(DTwk2/weekend) Meeting The Cleaver Family.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Tink opened the little white gate that marked the entrance to her mothers rose garden, the cobble stone pavers led through an immaculately kept area to a neat and tidy cottage with a Collie sitting on the front stoop. Full size for this rather large moment Tink took Cal's hand in her own and gave it a squeeze.

"Ready?"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal looked around, taking all of it in. Very, very different from his family's home, in a sort of pleasant way. The smooth metal skin of his hand traced over the gate as he squeezed her hand with the other. For once, he was ignoring the myriad forms of information pouring into his mind from the various sensors and information sources and was focusing solely on the cottage ahead of them. "Yeah, as I'll every be," he answered, nodding.

[Trinity Cleaver]

A tiny bundle of woman, rather rotund for her size, came barrelling out of the house in an apron. Here was the matriarch of the Cleaver clan in living colour. Her grey hair was set in curlers and she seemed to bustle rather than walk anywhere, she eyed the pair at the gate, her hands flying to her chest and mouth in glee as tears sprang to her eyes.

"Oh, Trinity love, you are a sight for eyes!" The womans accent was thick and she hurtled towards them like a frieght train, intent on scooping them up and fussing over them. Tink gave Cal a very stern look of warning that he best never use her name EVER before taking a half step forward.

"Mammy! This is Cal, Cal Strong."

[Calvin Strong]

Cal resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the glare, but was prevented from really giving it any more thought by the presence of her mother and his introduction. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Cal answered with a broad smile that was only slightly forced through his nervousness as he offered her his (real) hand.

[Trinity Cleaver]

"So good to see you! You are practically skin and bones, Calvin! We will need you to feed you!"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal couldn't help chuckling a little. "It's the school food. Practically starving us, they are," he joked.

[Trinity Cleaver]

"Father! Father! Trinity is here and she has that Calvin with us, the one she talks about so much!" Mrs C turned and called over her shoulder in the same instant she pulled Cal and Tink towards her in a strangling group hug.

A lean and tall man in glasses and a button down sweater, book in his left hand, came out of the cottage with a much more sedate gambol then the hazardous Mrs Cleaver, it was obvious that this was the man whom tall and willowy Trinity resembled and shoving herself free from her mother Tink catapulted towards him. Struggling to hide his delight the gentleman forced a frown onto his face and hugged his daughter before pushing her away and righting himself.

"Trinity, manners are necessary, the way we act reflects thoroughly on our parents and we should always treat them with honor, should we not?" He chastised gently though it was clear that it was a very half hearted put down.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal was caught off guard as he was pulled into the hug, but took it in stride rather well. He watched as Tink went to greet her father, smirking as he watched her jump him. "So... she gets her enthusiasm from your side, I take it," he joked to her mother as he watched the procedings.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Beaming with obvious joy at this statement she bustled him inside the front door, Tink following arm in arm with her father, delighted at being home again.

"Lunch is just ready, take a seat and let me serve up! She pushed him through a foyer area with hat stand and boots, a few family pictures and bustled away through a doorway. To one side was the entrance into the comfortable lounge room with plush seats and photoframes over a fireplace. Books lined the walls and there didn't appear to be a television. To the other was a formal dining room, the place indicted by their hostess and laid out with excessive amounts of good home cooking.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal's eyes swept over everything, simply filing it for analysis later when he had the time. He politely headed in the direction showed and took a seat at the place indicated to him, thanking when appropriate and feeling more than a little herded and out of his depth, but deciding that he was coping pretty well.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Just as Cal was starting to feel a little at ease the front door burst open and a rucus of maledom entered. Large, rugby player types came hurtling through in a storm of laughter, shouts and caterwauling. The largest was as dark as Tink had been fair, with dark eyes and a ruddy complexion - here stood Abraham, to his left and very nearly as tall was the blonde Caleb, to his right and tucked into a choke hold that saw him sputtering in good humored indignation was Elijah - as ginger as they come. All three were very handsome and when taking ino consideration Tink's own fair form there was wonderment as too nature of the seed of such humble folk as Erasmus and Joan Cleaver.

[Calvin Strong]

"I knew I was missing a complicating detail," Cal muttered, getting ready to stand up for introductions.

[Trinity Cleaver]

All three paused as the crossed the threshold into the dining area and there eyes alighted on the firecracker perched on the edge of her chair. With a cry of excitement Tink was out of her chair and shot across the room, randomly leaping into awaiting arms. Exclamations of surprise and excitement issued forth in thick Irish accents and Mrs Joan Cleaver tutted to herself over the state of the rug under the boys feet.

It was Caleb that descended on Cal first, his eyes narrowed into slit as he assessed the youth.

[Calvin Strong]

Hell. Okay, remember the deal, no using powers. Cal stood up, offering his (real) hand while Tink was still busy pouncing her other brothers. "Hi," he said, "I'm Cal. Calvin Strong."

Code: Select all

Threat analysis:  High probability of intimidation-level extreme hand squeeze.  Nullifying pain receptors in hand.

[Trinity Cleaver]

The hand that gripped Cal's was surprisingly gentle though firm and the inclination of the head and cordiality of manners belied the look in the eyes. These boys had been brought up well.

"Arh'm Caleb, You must be Calvin." the voice was a gentle rumble.

[Calvin Strong]

"Good to meet you, Caleb," Cal said, shaking his hand an not letting his guard down.

