Timelined after Little Talks
<@Pietro> So the blocks were for the twins but they still had about two months of baking left to do before they'd even see them never mind be able to use them and two sets was great for practicing. He put them all in a box and threw them into the air alternately arranging them by colour, in alphabetical order or separating out the vowels before they hit the ground.
<@Pietro> The rec room had several unexpected obstacles to this task but it was all helpful even if it meant he had to climb some of the furniture at high speed to rescue one from the light fitting or the top of a cupboard.
<Cecilia> Cecilia made her way downstairs. She had just had a very frustrating afternoon trying to solve equations and now she was ready for some R&R with Crash Bandicoot.
<Cecilia> Cecilia walked in, only to see colourful blocks flying in the air. "Uh, hi? Is it lego time already?"
<@Pietro> Pietro arranged the blocks in little triangle shapes on the table and looked over at the door. "Oh... hi... I thought everyone would be in classes." He gave a grin, "I don't think we've met, he walked over to her and held a hand out to her to shake, "Pietro Maximoff."
<Cecilia> "Cecilia Reyes," said Cecilia, shaking his hand. "Do you know Bobby? Cause I think I might have heard you know Bobby."
<@Pietro> He nodded, "I do... why?" That was an odd question to ask. Everyone knew Bobby... at least he thought they did. Back to the blocks before he accidentally blew something up.
<Cecilia> Cecilia shrugged. "I just wondered. I just heard the two of you were in the same boat. Expecting fathers and all that," she smiled. "Congratulations by the way."
<@Pietro> He nodded, "Yeah we are..." he smiled, "Hence blocks to play with... yes I know they're for children." Up in the air they went again and were arranged in alphabetical order in two neat rows on the table.
<Cecilia> Cecilia grinned and picked up a few letters. "It's okay, they are brightly coloured." She spelled 'cat.'
<Cecilia> "So, excited? Nervous? All of the above?"
<@Pietro> "Mostly the second one." He sat down, "Twins is a lot to think about for the first time around."
<Cecilia> "Whooof! Twins!" Cecilia laughed. "You're gonna have you're hands full, yeah."
<Cecilia> "What's got you so nervous then?" She added. "If you want to tell me that is..."
<Cecilia> "It's just...Sorry, maybe I'm too nosy...I wanna be a doctor so...Hence my nosyness..."
<@Pietro> "Oh no, it's fine... you live here long enough you get used to people asking awkward questions... especially when you're me." he gave her a smile, raking his fingers through his white hair, "I didn't have a very good example growing up of how to be a father so I'm not sure I'll be that great at it... but that aside there's the paranoia too." He frowned.
<Cecilia> Cecilia smiled. "You're not your father though. You're a different person. Who your parents are doesn't define you. As for the paranoia...well, I'm not sure you'll ever not worry about your kids or your wife but things will settle down a bit. Well, that's what I tell myself!"
<Cecilia> "So far things haven't quite worked out that way."
<@Pietro> "Well I'd believe that if the world showed a chance of letting mutants thrive on their own but I've done my best to make everything safe at home, that's all I can do." He gave a helpless shrug. "And I'm already plenty like my father for that not to work... but thanks for trying." He offered a kind smile.
<Cecilia> "Yeah," said Cecilia sadly. "Seems like they never give us a break...You're registered? Or no?"
<Cecilia> "I'm not. I didn't see a reason to bring more discrimination down on myself."
<@Pietro> "Well I am and I'm not. I'm registered as human... not that it really matters with the people I know." he glanced to the kitchen, "I'm hungry. Can I get you anything?"
<Cecilia> "Maybe some pop? If you're going anyways."
<@Pietro> "That's all? No food? You'll waste away!" He gave a grin and got up to go to the kitchen, inclining his head to signal that she could follow if she wanted - it was only the next room over after all.
<Cecilia> Cecilia got to her feet. "Nah, I'm good. I don't like to eat between meals. So... what's your profession?"
<@Pietro> "I'm a geneticist." It was best to be honest. "Been doing that a few years now... carrying on my father's work though not in quite the same vein."
<Cecilia> "Wow and you took that long to tell me what you do?" She laughed. "That sounds fascinating!"
<Cecilia> She caught the father reference again. "Who's your father? If you don't mind my asking," she added.
<@Pietro> "His name was Magnus Maximoff... he spent a long time researching the mutant genome... mapping it and trying to match mutations to make them better or easier to control..." He went to the fridge, "Any particular kind of soda?"
<Cecilia> "Coke?" Said Cecilia. "Please."
<Cecilia> "I don't think I've ever heard of him...That sounds...interesting..."
<Cecilia> Truthfully she was thinking more about Essex in that moment but she decided not to say anything.
<@Pietro> "Regular? Diet? No sugar?" He held up all three varieties. "It is interesting... his methods just sucked. It's better now."
<Cecilia> "Regular's fine, thank you." She frowned. "Methods???"
<@Pietro> He put the other two away and set her choice on the table before going back to the fridge to pull out things to make a snack. "Yeah... they involved testing his ideas out... on actual people."
<Cecilia> Cecilia flinched. "My god...Please tell me he didn't work for Essex..." She felt sick.
<@Pietro> He shook his head, "No. He worked for himself... well the goverment but you get the idea." He elbowed the fridge closed and moved to the stove. "He did take kids from the school one time though... myself and two friends."
<Cecilia> "The government?!" She stared at her cola. "I don't get the government...They have SHIELD which seems okay, but then they have things like that! What am I supposed to believe?"
<Cecilia> "Why should we believe anything they say?"
