nightstand, and then roooolling back so she can start to doodle on the RONCO mascot. They totally got it all wrong. She's helping.

When Caden throws shade her way, she doesn't even look over at him, just smirks and continues with her drawing, shading in the little horns.

When Hank comes in, she perks up. At the food. And that gets her up off the bed. She busies herself with that over looking over the information on the hard drive, because she figures Koa will do the legwork on that. The last bit does get a bit of her attention though. "Devils aren't white. I mean, even if they *were* for some weird reason, they wouldn't *look* white. Dirt, blood, you name it. They wouldn't look white."


It doesn't take long for Caden to finish mopping a towel over his head and throwing on boxers, some athletic shorts, and a black t-shirt, all of it hanging fairly loose as he emerges from the bathroom. He's still pushing his fingers through his hair to give it some semblance of order as he strolls on up and then his eyes widen at the food. "Oh hey,"
That gets his attention right away as he strolls on over and grabs a sandwich. Another. He starts to eat and moves to stand beside the two of them, leaning against his desk with his hip. "Yeah, could be a play off the Cantonese slang term, Gwailou?" He munches and munches, "Might be a hint as to its origin or… who discovered it first? Or maybe they just go through the colors as they assign operational names."
He leans over to grab a bottle of soda, but when it looks like Illyana might be reaching for the same he'll draw back a bit before finding one for himself.
"But to catch you up a little, Hank. Koa Turner is this WAND operative? He had what I think was a sample of that. It was weird. Seemed to react to our powers."


Pleased that the sandwiches were the right choice, Hank munches on one himself, and takes a root beer. "Koa Turner, ah, he's WAND, not really the group I work with, usually I speak with Agent Simmons, she's with among others SHIELD Cyber."

He frowns. "Sadly, Chinese is not one I speak, but I have heard the word Gwailou, yes." A smile. "Yes, that tracks. So…do /you/ have a sample of the substance?" After all, Hank can't analyze what he does not have. "Can't 'science the shite' out of something if I don't have the something in question."


Illyana Rasputina's chewing slows a bit as she watches Caden pause and draw back, before opting for another bottle. One that doesn't come with the risk of touching her.

Booty aquired, Illyana snags a chair and pulls it over so she can at least see the screen while the eggheads talk. "Well, yeah. I don't tend to cause them to pull their hair out quite as much as the WAND types." Illyana jokes. She already makes a few guards froth at the mouth a bit when she just shows up inside the building, skipping the secure entry.


Caden motions toward Illyana with a nod and for a moment tilts his head at her, a faint cloud drifting over his features. But then he shakes his head and murmurs, "We have one? Illy can probably set you up with talking to Koa? Or maybe your Jemma friend?" He extends his legs and crosses his feet at the ankles, still chewing and munching away as they chat.
He smiles across the way to Illyana, and then Hank as he says, "But really I was wanting to know if you've heard of anything similar, or might have any idea where such a thing might come from? I know you hate to offer low data conjectures, but it feels like we're already operating from a pretty low data situation."
That said he takes a swig of his drink and sets the bottle beside him.


Curious at the shifting so as not to touch, Hank looks to Yana, and will, if allowed take her hand a moment, and see what happens.

Because: Curious.

He grins. "Doors are very much overrated…that said I've noticed that government types, in ultra-secure facilities often take a dim view of people just skipping past their defensive measure." He grins even more, before looking very sad. "They did work really hard on them, you know."

"Well, yes, the data points I have to work from are pretty rudimentary. I know of no metals with life-like properties other than Piotr's body, being an organic-osmium steel. Now Doctor Simmons and I have been working with Nick Gleason and others on a number of projects involving an exotic synthetic Vibranium, called Reverbium. It has some similar properties, though not the semblance of life. It is also an extremely powerful mutagen."


Illyana Rasputina's eyes half-close as that cloud slides across Caden's features, watching him from beneath her lashes. Her manner stays calm, and apparently relaxed. The set of her shoulders don't indicate any problems. Poor Hank is sandwiched between the pair of them and their sandwiches.

