ArchivedLogs:Like a Fairy Tale

Like a Fairy Tale
Hummingbirds, Carnivals, Scars, and Stories.
Dramatis Personae Ducky, Kai
In Absentia	2013-06-15 A conversation in the gardens about many things.
Location <XS> - Gardens
From indoor gardens to outdoor, though without the protective greenhouse glass the back gardens do not last all year round. Still, the gardens out here are well-tended and well-worth spending time in, as well. The paths wending through the beds of flowers and herbs and vegetables spread out through the school's back grounds, tended by students as a credit class. Benches offer seating and a small pond is home to koi and turtles, as well as a few frogs. At the far back edges of the garden, a droning buzzing marks a few stacked white boxes as beehives. The weather at Xavier's School is quite lovely this late spring day, with a cool breeze rustling the variety of plants that make up the garden. The warm drone of insects and the chirping of birds makes for a quiet sound track to the relatively relaxed Saturday - the last before the start of the Summer session of classes. One of the benches near the small pond near the rear of the garden is occupied by a mousy young woman who sits cross legged on the bench, a large book sitting open on her lap. She's wearing a pair of black yoga pants and a gray hooded tank top, the Xavier's logo printed on the chest, currently bare foot, with no shoes visible in the area. A small gray and white pigeon is nestled into the hood of her shirt, occasionally peaking over her shoulder at something in the book. Even though there isn't anyone visible in the area, Ducky is apparently having a quiet conversation, not very animatedly. It is a lovely day. Nice enough that it's lured Kai out of his room for the first time in a couple of days. Similarly barefoot, he's dressed in a pair of khaki cargo shorts that look like bells on his skinny legs, and a green and yellow-striped tank top that shows off his narrow shoulders, marked with silvery scars and healed-over needle marks. He's got his sketchpad tucked under one arm, and a pencil jammed behind his ear. In his other hand, he has a new-looking cell phone, and he's regarding the screen thoughtfully as he walks carefully through the grass towards the bench where Ducky sits. She may be his intended destination, or she could possibly just be something with which to collide. Only time will tell. A tiny little hummingbird - glistening green and blue in the early evening sunlight, flits out from one of the nearby hedges, nestling buzzing in front of Ducky's face for a brief moment, before hovering just over her head for a moment, and then ultimately nestling into the ruffled dark blonde mop that is her hair. It ruffles its little wings, and looks towards Kai, nestling back into Ducky's hair. She looks up a moment later, blinking curiously at Kai, before offering a smile and a wave to the young man approaching her perch. Of course, in a moment, she quickly realizes that he's not actually going to see her greeting, mesmerized by his phone as he is. "Hello, Kai," Ducky says cheerily, offering another wave in case he looks up when she says something. The rustling of birds is not enough to break Kai's attention on his phone, and he plods forward, occasionally lifting his thumb to poke at the screen quixotically. But when Ducky speaks, he looks up immediately, offering the girl a shy smile. "Hello, Ducky." The phone is held up as he comes closer, and waggled just a bit. "Look what the Professor gave me. It is so I can talk to Ivan and Peter and Kris when they are not here." He seems rather intrigued by this idea. "It can send test messages, which is like writing." He pauses as he gets closer, peering first at the girl's hood, then at her hair. "You have a bird in your hair." Ducky grins folding dropping a book mark into the pages of the book - a fluffy little gray feather that has been flattened from multiple uses as a page holder - before closing the large book, the latest edition of some Audubon book. "Yeah - I'd never had a cell phone before I came here. Parents wouldn't let me have one when I was at home, and, heh, I certainly didn't have one while homeless," she grins, fishing the small phone out of her pocket, "Granted, haven't used it. No one I can talk to on the phone." The mention of the bird in her hair gets a cheery smile, apparently quite proud of the tiny jewel toned bird, nodding emphatically - making the little bird nestle into her hair even more thoroughly, "Yeah - I found out we have hummingbirds on campus! Never even seen one before today, outside of books and pictures." Kai furrows his brow at Ducky's response to the phone, and tips his head. "I do not understand. You were at home, and then you did not have a home?" This seems to strike something in him, and there's deep sympathy in his voice. "Did soldiers come and take you?" Then he's distracted by the bird, and he moves a bit closer in a careful step. "It is very small," he says. "Why is it called a hummingbird? Can it not sing, like others?" "Oh, they're called humming birds because their little wings beat so fast, that they sound like they're