open; late arrival

[sparkedtoburst]

It had been somewhere around about 2am when Spencer's train had finally reached Washington, and then it had been a further hour and twenty minutes on a bus to Lincoln City before he was greeted, albeit stoically, by a member of the army. After so many hours travel and so many hours in cramped, confined space, Spencer just allowed himself to be

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[lightbulbtrix]

Bradley was picking at a very runny egg with his fork when Spencer walked in. He'd never been an early riser, but he'd learned the hard way that if he didn't get up for breakfast, then he wouldn't get any. That cook ran his kitchen like a Nazi.

"New recruit?" He asked curiously when the other man walked by his table. It had been a while since any new mutants had joined the team, and Bradley was beginning to wonder if Stryker, or Emma, or whoever was running the show had finally reached their unspecified quota. Bradley just hoped this guy was friendly. They already had enough psychos who were way too eager to kill on base as it was.

[sparkedtoburst]

Head turned, Spencer chanced a small smile before his face returned to passive, either because of his exhaustion or some subconscious urge to just not smile too much -either way his mouth felt like it wasn't up for the smiling anyway. "Um, yeah, new recruit."

It made sense that he'd be easily picked out as 'new'. It made more sense that these people would show an active interest with that said 'new' person. Quickly grabbing a cup of coffee, Spencer ventured back towards the blond and his eggs with a mildly sheepish expression. "I take it I'm gonna get that a lot?"

[lightbulbtrix]

"Figures the higher-ups weren't done with their collecting yet," Bradley said, shrugging. He'd seen so many people come and go during his time with the time that his enthusiasm towards anyone new was considerably less than it had once been. No need to get attached to people who would just end up in a body bag a few months later.

Bradley nodded at Spencer's question. "You're lucky you arrived during a period where there's been a lot going on around the camp, or everyone's curiosity would be a lot worse." He wondered about the other man's mutation, but felt that might be a bit too personal to start right off the bat with.

[sparkedtoburst]

Curiosity was like Spencer's distant cousin, he was used to curiosity, he had a healthy dose of it himself on a daily basis. Kept the senses sharp, the pencil blunt and the ink running out. Although lately he was starting to think that his curiosity was going to get him killed, instead it just planted him here. Which might have the end result, but he was hoping on that not happening.

"It is the kind of environment that would breed that kind of atmosphere." He'd been there barely four hours and already he was itching to get into the questions; who were you, what could you do, why were you here, how long had you been here, what had you been doing? There were so many, and he had a good handful of people just sitting around.

But politeness outweighed professional curiosity, and really, asking that to the wrong person could get him killed or whatever. "Do things get busy a lot?"

[lightbulbtrix]

His appetite gone, Bradley slid his plate away from him and leaned his elbows on the table. At least the new guy seemed like the friendly sort, as opposed to the possibly homicidal or crazy breed that the military seemed to love finding.

"It's like the tides of the ocean. Sometimes it's high, and everything happens at once. Other times, it's low, and we all sit around and try not to kill each other out of boredom." Bradley paused, before continuing. "Or rather, the others do that, and I try to keep my head down and stay out of all of it," he finally amended.

[sparkedtoburst]

Nodding thoughtfully, Spencer considered each of the comments with a snmall sense of unease. He didn't really believe that the place would be stress free, every job had it's stresses and this one would be no different. However, the health risk was much higher in these sort of places. "I think I'll need to figurer out when to stay out of the way then." Spencer had seen his fair share of confrontation, but he didn't really like getting involved.

Sipping at his coffee, watching carefully, Spencer gave in to the urge and asked, "So, what do you do?" He tried to keep his tone light and friendly, it was a skill set that he worked for. It tended to draw people out but keep it casual.

[lightbulbtrix]

"One of the best ways is whenever Victor over there," Bradley jabbed his thumb in the direction of the large feral sitting on the other side of the mess hall, "gets more moody than usual. It means he's looking for trouble." Chris knew all too well when those moods were. He'd been on the receiving end of Victor's bullying so many times he thought he might drop dead from surprise if the feral did otherwise.

Bradley grinned, happy to talk about his powers as long as no one was mocking them. One hand went up to his temple and with a blink of his eyes the lights went off. A few cries of surprise could be heard around the mess hall. "I'm a technopath." Another blink and the lights came back on. "What's yours?"

- Thread jack biatches! -

[hunt_the_devil]

As the lights blinked on and off John appeared, yes literally materialised out of thin air along side the table. Unlike Bradley he was accustom to the routine of getting up early and was rather enjoying not having the responsibility to ensuring the team were fed and watered.

Tilting his hat back a little he quickly assessed the occupants of the table before addressing Bradley, reaching over to cuff his friend around the shoulder gently. "Stop messin' with the electrics or else you're gonna have the Captain on your ass an' I ain't savin' you."

