Issue 1 Downtime

After a short bit, Dee walked up with Terra to the restaurant in question.

"Here we are. Stomach still rumbling?"

"A little more now actually," Terra said. "But flying always makes me hungry."

"It's a lesser vice, I suppose," she chuckled and led the way in.

"People tell me I should eat less. Those people usually get a cold stare."

"As well they should. You don't look like you overeat," she said as they were seated.

"Thank you. People are dumb, what can I say?" She shrugged.

"Preaching to the choir, on that one."

"So what's best here?"

"I've rather liked the wonton noodles, the times I've been here."

"That does sound good. So, any unwritten rules I should know about working there?"

"Honestly I'd say the hardest thing you'll have adjusting to is the honest to god superhero shite the campus gets mixed up in."

"I had an easier time of it because I'd worked for Wisdom's spook squad, but the ones that studied under Xavier don't even bat an eye at it. I think the faculty that come from more... mundane backgrounds get a bit of culture shock."

"How you cope with that is your own affair. No two seem to quite manage the same. Some of the reactions are... well, a bit unique."

"Such as?" Terra asked after placing her order.

"I doubt Weaver was prepared for it, honestly."

"How did she react? Wouldn't want to repeat someone's act, you know."

"Well I doubt she quite intended to end up our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but here we are. I'll be over here with my hard sciences, thank-you-very-much."

"Can I join you? I've heard rumors enough to decide that's not really my thing."

"Oh, it's quite nice in the workshop. Things never speak blasphemies in dead languages, or weep blood."

"That sounds like a good place to be then. Give me a good big marker board and I'll be happy."

"And we've those aplenty, so that's settled."

"For my part, I promise not to make things drift around the workshop."

"We don't want to get into power-related pranks," she smirked.

"That would be bad. I could imagine escalation gets out of hand quickly."

"Exactly. Leave that to the students."

"So what is there to do around here when you're not in the workshop?"

"To be honest, that's mostly how I let off steam. Always have. Machines are comforting to me."

"Not a people person or just like machines more?" She leaned back in her chair, altering her tone to be more curious and less gregarious. "If that's not rude to ask."

"Tended to retreat into it quite a bit when I was younger. I've a knack for it, and it's soothing. Part of why they didn't figure out I was a mutant until later in life."

"I retreated a bit myself when my abilities and their side effects started showing up. Eventually got around it, but it wasn't easy."

"In my case, they just started to wonder why I was so good at this shite."

"Well, if you're modifying Stark tech, then you must be really good at it," she said with a chuckle. "I can see why they'd start to wonder."

"Catching Stark's eye came a bit after that," she smirked.

"Yeah, but even to get to that point, you'd have to be really good before hand is all I'm saying."

"Oh, I'm not trying to be modest at all," she chuckled.

"So noted," Terra said with a chuckle.

"Comes a point when you're allowed to be a bit proud of your work."

"I'll have to see this work sometime so that I can be properly impressed."

"At least you can fly. That makes showing off a bit easier."

"I consider it just payment for years of having objects orbit around me and putting up with 'mass' jokes."

"And it means this can go beyond 'Oh that's shiny, what does it do?'"

"Quite. And let me tell you, fooling around with a fundamental tenant of physics really adjusts one's perspective."