humming. They do chirp, and sing a little, but since they're so little, it's very hard to hear sometimes," Ducky explains with a nod, reaching up to her head to have the tiny bird step up onto her finger. It flutters its wings slightly, and makes a tiny little chirp, at which Ducky smiles at the hummingbird, "If you want, she can sit on your shoulder. As long as you don't move too far away, she'll stay put." Of course, she's skipped right to the second question Kai had asked, and she looks sheepishly at the ground at Kai's feet, "No. I... I ran away. My parents tried to have people take me away. They, uh, thought I was crazy. Because of my powers. Because I can talk to birds." She fidgets with the feather she's used as a book mark, turning it over and looking at it, "So, I ran away. My friends... my birds... warned me, before I got home that day, and I ran." Kai's eyebrows climb at both the explanation and the offer, and he nods with a small smile. "If she would like to sit on my shoulder, it would be all right," he says, looking at his bare shoulder with a small frown. "It is clean and everything." Because this is important to birds, clearly. When Ducky's gaze drops, he frowns, and waves his sketchpad like a big wing. "You really /are/ like a princess," he asserts. "The birds tell you of danger, like they do in the movies." He lifts his eyebrows as she continues. "I do not know how my family felt about Foom," he says with what is probably intended to be sympathy. "They did not live long enough to tell me." He watches the hummingbird for a moment. "Her feathers are pretty." Ducky quietly says something to the little green humming bird on her finger, gently petting it on the head before holding her hand out towards Kai, at which point the little bird takes off, hovering for a moment in front of Kai for a moment, chirping brightly, now close enough that it can be heard, along with the light hum of the fluttering wings. It settles onto Kai's shoulder, barely a noticeable weight, her feather soft and downy, if a little tickly. A pale pink blush color's Ducky's nose and cheeks at the princess statement, chuckling slightly, "I'm not a princess. But, um, thank you." She looks concerned, frowning a bit when he mentions Foom, "Oh. I'm... I'm sorry. About your family," she says, ruffling her now bird-free hair with her hand. Her lips quirk up a bit at the corners as she looks over at Kai and the little humming bird, which has now nestled onto his shoulder contentedly, only occasionally chirping, "She says thank you. About the feathers comment." Kai is rapt as the hummingbird takes off and hovers in front of him, tilting his head and watching as the tiny bird settles on his shoulder. "I said you are /like/ a princess," he says with a small smile. "If you were a real princess, I do not think you would be going to school /here/." He might be teasing, judging by the crinkle of his eyes. It flickers for a moment, when Ducky offers her apologies, and he shrugs his non-birded shoulder. "They were not very nice to me," he says honestly. "I do not miss them very much. But thank you for saying it." He watches his passenger with a small smile and lifts his eyebrows. "I have flown," he says, suddenly, his voice sort of hollow. "Really it was Foom, and he did terrible things, but we flew for a few minutes." He looks up, eyebrows still high on his forehead. "Have you ever flown with your friends?" Nodding slowly, Ducky lets the subject of parents and apologies drop, as it seems to be an awkward one for both involved. The princess comment gets a chuckle, and she shrugs, "Ah, I dunno. I mean, I kept thinking this place was something out of a fairy tale the first few weeks I was here. Still occasionally wonder if it is actually a fairytale land. Wouldn't surprise me if there were princesses or princes here. I mean, we've got a cupcake fairy." She picks up the feather she had set into the book, never having closed the tome, and looks at it with a soft smile, "No. I wish I could fly. I really do. It's actually something the birds ask me about a lot. Why I don't fly with them, since I can talk to them, I should be able to fly. It... confuses them a bit." Ducky grins, "Maybe someday I'll sprout wings. Or go hangliding. Probably the closest I'll ever get to being able to fly on my own." Kai brightens at the mention of the cupcake fairy. "Megan makes very good cupcakes," he agrees. "But you should be careful about her dust. It will make you see silly things." He moves carefully closer to Ducky; slowly, so as not to dislodge his shoulder decoration. "Maybe if you made friends with really big birds, they could carry you," he suggests helpfully. "That would be sort of the same thing. You could make a basket to ride in." He's just full of helpful ideas. "I think I was too scared to appreciate the flying," he admits. "But maybe some day I will do it again, only less terribly." Which could be a joke, but it's hard to tell with Kai. He regards the girl for a long moment, and then smiles. "If you grow wings, they will probably be pretty. Like those women who sing in the clouds in paintings." Ducky smiles, agreeing, "Yeah - Megan is