[Trinity Cleaver]

It wasn't so much Caleb that Cal should have been paying attention to but dark and broody Abe who appeared behind Cal a silent menace. Towering over the boy's shoulder he was at least a foot taller than any of the other family members. Once again the mind boogled at how the pudding-esque Mrs Cleaver birthed such beings.

Scooping an arm around Cal and hoisting upwars, Abe was soon joined by his brothers in a good natured wrestling with the new lad.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal was, he knew from the start, outmatched. There were, after all, three of them, and they were bigger than him. On the other hand, Cal had computer-enhanced reflexes and years of wrestling experience, and knew every semi-shady-but-not-illegal move in the book (or rather, off the books), which he immediately started putting to good use. The brothers all had the upper hand... but Cal was determined that they weren't going to have an easy time of it.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Joan Cleaver surged to her feet with an outraged squeal even as Tink flew into the melee to 'save' her boyfriend. Beating at the boys with her fists Tink pushed them all away from each other with a barely supressed smile while her mother, whom had been so diligently swatting at them with her tea towel, grew pale and grabbed for her daughter's arms with indignant hisses about ladylike behaviour.

The boys rolled themselves into their seats, hats taken off and shoved in laps, chuckling to themselves a moment longer before falling into a semblance of civility. Joan deposited Tink back in her chair without ceremony and a little shoving before sweepng magisterily back into her own, the room grew silent and reverent in stark contrast to the tussle of a moment before.

Erasmus hadn't once moved from his seat, his hands folded on the table as he swept grey eyes across those assembled and now, without pause, his gentle tones launched into the dinner prayer.

[Calvin Strong]

"Lucky they saved you," Cal muttered good-naturedly as he, too, returned to his seat.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Tink slipped her hand into Cal's lap as soon as the prayers were over, giving him a sideways glance as her fingers stroked along his thigh, a teasing light in her eyes even as her brothers fell to their food.

"So Cal, Tink tells us your some big shot hero, eh?" Came a rumble from one of the brothers.

[Calvin Strong]

"Don't know if I'd go as far as 'big shot,'" Cal admitted, figuring that 'I just like a fight' wouldn't go over too well with her parents. "I do what I can. People tell me that I'm pretty good at it."

[Trinity Cleaver]

"I saw footage of you with some big monster thing, they said you lost your arm or something!" Elijah offered with a grin, he was shot down with a look from his mother and he smirked sheepishly.

"What? I googled him!?"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal blinked. "I come up on Google?"

HAL, I come up on Google?

Code: Select all

Researching.  Linking YouTube video.

"Holy crap, I come up on Google. And I have no idea how anyone got ahold of that footage." I don't even have that footage. God damn. "But yeah... that thing was a b- that thing was pretty tough. And yeah, I lost my arm," he answered, unconsciously flexing his metal fingers.

[Trinity Cleaver]

"Elijah interned at Stark." Tink offered helpfully around a mouthful of potatoes as her mother died of horror at Cal's language, her fingers teasing and stroking his thigh.

Eli nodded eagerly.

"I'm studying nanotech and mech principles at present, I'd love to take your arm apart sometime.."

Joan Cleaver spluttered as Erasmus patted his wife's hand gently.

"Please don't offer to take our guests apart at the dinner table, Eli."

[Calvin Strong]

"Yeah, we'll talk about taking me apart after dinner," Cal said. "Although the eyes might be more interesting. And I have extras of those."

Code: Select all

Behavioral analysis: refraining from the phrase-

I get it, HAL. Cool it.

[Trinity Cleaver]

Dinner passed with small talk and pleasantries, each member of the family deciding that they quite liked this young man and most especially in comparison to the likes of Wingnut. Abe regalled them with stories of his wife Elizabeth and their horde of children, Caleb was a quiet man who worked and owned the local garage, Elijah was a student and nearly finished his degree.

All had made time to come home to see the family darling who held court as if it was her birthright, telling tales of the tame life she lived at XU. Cal would be surprised by how honest she was about their adventures though she did fail to mention anything close to physical intimacy.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal, for his part, wasn't one to keep quiet about their various adventures, either, watching his language after that first evident slip and obviously never mentioning anything to offend the sensibilities of a minister and his wife.

[Trinity Cleaver]

After dinner Erasmus asked Cal to join him in his study for a moment. The serious faced yet gentle man indicated a chair and took his own, pulling out a pipe and lighting it carefully.

"Forgive a man his one vice." Erasmus indicated his tobacco.

[Calvin Strong]

"Everyone's allowed at least one, I think," Cal said good-naturedly, taking the indicated seat.

[Trinity Cleaver]

"And what would you say Yours is?"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal considered that carefully. "Chaos," he finally answered.

[Trinity Cleaver]

"Creating it?"

[Calvin Strong]

"Creating it, fostering it, participating in it, and enjoying it. In non-destructive and usually humorous forms whenever I have any say in it."

[Trinity Cleaver]

"Ah yes... Trinity told us about the time you glued her roommates furniture to the roof and tricked them into believing they had mutated a new power during the night. Very amusing." Erasmus tapped the bowl of his pipe.

[Calvin Strong]

Cal couldn't help smirking at the memory. "I can look at anything and know how things will probably turn out based on the probabilities and history," he said. "Somtimes... it just helps to make the unpredictable happen."

[Trinity Cleaver]

"I suppose life would get very boring, wouldn't it?" He nodded, studying his shoe carefully before looking up at Calvin.

"Will you die, do you suppose?"

[Calvin Strong]

Cal shuddered at that thought. "God, I hope so."

[Trinity Cleaver]

"Do you believe in the soul?"

[Calvin Strong]

"On good days," Cal answered.