Logs:The Calm Before

The Calm Before
Dramatis Personae Jean, Kitty
In Absentia	2020-08-29 "What the heck are they afraid of?” (Part of Final Boss: Xavier TP.)
Location <XAV> Gardens - Xs Grounds
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. After the hour long drive home from Manhattan Jean finds herself seated on a bench near the pond. The croaking of the frogs was welcomed white noise to her troubled thoughts. She opted to sit out here as she felt herself struggle to maintain her emotions and was not about to inflict an aura of confusion, sadness, and anger upon the people in the mansion. The sun had begun to drop behind the trees, blanketing the area in a Twilight. Out here she let's her thoughts wander freely. Kurt, he was so afraid. I couldn't do anything to set him at ease. What did you do Charles? Did you say something to rattle them? Is it even Charles? Is it me? I know these are selfish thoughts but people have been afraid of me before. People ARE afraid of me... until I came here it was only Sara who wasn't... Sara... I wish I could call you right now... She hugs herself, not for a need for warmth, but out out of an unconscious habit when her feelings got the best of her. Left her feeling vulnerable or helpless. Kitty’s taking the long way around to the parking lot, through the garden. It’s a lovely summer evening, now that the rain from the night before has cleared. Her hair hangs loose around her, still damp from a post workout shower, and a Xaviers branded duffel is slung across her shoulders. There is something that’s unsettling her still- she hasn’t seen the new blue kid, the German one, since that conversation with Jax. The mansion feels oddly empty. Kitty shivers, though there was no breeze. She sees Jean just before the wave hits her. Walking into telepathic projection unprepared takes her off guard and she stumbles, pausing to let the thoughts wash through her. She takes a moment to adjust. “Sorry, Jean,” she says out loud, a small, sad smile on her lips. “Didn’t mean time walk into it.” It takes much of her training to mentally peel Jean’s emotions off her own. “But, while I’m here...” Kitty walks through a few hedges, for expediency, and sets next to Jean. “Something happened with the blue German kid?” Jean hears Kitty seconds before she feels her. By then it's too late, she'd have been forced to hear everything. Straightening up she immediately reeled her power back with a slight look of horror on her face. "Kitty! I am so sorry!" Why do I still struggle to control this power? She manages to think to herself as kitty sits next to her. There was zero point trying to deflect or deny, she had dragged the younger girl in already. "Yes." She replies, looking back at the pond. "He's been missing from campus, so many of them are. It seems they are afraid to be here, and of us... though it seems mostly of Charles." There’s some mixture of feelings in Kitty’s mind as she catches the last voiced thought. Pity swirled with understanding and a touch of what she thinks is healthy fear. Kitty can’t wrap her head around being a telepath - between Jean and Hive and the others she knew, she got the impression it was exhausting. With great power, or something. Kitty’s gaze follows Jean’s to the pond, the setting sun glinting off the surface. “I heard he was just out in the city,” she says after a moment. “But it has been quiet.” The last bit catches her off guard- she barks out a short laugh in disbelief. “Xavier? Seriously? But...” she struggles for something more intelligent to say, settles on “It’s just Charles.” "I know." Jean replies to her, latching onto the conversation. "I am trying to discern what he might have said or done to scare him. I've only got bits of information, bits of feelings I've sensed. Until last week I had thought it was just teens wanting to get out for summer break." She drops her hands into her lap and folds them together. "But when I ran into that boy today, he was so afraid. It felt like he wanted to talk, wanted to trust me, but he was too afraid." The skin between her brows creases, as Kitty tries to remember what she knew about the Wagner kid. “He’s been skittish, I heard. But- afraid?” Kitty can’t get her head around it. “This is the safest place for us. What the heck are they afraid of?” She wants to ask if Jean sensed anything more specific, opens her mouth, realizes that Jean heard her thought already, and closes her mouth sheepishly. <<Did anything stick out?>> Jean shrugs. "That is what I'm trying to find out. Nothing seems to be making sense." She sensed the sheepish feeling off of her and wonders what it could be. Kitty was someone she was close to, had trained with and communicated with many times in her head. It was for those reason she instively reached for the woman's thoughts, catching the one meant for her. No. Not really. I know most are afraid of us with psionic powers... for understandable reasons... but is that it? It couldn't be, something must have happened. <<everyone knows X is a telepath though,>> Kitty floats back, leaning back on the bench for a moment and crossing one leg up on the other. <<Kurt’s new, but not all of the ones who left, right? They would all know. We knew.>> She isn’t sure how different Jeans experience would be from hers, actually, now that she thinks about it. Ten years between graduations.... but both of them trusted the Professor. Seeds of doubt are settling in her mind for the long haul. “Must be something new.” She pauses as scenarios run through her mind: “you think they’re being threatened?” <<Used to be too common>>. A flash of her own kidnapping falls through her minds eye quickly, and she shakes her head physically, like it will dislodge the memory from her. Jean reaches her hand out and touches Kitty's knee gently. She could not completely relate to what the kidnapping experience was like, but she had experienced feeling like a liability to the group. The encounter with Toad being the first thing that came to mind, when he had almost suffocated her with a well placed glob of slime. What Kitty had gone through was arguably more terrifying. She shares the feelings about the Xavier manor. "I considered that, but by whom?" Something is missing, there is a piece I'm overlooking, I'm certain... <<something isn’t adding up>> Kitty agrees. One hand covers Jean’s on her knee for a moment- she appreciates the comfort, but feels bad for taking Jean’s attention. “I guess... I guess you’d have to ask Xavier? If you didn’t get anything else from the kid yourself.” She’s trying time be helpful, but Kitty doubts that idea even as she says it. “I dunno. I just hope they’re okay. If they’re scared...” She sighs. <<sorry. Trying to solve the problem. Not helpful I think.>> No, don't apologize. You are trying to help. She thinks before speaking, "I considered confronting him. But I am not certain that would be the best approach." Her hand flips and gives Kitty's a squeeze, grateful for the distraction. She was happy to have someone to give her attention to, it was for this reason she missed Scott the most and wondered if she had made the right decision pushing him away. "I hope they are safe aswell. I have someone I can talk to before the Professor, I think." She gave her hand another squeeze, trying to pull them both out of the emotional hole they seemed to be sinking into. "Thank you for the support. I didn't know you'd be here today or I'd have made time to have dinner or something..." She felt a pang of guilt for having less time to spend with the younger woman she saw as something of a sister. The physical touch is grounding, as is the pressure of Jean’s hand on hers. Kitty gives the older woman a small smile. “Okay, that’s- that’s good at least.” She wonders briefly who- Scott? Kyinha? But it doesn’t really matter. She shrugs. “I try to come up from the city once a week, just to stay-“ <<Ready>> “-to train. It’s sporadic, though.” At the mention of dinner, a grin slowly spreads over her face. “Well, it’s not too late for a dessert- I saw pie in the teacher's lounge earlier.” "Well we wouldn't want it to go to waste." Jean says with a hint of humor in her voice. A slice of pie with her friend sounded like just what the doctor ordered. And she is the doctor. She feels a wave of gratitude towards the other. She was unsure if Kitty knew just how much her presence, her humor and slight mischievous, kept Jean feeling ground. Feeling home.