When Hank takes her hand, Illyana does look over at him with a bit of an arched brow. While the blonde doesn't pull away or seem annoyed, she is a bit amused. Even four long years after the blonde's introduction to Xavier's, the reason Caden got stuck as his mentor is still whispered around the halls. One of the other students touched her without permission and she broke their arm. Caden, being able to phase, was deemed the best choice as she couldn't hurt him.

The question of having heard of anything like it gets a shake of Illyana's head. "Not from me, no. All the realms I'm aware of tend towards a distinct lack of technology. Though I've heard the Asgardians might have techy stuff that just dresses up as magic? I dunno. I mean, there's definitely magic around some of them."


Chewing on his lower lip, Caden uses the moment of reflection as a refuge to shift his gaze away and distantly toward the wall. He then glances back at both of them and murmurs, "Beyond my ken then I think, though will you get this information to Koa, Illy?"
He leans over and takes up another thumb drive he'd prepared off of his desk since he did call both of them. He extends it towards her, "Can you take data drives through Limbo? That'd be interesting to examine some time." His thoughts drift away for a short instant as he considers that then leans back and smiles to the both of them.
"But feel free to grab that one in the computer, Hank. But be sure to eject it from the control panel or else it could explode!" A beat, "Ok not really, but still."


Relieved that Yana didn't trigger an explosion, or shunt them into a strange otherworldly adventure - those are fun. Just a hand. He grins at her. "I was just curious, thank you for not breaking my arm." A wink. "I have to use it later, many of my lab projects suffer if I'm down a limb."

He looks a interested at the Asgardian link. "Oh, that sounds interesting, I have never seen any Asgardian tech, that would be a fascinating thing to study." Nerd much? Why yes! Yes he does.

Hank laughs at the 'splody. "Your thumbdrive,Hank…should you choose to accept it…" He can't help but chuckle a bit, and then properly eject the drive. "Oh…oops…" He looks mildly alarmed. "Caden, it won't hurt anything if I use an elevated command prompt to deltree *.* /u, will it?" Yeah, nerd humor.

And no, he did not actually do that.


Illyana Rasputina gives Hank a Look. "What am I, fourteen?" She gives him a wink. That sort of reputation isn't one you can hide from, and Illyana's never really been the hiding sort. Unless you count hiding from Belasco, but that's way different.

The blonde leans across the blue furry one to accept the drive from Caden and nods. "Yeah, sure thing. I've gotta pick him up so he can sleep at my place anyhow. And it should be OK. If it spent a lot of time there, it might be an issue, but solid state drives are pretty inert and seem to do OK." Unlike her phone, which needs replacing constantly. Illyana blames the mail deamons.

The demon queen just rolls her eyes a bit at the nerding. That's a verb, right?


"Hank, 'Jerkface', McCoy." Is Caden's oh so clever come back, though he does lift a finger in mock warning towards the man. He finishes one sandwich and then keeps on with the other, even going so far as to scoop up a triangle of another sandwich, because hungry and good. So good.
"I don't suppose you guys need to tell me what you find out since in this I'm only data retrieval, but I'm curious so if you think it's prudent, keep me in the loop guys. Ok?"
When Illyana accepts the drive, Caden bobs his head as well, "Alright, speedy delivery then and all." To minimize the potential for corruption. Of course then he clears his throat and looks at Hank, then back at Illyana. "Oh you and Koa are dating now?" He asks a little /too/ casually as he then ahems, "I mean that's great. If you are. He seems like a good guy."
A beat, "Very. Shoulder-ly." He makes a gesture out to the sides. Yes Koa has shoulders. "But cool. Cool. So yeah, don't let me keep you guys too long." He snares another sandwich and a soda.


Nerding is totally a verb! Very much so, though with the sheer concentrated nerdnossity in this particular room? Seriously…EITHER Hank or Caden is enough to nerdify most normal rooms, and nerdnossity is is logarithmic! So having BOTH of them in the same room is risking nerdobaric explosion!

"Oh, at least." Hank agrees with the fourteen, eyes glittering with teasing light.

The sleepover plans, don't initially phase Hank, he's pondering the data on that drive again, replaying it his nearly perfect memory.