nice. And she does make really good cupcakes. I... haven't seen her do anything with dust? But, well, I'll keep an eye out for it, because I've seen enough odd things already. Don't really need help with it." The mention of big birds gets a slightly worried smile, as she glances off into the distance for a moment, "I have a friend who is a very large bird. But I don't think he could carry me. He is very large for a bird, but I don't think Horus could support my weight, too." She shakes her head, looking worried for a moment, but then smiling again, "Maybe I'll figre out a way to get all the birds to carry me some day. As a team, or something. If I figure it out, I'll let you know, and offer you a ride." Ducky ruffles her hair again, "Nah. Angels usually have white wings. Mine'd probably be more pidgeony, so gray and shiny, or maybe like a duck's wings. But I don't think my mutation's gonna go that far. Too late for that." "You know a bird that big?" Kai is genuinely impressed by this fact, and he nods firmly. "A team would be the best way, I think," he agrees. "If you had enough of them, they would not even have to be /big/ birds." Someone has been watching entirely too many cartoons, perhaps. The offer of a future ride gets a small flash of teeth. "Maybe I will learn to fly without Foom, and I will fly /next/ to you," he teases, and carefully moves to sit in the grass, tossing his sketchpad down first and then lowering himself like molasses pouring down. "Even those would be pretty," he says. "And Peter just looked like Peter until a few weeks ago, when he started to get chitin. So maybe it is not too late." Ducky nods and grins, "Yeah. I met Horus when I was still in the city. He is very nice. He's about, um," she holds up her hand next to her, indicating a height of over four feet tall, "He's about that tall. Not big enough to carry me, I think. It would probably hurt him." She wrinkles her nose slightly, glancing off towards the direction of Westchester, the nearby town, "There's another very large bird around here. He has been hurting things in the town, and is very, very rude. And mean. He spit a giant ball of acid at me when I tried to say hello earlier this week, but Mister Jackson blocked it." Ducky nods, as though this was just a matter of fact thing. She watches as Kai sits down - the hummingbird on his shoulder barely moving, having settled her tiny little claws into the fabric of his tank top for stability. She tilts her head slightly at the mention of someone else changing, looking a bit confused, "I suppose it is possible. It would just seem odd to suddenly sprout my own set of wings, though. But, anything is possible." Smiling, Ducky nods to Kai, "Sure - if we both get to fly someday, we'll totally fly together. With all the birds." Ducky gestures around, where sure enough, several more birds, mostly pigeons have started gathering around them. Kai nods at the description of Horus, and he smiles. "He sounds very interesting. I hope that I can meet him one day." The story about the bird-man in Westchester, though, makes him sit up straighter, and he frowns as he considers something. "You are certain it was a bird?" he says, looking worried. "It spit acid at you and Mister Jackson? It was a bird, and not a dragon?" He frowns, and taps his scarred chin thoughtfully. "Foom spits acid," he says, addressing the gathering flock. They understand him, certainly. "And he has spit it at Mister Jackson before." Ducky looks concerned for a moment as Kai explains about previous experiences with acid, but she ultimately shakes her head. "No. It was definitely a bird. Definitely. Really big," she throws her arms out wide in description, making her shoulder pigeon have to adjust to stay in place, "He doesn't speak much, just yelled angrily when I tried to talk to him. He said something about the carnival that's in town." Ducky nods slowly, "I... I don't think I can talk to dragons. Not the way I can talk to birds," she taps her temple slightly, "I can hear the birds in my head, normally, so it's kinda a different thing." She looks concerned for a moment, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the memory, "It was a giant glob of green-ish acid goo. Like he'd hocked up a ball of vomit at us." It's kinda slowly that she registers the rest of what Kai is saying, and she looks a bit confused for a moment, blinking and tilting her head, "Foom spit acid at Mister Jackson before?" Kai nods. "Dragons are not much like birds," he admits. "So if you spoke to him, it was probably not Foom." This is a source of some relief to Kai, clearly, and his body relaxes a bit. "He is at the carnival? I hope it is not too dangerous to go. Rasa said we would go to see it." He leans back on his hands, checking as he does to ensure the hummingbird is in place. "Foom does not make /goo/," he says. "It is like a liquid. Sometimes it is like a mist. But it is acid." The question brings a deep flush to his skin, and he ducks his head. "When Mister Jackson rescued us from the labs," he says slowly, and makes a wide circle with his hand to indicate a number beyond himself and his own duality, "the bad doctors