Logs:Crash Landing
| Crash Landing | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
2025-01-20 "You mean Mutants, right?" |
| Location
<GER> Alleyway - Berlin | |
"Shit. Shit!", Lydia cursed under her breath. She felt watched. Felt eyes crawling all over her back. Ever since she bailed from the hospital an hour ago. She just couldn't be there any longer. Any longer and they might've found out. Might've found out that it was her who caused the coach accident a couple days ago. The girl hastily limped around a corner into a dark alley, well as quick as her injuries allowed at least, and slumped against a dirty wall. She slid onto the ground and hugged her left knee tightly, resting her head on it. Her right leg was stretched out as the pain did not allow her to bend it. Heavy breaths shook her whole body in irregular intervals. Even though she knew she should continue to run, she simply couldn't. For now she needed to catch her breath and rest her leg. For now she just had to hope that her feeling of being watched was a paranoid imagination of hers. The feeling of being watched is not Lydia's paranoid imagination, at least not by these particular watchers. A spark of purple light appears in the wall of the alley, or maybe in the air so close to the wall that when it expands into a swirling purple oval, it looks very much like a portal has opened into the building itself. Except what's on the other side is definitely the sunny expanse of a rooftop and not the interior of a building. What's also on the other side is a woman dressed in some kind of black tactical uniform with purple piping, her magenta-streaked hair tied up into a bun that makes her long-pointed ears all the more striking. But neither that nor the odd geometric markings on her face are quite as noticeable as her eyes, which are almost wholly an intense forest green, with little if any white showing. Blink steps casually through the purple gateway as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and looks around up and down the alley. Then waves at Lydia. "Guten tag," she says with a friendly but sheepish smile like someone who knows exactly five words of German and has just used two of them. "Don't worry, we're here to help." Her companion steps through the portal beside her, a broad-shouldered man in his own black uniform; in contrast to Blink, he's strikingly (or, not strikingly) human in appearance, tall and broad, with a black visor fitted over his eyes, hands raised in a universal look-Ma!-no-weapons gesture. "We don't mean to frighten you," he says, voice low and even. "I know you must be overwhelmed." Who would remain calm when two people just walked out of a wall? Well certainly not Lydia. She quickly leapt up, using her one good leg and the wall behind her. "What the hell!?" Her eyes, which gently glowed purple, were spread in terror. "Who are you? Are you here to kill me?" as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she was petrified with fear and couldn't move even a muscle until something external would sway her freeze reflex. The swirling portal closes behind Blink and Scott. When Lydia freezes in terror, Blink raises her hands, copying Scott's gesture now that her usual casual cheer isn't landing quite right. "We're not going to hurt you. We're mutants, like you." "We won't hurt you," Scott says, almost in tandem with Blink. His voice is still very level, very careful. "We're not going to come any closer if you don't want us to. We work at a school. A place for people like us to learn to -- safely gain control of our abilities. Every one of us has been in your shoes, now. We know how it feels to be figuring this out. But you don't have to go it alone." Lydia simply stood there for a couple heartbeats, unmoving and uncertain. Until her mind finally managed to process what has been said. "Me? A..A Mutant?", Lydia stuttered unbelieving, the revelation almost as hurting as her leg. "No..that can't be...I'm simply cursed, n..nothing more." She had been playing with the thought of her being a mutant. But she never spent a serious thought on it. Until Blink "It would explain...a lot" The girl seemed a bit less on edge and tried to stand up normally, but only winced and returned to using the wall as a crutch. "Who are you?" Blink keeps an entirely straight face. "I thought I was cursed, too," she says softly. "My whole village did. I don't think I am, though -- or, if I am, I'm cursed and also a mutant." Now she smiles again, encouragingly. "I'm Blink." Scott nods once, abruptly though not quite curtly, but his answer, still quite level and sincere, is, "It can feel like a curse, but it doesn't need to be. I know it's a lot to take in, but we can help you." His hands are slowly lowering, though he's still keeping them carefully open and clearly in Lydia's line of sight. "I'm Scott. Does this happen a lot, the train accidents?" Lydia seems to relax slightly. The nice words seem to have the desired effect on the startled girl. She finally found the time to muster sho she spoke to, taking in the weird scene in front of her. Her eyes fixated the man and she answered in a shaken tone. "Yes. Almost always when I fall asleep in cars, busses or trains. They crash, but i always survive unscathed" She shifted her weight a bit and twitched when she accidentally used her right leg too much. "Almost always" Blink bites her lower lip, and glances at Scott, looking a bit uncertain. "Do you know how it does that, uh...sorry, I didn't get your name." Though then she hastily adds, "We're not going to get you in trouble. It doesn't even have to be your real name, if you're worried!" She lowers her voice conspiratorially. "You could have a cool mutant codename like me." Scott nods again, in agreement with Blink, though his face is still very hard to read, between his solemnity and the visor over his eyes. ""If you can stay awake, can we transport you safely?" he says. "You have anywhere to go? Family nearby?" Lydia let out a dismissive scoff at the mention of family. "No, just me. Yes. It