<@Pietro> "Well..." he chopped vegetables for stirfry at high speed while he waited for the pan to heat up. "My father did start out with good intentions. Volunteers, helping the ones with unstable mutations to get better control... but it got corrupted somehow..." he shook his head.
<Cecilia> Cecilia shook her head. The path to hell is paved with good intentions... "That is a noble cause, I guess..."
<Cecilia> "What do you think of all this curing business?" she asked.
<@Pietro> "I... think it's bullshit.... but that's just my professional opinion." He cast her a smile over his shoulder. "And yes, the cause was noble... and I could agree with that side of it... it was just later that I had a problem with. I've read all his research..."
<Cecilia> "I think it's bullshit too," said Cecilia. "We are not a disease. I am not a disease. The only way I could even see it working is gene knockout therapy but that could easily just kill us as 'cure' us."
<Cecilia> "I mean? Who's to say these mutations aren't integral to our survival? Couldn't removing them do some sort of permanent damage?"
<@Pietro> "They could... but that's the thing... they're hardwritten into our dna. You can't just pull bits out of your genetic code. They can block it - we've done it here with patches but... they're saying this is different... but what are they putting in there instead?" He shook his head. "I just don't buy it. It's some kind of trick."
<Cecilia> "They could be poisoning them instead...." Cecilia said. "Or infecting them with an STD that sterilizes them. You know the Tuskagee Syphllis Experiment? They might be doing that..."
<Cecilia> "Oh, god...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."
<@Pietro> He pulled a face, tipping the chopped vegetables into the wok. "No, it's fine... it's been in my head too." he prodded the vegetables with a wooden spoon. "I wouldn't put it past them to try something like that."
<Cecilia> "I'm sorry...I'm just paranoid..." said Cecilia. "It comes from four years of hiding. I acutally thought Mrs. Drake and Ms. Salvatore were feds when they came to recruit me."
<Cecilia> "I guess...I've just been thinking about it a bit. I've been asked a lot if I like being a mutant here...It makes me worry that if this cure works...I might lose it..."
<@Pietro> "A little bit of paranoia is healthy," he added noodles and some sauce. "It could save your life one day."
<Cecilia> "I guess it might," she said. "It certainly saved me from registration at any rate."
<Cecilia> "How exactly do you get a human status??" Cecilia asked. "Do you have to have money???"
<@Pietro> "Oh yeah, when they first introduced the registration act it came with a free mutant killing virus so.... good call." he nodded. "And the school has ways you can register as human if you want to, you just have to ask. I could even do that for you."
<Cecilia> Cecilia nodded. "It might be useful in the future...If I get into medical school I'll almost certainly be tested, plus if I ever want to travel I'll have to be tested."
<Cecilia> "You'd help me? That's really nice of you..."
<@Pietro> He nodded, "It's no big deal. I have all the neccessary equipment at the lab." Mmm food. He tipped his lunch onto a plate. "I may as well do what I can to help fellow mutants otherwise what's the point?"
<Cecilia> Cecilia grinned. "I like your attitude." She eyed the wok. "Thai? Stir-fry?" She guessed.
<@Pietro> He nodded, "Yep. It's a good snack." He turned off the stove and sat down.
<Cecilia> Cecilia laughed. "Snack? I could eat that for a week! I eat like a bird."
<@Pietro> "I used to.... then my mutation manifested and now I eat like a horse.... or several horses." He sighed. "It's a good thing I don't have to worry about money or my appetite would be a problem."
<Cecilia> Cecilia smiled. "Must be interesting to move so fast. You get a lot done."
<@Pietro> "Oh yeah... but it's a nightmare... imagine being able to do everything at an accelerated rate. All the time. Seeing everything in super slow motion... it's a lesson in extreme patience.... and I don't sleep anymore."
<Cecilia> "Oh...I never thought of it that way..." said Cecilia. "I guess I should've thought though. Everyone says the same about my shields. 'Oh you can take a bullet!' But I still feel the pain of every impact."
<Cecilia> "Powers...they can sometimes be a burden."
<@Pietro> "They can... mind if I ask... what's the pain like? Where do you feel it? In your head or physically on your body?" He couldn't help his natural curiosity.
<Cecilia> Cecilia thought for a moment. "Both. I mean, I can feel it in my body but from what Dr.McCoy tells me it's psychosomatic. I'm just creating pain where there is none..."
<Cecilia> "It feels very real. Sue gets the same problems, she told me she used to pass out from a tap to her shields."
<@Pietro> He nodded understandingly, "Have you tried... changing the density of your fields to absorb the impact?" Noodles were so good.
<Cecilia> Cecilia nodded. "Sue's teaching me. I'm just...it's a slow process. Sometimes when I don't think about it I get blindsided. "
<Cecilia> "I'll find a way though," she said. "I have to."
<@Pietro> "Of course you will. You're in just the right environment now," he smiled, "They'll help you and from what I hear she's pretty good with hers now. Hard to imagine she only realised she could do that a year ago."
<Cecilia> Cecilia felt a bit better hearing that. "I've had mine for four. I just never used them." Cecilia nodded. "She is a good teacher. I'm...grateful-" jealous "-for her."
<@Pietro> "She'll take care of it, it's the best option you have - there isn't anyone else here with powers like yours and she did all the trial and error herself."
<Cecilia> "Truesay," she said. She eyed some of the Thai. "There still some for an extra person?"
<@Pietro> He laughed, "I suppose I could spare some," he got another plate for her and tipped some food onto it. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you had an extra meal."
<Cecilia> "My secrets-revealed!" Cecilia laughed.