gave Foom bad medicine, to use him as a weapon. He was confused, and he used acid on Mister Jackson and some others." He sighs, and chews at his bottom lip. "It is why Shane and Sebastian do not like me very much." "I don't know if he's at the carnival or not. He just screamed about it, and then flew off, and left his dinner. It's probably safe, but, well, I've only been off campus once since I got here, and it ended up being sorta scary. I wasn't about to go see if the carnival was safe on my own," Ducky admits sheepishly, shifting how she's sitting on the bench, and finally closing her book. The hummingbird stays put contentedly on Kai's shoulder, even snuggling gently against his neck when he checks on her. Ducky listens to his explanation with a confused but concerned look, "Labs? I... that sounds scary. I'm glad that Mister Jackson got you out." She pulls her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight, "'m sorry I asked about it, Kai. I didn't mean to bring up an uncomfortable subject. I... I seem to have a gift for asking that sorta questions anymore." Kai wrinkles his nose. "It seems odd that he would scream about the carnival if it was not important to him," he notes, thinking hard. (Although, there's a little smile when the bird snuggles into his neck.) "Maybe we will see something when Rasa and I go." Ever the optimist. "I am looking forward to seeing the area around the school," he says with a nod. "Even if it will be a little scary. I am curious about it." The apology gets a small shrug, and Kai lifts a hand to wave it gently. "It is not as uncomfortable as it was," he says. "And I do not mind talking about...some of it. There are things that happened to me that I do not wish to speak of, but leaving that place is not one of them." He raises his eyebrows. "Oh! Perhaps when Rasa and I go to the carnival, you may come too. There will be a teacher with us, so it might not be very scary." Ducky nods, "I know. He apparently only comes out at night, 'cause he's been snatching up pets and stuff from the area around the carnival. But," Ducky shrugs, "I would like to go to the carnival, maybe. It wouldn't be as scary with a group, and a teacher. It's why I asked Mister Jackson to go with me when I tried to talk to the bird man in the first place. If, well, if you don't mind another person tagging along, I think I would like to go to the carnival maybe." She offers a bright smile at the thought of getting to go somewhere and talk to people other than teachers or birds. She tilts her head slightly at the further explanation of the lab and leaving, not sure of what to ask, but instead just resting her chin on her knees, looking curiously at Kai for a moment. "Is that how you got here? You got rescued and brought here?" she asks quietly, figuring it's a safe question to ask, "Um, if I ask something stupid, and you don't want to answer, just let me know." She nods, as another hummingbird, this one popping out from a nearby flower bed, zips over to sit atop her head, nearly vanishing in the ruffled mop of hair, but still managing to lighten the tension a bit. Kai nods. "I do not think Rasa would mind if you came with us," he says with a certain amount of assurance. "It will be lots of fun. I hear there are many games and foods to try at a carnival. Also rides, which I am not sure what they mean. Perhaps there will be horses there." The question gets a nod, and Kai tracks the hummingbird as it makes its temporary nest, yellow light flickering around the rims of his irises. "The bad doctors had me and some other people who are here, and Mister Jackson and others came and got us out, and some of us came to the school." He smiles. "A question is not stupid," he says with a tip of his head. "But I will tell you if it is a thing I do not wish to discuss." "I went to a carnival with my parents when I was little. Well, it was more of a county fair. There were rides that you could go on - like a ferris wheel, which is like a big giant slow moving wheel, with big seats on it, and it lets you see for a long distance, because it takes you up in the air. And there were pony rides. First and only time I ever got to ride a horse, but it was neat. And they had a group that did exhibitions with differnt birds, like falcons and hawks, and owls. I could have stayed there all day, just watching the birds. Even before I could talk to them," Ducky rattles on and explains, grinning a bit, although the smile fades at the thought of her parents. She nods at the statement about the questions, sitting quietly for a moment, having missed the flash of yellow around Kai's irises. "Bad doctors? You... you've mentioned them a few times now," she asks quietly, hugging her legs tightly, adding quietly, "I ran 'cause my parents had called doctors to take me away. The men in white coats were waiting for me at home." Ducky might as well be describing Wonderland, for the way that Kai's eyes widen as she explains. "I would like to ride on a big wheel," he says with a slow nod. Then he blinks, tipping his head. "There are horses here," he notes. "I am sure they would let you ride them." He offers a quieter chuckle