"Doctor Jerkface to you, Mister Pryde." He says with an arch look, and finishes his sandwich before Caden steals it too. "Absolutely though, I'll see what I can come up with." It is Pryde's clear discomfort that brings the sleep over thing to mind again, and then looks between him and Yana, then from Yana to Caden, then wisely stands. "Well, actually, I could head back to my lab…let you two talk, mm?" He picks up the now empty plate as he stands. "Great to see you both." Hank's grin is broad, bright and very honest. Fond of his friends is the Hank.


Illyana Rasputina hasn't tucked into her food with quite the same ravenous gusto that Caden has, so she's still chewing on it as he asks the oh-so-innocent question. "Dating?" Her brow furrows and she gives a hrumphing frown.

"No. But he's sleeping in my bed." More chewing, and then she blinks and looks between them. "In Limbo." Ok, yeah, that doesn't seem to have cleared anything up for them. She looks between them both. "Because Wards?" Oh yeah. That'll totally clue in the tech-nerds.


"Dr. JF, Esquire. Of the New Hampshire McCoys. The third." Caden's smile is genuine and wry as he walks with Hank and gives him a pat on the back, "And thanks for the sandwiches and everything, I sometimes forget to eat." Which is true, and he's more than making up for it now, considering.
He'll pause long enough to ask, "Did you get this stuff from Whole Foods? It was really good." Even as he's munching on the third one thoughtfully.
Back toward Illyana, "Oh right. Wards. For like, magical reasons." Caden's head bobs a few times as if that made total sense. In any case, "I'll see ya, Hank."


Actually, Wards he knows - not from the real world, from D&D, and of course the Deryni books by Kurtz. "Oh, um, sure…your bed in Limbo. Under wards. Got it." Hank grins and knows that Yana is actually trying to be helpful, so he simply accepts.

"Illinois, actually…born in Dundee." Hank grins. "The bread is from Panera, actually, the vegies were from Whole Foods, and I cooked the beef myself." And with that he bows deeply to both his friends, and then backs out the door to exeunt stage left.


Illyana Rasputina is just now finishing the sandwich and she waves to Hank as he leaves. No actual 'thank you', but Hank was likely around for allll four years of her time at Xavier's and knows that 'please and thank you' just never really made it into Illyana's vocabulary.

Once Hank is gone, Illyana slooooowly shifts her gaze over towards Caden, reaching for her drink and taking a long swallow. While still watching him. "My bedroom is one of the most warded rooms in my Citadel. I don't like uninvited company."


"That makes sense," Caden says as he steps back over and pulls his chair back away from its bank of monitors. His hand curling around the handle of it as he draws it away. Then he drops down into it and swivels to the keyboard. "Umm, feel free to stick around if you want." He says, as if she needed his permission. Or would recognize such a thing as personal space or property.
Taking another bite of his sandwich he starts to tap away at the keyboard a little, chewing on his lower lip thoughtfully as he does so. For a moment he seems about to embark on making a few edits to a script he intends to run. But then his eyes lower, and he espies her reflection in the sheen of the monitor.
He smiles and then swivels in the chair to face her, "I'm sorry, I'm being a jerk." Caden uncurls his hands in her direction and murmurs, "I've been… having a hard time sleeping lately." His eyebrows rise as his gaze slips to the side while he shakes his head.
"Just been having really… weird dreams." Not entirely bad since that would be dishonest. He looks back to her, "And you were in them, so I've been all…" He lifts his hands and flares his fingertips as if he was tossed to the four winds.
Then back to her, "So. Yeah."


Illyana Rasputina sets her bottle down and, as Caden turns towards her she steps over and leans back so she's perched on the edge of his desk. It would definitely be awkward to try to type now. She's close enough she could probably lean to the side and slide into his lap. She crosses her arms before her as he mentions trouble sleeping.

And her first reaction is not amusement, though some of that has pervaded her manner up until now. Now there's a narrow-eyed concern. "Nightmares?" After all, that Lord of Dreams is already being a thorn in her side.

She seems to relax a bit when he says 'weird'. "So… *not* Nightmare then? I mean, my bed is big enough that both you and Koa would *fit*." She looks thoughtful, her gaze going a bit distant. The frown eases from her features and there's a long moment before she gives herself a bit of a shake and looks back to him. "Sorry. Mind wandered. So… dreams?"