John wasn't the type to simply take a seat though and elbow his way into a conversation, so he held out a hand to the other occupant of the table and smiled, a small tight yet friendly smile though. "Another recruit I take it? Nice to meet you, I'm John Wraith."

- how very dare you -

[sparkedtoburst]

Between the sudden flickering, and then the instant appearance of someone else, Spencer was sort of left with his mouth hanging open just a little bit. Technopath; technical terms seemed to be a little strange from what Spencer had managed to work out in his research on mutants and mutant abilities. Although he'd been able to deduce that technopath was probably a fun way to say 'plays with electronic stuff' or whatever.

"Uh, yeah, hi." It was starting to get a little overwhelming, but in a good way. Glancing between the pair of them, Spencer closed his mouth and smiled just a little, "I'm Spencer, and I think they call it electrokinesis? Whatever it is, I sort of generate lightening and absorb it." He shrugged a shoulder and took a drink.

If he felt a little more confident, he might've given a demonstration, but he wasn't yet fully comfortable with his powers. He figured he'd get there, but he didn't really want to cause a base wide electrical short circuit before then.

-Youthread jack ho. I'm paying you no mind. :) -

[lightbulbtrix]

Bradley didn't so much as blink an eye as John materialized next to him. After being on the team for this long, he would have been more surprised if his friend hadn't pulled something like that. "I apologize if the cowboy startled you. He likes doing that, cooking, and bossing people around like a mother hen, in no specific order."

Chris batted at John's hat, noticing his friend had finally replaced the much abused one that had served him Japan. "I can take care of myself, Wraith, thank you very much."

Turning his attention back to Spencer, Chris listened as the new man described his powers. "Sounds interesting, as long as you don't go shorting out the camp or anything."

- Shut up yo fools & respect the Wraith! -

[hunt_the_devil]

Settling in the seat besides Bradley, John elbowed his friendly good naturedly as he chose to ignore the cowboy comment or the attempted attack on his hat.

Yes he had replaced his hat. It seemed appropriate - new location, new start and therefore a new identical hat. So they had a new recruit who was able to absorb electricity, that was interesting and most certainly bode well for the group. At least it was good to see the guy was getting along with Bradley and not the likes of Victor.

"So what brings you to the team then? You don't seem like the type to have done a deal with the boss." Though who knew these days.

[sparkedtoburst]

It was interesting seeing the interactions; these weren't just two colleagues, they were friends. That was a good thing to know, it gave the group that little bit more of an interest for Spencer. This wasn't just about comrade in arms. "I, uh, I don't think it's a big issue." The worst he'd ever done was short out his apartment building when he'd caught the cold.

Repeated sneezing didn't help, coughing fits were just as bad.

"Deal? No, um, I don't think so. I work, well, I worked for a newspaper in Los Angeles, there was a piece about mutant involvement in a few military programs, and I think I asked the wrong people the right questions, or the right people the wrong questions, and here I am." He'd been digging and digging and digging, so really he wasn't too surprised when the Government officials showed up at his door. "They sort of invited me to find out what it was all about."

[lightbulbtrix]

Chris fought the desire to smack John again. If the two of them kept this up, they'd end up in some sort of childish slap fest, which would not be best first impression.

"Sounds like they were somewhat nice to you. That's better than the deal I got." Bradley's had been the classic rock or a hard place scenario. If he turned down the military, he would have been locked away in a prison cell until he was old and gray. At the time, a secret government squad seemed the lesser of two evils. Now he regretted making that decision. But like the saying went, hindsight was 20/20.

[hunt_the_devil]

Actually despite Spencer saying that he'd gotten an alright deal John was a little concerned. If they'd just brought Spencer in and invited him to find out what it was all about, what did that mean was happening to the scientific testing that sme of the other mutants had been offered a choice to go in for? Then again, perhaps offering a journalist and someone as inuitive as Spencer a choice between military or sceintific experiment wasn't a smart idea.

"Sounds like he got one of the best deals out of any of us." John cast Chris a sideways look but said nothing more on the matter. "Well anyway, welcome to the team! Have you been told who to avoid yet?"

[sparkedtoburst]

Spencer didn't bother trying to hide the small smirk on his face as the pair, well, bickered seemed to be the only word that sprang to mind right then. And Spencer was usually very good with words. "Yeah, I think I did." Considering he'd known so much, he thought, and some sort of offer had been made through an envelope rather than any kind of court room meeting or office summons. It wasn't worded like a threat, but something gave Spencer the sense that it was in his best interest to accept.

"Um, no, no one has really said anything," although from the looks of it, the large male in the corner was one to avoid. "Do they have signs or coloured bands?"

[lightbulbtrix]

Spencer seemed to be taking this all very much in stride. Bradley's first impressions of him were good ones. He seemed like he'd be able to deal with the chaos that often seemed to envelop the camps at the most random moments.

"More like claws and fangs." Bradley shuddered. "The ones you should definitely avoid are the ferals. They're not to be messed with unless you have a fondness for getting mauled."