when Ducky giggles, and scrunches his nose. "So you have always liked birds," he says thoughtfully. "Maybe that is why you can talk to them." It's a weighty thought, and he looks like he's about to consider it when Ducky asks her next question. It earns a deep furrow of his brow. "There have been many bad doctors," he confesses. "I have been many places. But they are all the same. They are only interested in Foom, and what will make him emerge." He reaches up to rub absently along a scarred shoulder, rubbing a finger along the hummingbird gently. "The bad doctors wore white coats, too," he says with a small 'huh' of realization. "I like it here much better, where the only doctor is Doctor McCoy." Smiling cheerily at Kai's reaction to the description of the carnival, Ducky nods, "I'm sure the carnival will have a ferris wheel. They're sort of a standard of the carnival and fair scene." Ducky nods and smiles, at the question about the birds, "Yeah. I had pet birds when I was growing up - but, um, my parents got rid of them. Just, well, just before they called the doctors to come to get me." She ruffles her hair, carefully avoiding the now sleeping humming bird in her hair, watching Kai move his hand along his shoulder to pet the humming bird, which leans into his hand when he touches it . "I don't like doctors that much - last one I went to tried to contact my parents about me, and they'd just..." she quiets, shaking her head, "But Doctor McCoy is nice, at least. If a bit, um, startling, at first." She looks at Kai, as though carefully considering her next question, "I'm sorry they did that to you. That's mean. Is... is that how you got scars?" she asks, watching his hand curiously, "I have a few. 'Cause I let a hawk land on my arm, without protection. Hawks have sharp talons, and are used to sitting on branches. I... it took me a few times to learn not to do that." She holds out her left arm in evidence, several sets of circular wounds, well healed over to pale pink against her pale skin. each about an inch apart. Kai nods. "I am not fond of doctors, either," he says with a tiny wry smile. "Other than the bad ones, I only remember the old man who would come to our farm, and he was not a pleasant person. But Doctor McCoy /is/ nice. He gave me CDs that helped me to learn English." Kai wrinkles his nose, glancing over to his shoulder when Ducky posits the question. "Oh, no," he says. "Only the ones from the needles are from the bad doctors, on my shoulders," he says matter-of-factly, and his eyes flicker just a little bit harder for a moment. "The others are from my father and brothers, when they thought I was working too slow or disobeying them." He leans forward to inspect Ducky's scars politely, pressing his lips into a tight line as he studies the puncture scars. "Those must have hurt very badly." Ducky shudders slightly at the remembered pain from the bird related injury, "Yeah. That was... not good. I should have gotten stitches for it, but, um, that would have involved telling my parents I had convinced a hawk to sit on my arm and talk to me. So it scarred up badly. The second time they caught me with a falcon clinging to my arm, and it startled the poor bird. That hurt worse, and had to get lots of stitches. That was, uh, actually just a month before I ran away." She ruffles her hair again, waking the humming bird in the process, which then decides to join its fellow atop Kai's shoulder, nestling up beside the other bird on the more stable and less likely to be ruffled surface. Her hazel eyes look over the scars on Kai's shoulders, and she frowns slightly, biting her lower lip as she does. "Oh," is all she says, quietly, for once not following up with another question. Kai makes a humming sound as he shakes his head. Maybe the bird on his shoulder is rubbing off on him. "Talons hurt," he agrees. "At least it seems that way, when Foom uses them." That might be a joke, actually, since the boy scrunches his nose a bit. "But now you have...what is the word...'cool' scars." His smile slips a bit wider. "Like a superhero princess. Princess Ducky!" He probably would offer a small gesture of triumph, but. Birds. Plural, now, a fact that brightens Kai just a bit. Ducky's sudden discomfort gets a small shake of his head. "Do not be uncomfortable," he urges. "It was a long time ago, and they will never do it again. It is just a thing which happened to me in another life." He lifts his eyebrows as he gently transitions over to a kneeling position. "The only things that are important now are the things which affect this life, and that is what I will keep my thoughts on." Then he's offering a wide smile, and glancing toward the building. "I think it is still a little time before dinner," he says. "Maybe you can introduce me to more of your bird friends, and we will stop talking about awkward things." A wise plan, if ever there was one, and one that's probably easily accomplished. Kai is genuinely happy to stay and meet each and every bird that comes to Ducky's call. At least until the two teenagers get their /own/ call in the form of the dinner bell. And the best part? No more awkward. Just bird talk.