"Not nightmares, per se." Caden turns in his seat, sitting up a little more and causing the office chair to creak with a metallic complaint. He opens a hand to her and then draws it back to fold across his chest with the other. Bright hazel eyes meet hers as he murmurs, "Just weird. I doubt there's anything mystical with it." There is.
But then he gives her a small snort and says simply, "You're incorrigible." And not for the first time that he says this.
"Just you know how like sometimes… you have a dream? And someone is in it? And you wake up and you're all, 'grrr I'm mad at this person for being a jerk in my dream!' even though you know how inane that sounds?"
His smile is gentle as he tries to explain himself, and perhaps in so doing also helping himself with it. "But you still have that vague sort of vibe? So yeah."


Illyana Rasputina's brows arch up at that, and her tone is dry. "I was a jerk in your dream? Hmmm, must be loosing my touch. I can usually hit straight bitch." The blonde winks at him, her worry easing. "If they turn into something that seems more troublesome, let me know. That thing a while back, when Sam and I were stuck in the Dream Realm? Apparently she has a bigger, angrier daddy who is sorta pissed off so… Nightmares are an actual real issue at the moment." Well, just for Koa. Because he's really good at not giving up the names of his friends to suffer in his stead.

The blonde turns a bit more towards Caden then, her leg brushing against his with the rough touch of denim. "So. Do I call you names or something?"


At first he responds with that same joviality and smile, holding up a hand with fingers a bare width apart. "Just a little bit of a jerk." Considering what was done, that's a rather… generous statement. "But I don't know. I don't think it was… there was no big bad driving things." Other than her, but that's a bridge too far for him to speak to. At last right now.
Instead he says with a smile even as her leg brushes his. She can see the slight color touching just the tips of his ears, and he does swallow. But other than that he does a good job of hiding the effect she has on him. Especially considering the way he saw her the last time they were together.
"No, just. Limbo…" He shakes his head and looks up and past her, "Demons and things. And I was confused and you weren't helping me. And I tried to… ask you for help. But you were intent on…"
It's then that his breath catches a little at the sense memory and he murmurs, "Other things."


"Don't you *dare* call me 'nice', Caden Pryde. You'll ruin my reputation! What will all the other hell lords think?" The latter might not be a title she's used for herself around him. She doesn't usually say she's a 'queen' or 'lord', just that she 'rules' Limbo.

Of course, Illyana catches the flushing at the tips of his ears, leaning in and over to the side so she can trace a fingertip along the edge of his ear. Personal space? What's that? "Caden," She murmurs, and he can *hear* the smirk in her tone. "Are you *blushing*?"

She leans in just a bit further so she can speak softly into his ear. He can pick up those familiar scents. Smoke and cloves. "You sure there's nothing you want to share with me?"


That causes that flush to grow, darkening the young man's pale features as she drifts that fingertip along the curve of his ear, as if guided by that slow languid caress in such a way that it reaches his cheek, the curve of his shoulder, the hollow of his ear. Warm at the touch, and then he swallows as he tries to maintain focus. And deniability.
Turning his head toward her he smiles a little and then tries to make light with a little laugh as he says, "Heh. Well," He faces her directly and his blue eyes flit between her own, as if seeking some hint that she might know more than she's letting on.
"We did kiss. And it was… really nice." There, that is close to the truth enough, but also safe enough to admit to a long time friend.


"Blushing over a kiss, Pryde?" Illyana clucks her tongue at him. Of course, is that really much of a surprise? Caden was always megaubernerd and wasn't always being chased after in high school.

The blonde demoness has leaned back, giving him a bit more of his space and the whole 'cat that ate the canary' smirk says she knows OH so much more than him. If any of it's relevant to his current buzzing thoughts? That's a lot harder to tell.

Finally, Illyana pushes off from his desk and stands, pointedly picking up the drive to give to Koa. "I should get going. Let me know if you… need anything, Pryde." Just as she's about to move by him, she reaches out to catch his chin with a fingertip, making him crane his neck to look over at her as she leans in close enough her lips brush against his cheek. "I assure you, there's nothing 'nice' about me." He can feel the curve of her lips into a smile and then she's leaning away and a stepping disk is teleporting her out.

Leaving Caden all by himself in his room. Again?


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License