almost never happens when I'm awake. And you can call me ..." Lydia thought for a moment and then said, full of enthusiasm. "Drifter" She smiled widely, kinda liking the codename thing of Blink. "Drifter, that's cool! Mysterious." Blink nods slowly, like she's thinking really hard. "Alright, Drifter, so when you say almost never...how almost are we talking?" She pauses very briefly. "Follow-up question, have you been on an airplane recently?" For the first time Scott's face is flickering with an expression, though not an extremely legible one, just a downward-outward twitch of his lips, a stiffening of his chin. "Is there anything you've found that helps?" he's adding to this. Drifter smiled at Blink, a short lived expression as she quickly realized the implications. "Oh no. nonononononononono" She frantically exclaimed and waved her hands in a 'that idea is going to kill us' way. "It happens when I'm stressed, but otherwise...I dont know what'd help" Blink nods again and blows out a long stream of air. "Right. Stressed like...getting into a weird super jet with some strangers and going to a whole other continent, probably. Um..." She looks at Scott again. "So technically I could --" She shakes her head. "-- definitely not get us that far. I hate doing this but it might be Dynamic Duo time." She winces, sucking in a breath through her teeth. "Too soon?" Scott is tipping his head up. Then to the left. Then to the right. Then looking back down at Blink. "It's only a two hour ride," he is saying, a little hopefully. Though then he is shaking his head. "-- I don't know." Is this in answer to 'too soon', perhaps it may as well be. One of his hands is moving to pull a very prosaic cell phone from his suit, tapping at it. "Okay, Drifter," he's saying to the girl, his voice still a little too brusque to qualify as 'kindly', "no planes, no cars or trains. If you come with us, we'll try to figure out what *does* help. At least --" he tilts his head around the alley, "-- get you out of the cold, and something to eat. How's that sound?"
Lydia nodded enthusiastically at Blink's comparison. "Yeah, quite a stressfull situation." She watched the two argue, her interest piqued. When Scott talked to her, she automatically stood up straighter. The sudden unkind intonation made her feel as if she did something wrong and as if she was ordered around at the same time. She definitely prefered the woman's nicer, almost funny words. "That sounds good. I havent eaten anything today." As if on queue, her stomach growled. It's only a few short moments after Scott's text that another man appears nearby the others, lean and brown-skinned, a jowly face whose droopy features look set into an expression at once mournful and a little scowly, like someone just kicked his dog and he's making up his mind whether or not to punch them. He isn't in black tactical gear -- he doesn't look like he's dressed for anything, really, except lounging around -- certainly not a mission and not even the outdoor winter cold. He's in jeans and sneakers, an aging sweatshirt with FDNY printed on the chest, a kippah designed to look like a slice of watermelon pinned on his shaggy dark hair. His hands are shoved into the pocket of the sweatshirt. He jerks his chin upward in an absent greeting. His dark eyes cut from Lydia to Scott, his brows hiking in silent question. "Hey..." Blink's greeting is a waggle of fingers and an awkward smile. "Drifter -- this is my friend Joshua. Joshua, Drifter wants to come to the school, right?" She does actually glance at the girl again for confirmation. "But the vehicles she's in tend to crash. I think Scott kind of wants to just floor it on the flight back, but she needs a ride." Does Scott want to just floor it? He's giving Joshua a nod of greeting -- "Thanks, Joshua," he says quietly. Then he glances, in tandem with Blink, at Lydia for assent. Then tilts his head, not very explicatively. His tone ticks back to its even keel. "I'm not going to floor it. Would you mind dropping them --" his head tilts the other way, at Blink, "-- both off at the school? I'll take the plane back." Lydia simply watches the whole conversation silently, only giving a short nod towards Blink, when she wanted to confirm her intentions of coming with. Joshua is also silent -- he just gives another short upward nod at Scott's thanks. He claps a hand to Blink's shoulder firmly, and reaches far more lightly to touch his hand to Lydia's elbow once she nods. The cold Berlin street vanishes -- -- replaced with the cozy warmth of a study, comfortable plush high-backed chairs and a fire crackling welcoming in the hearth. There's no real sensation to the teleporting, no lurch or queasiness, though the abrupt frame-shift of the sudden world change might be disorienting all on its own. He's leaving any further explanations to Blink -- just a gruff: "Welcome to Xavier's," for the teenager, and then he's gone again. "Thank you!" Blink stage whispers before Joshua vanishes. "He's really overworked," she tells Lydia after, though maybe this conclusion is obvious. Anyway, this is Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters". She puts finger quotes around "Gifted Youngsters" in a way that probably isn't actually shady but could be uncharitably read that way. "I'm gonna find somewhere quiet for you to sit down and have a snack, and Dr. Grey can look at your foot. When Scott gets back he's going to have a ton of paperwork for you, so you know. Relax while you can!" Lydia almost flinches when the hand came towards her, but she kept her cool and only twitched a little bit. The uncomfortable touch quickly moved to the back of her mind when the teleport happened. The slightly disoriented youngster blinked a couple times to regain her composure and them immediately began to turn around, taking in all the glory of the room. "Woah..." Lydia whispered and then refocused onto Blink "Gifted Youngsters?" she began, mimicing the air quotes. "You mean Mutants, right? And a sitdown would be nice, thanks" Blink bobs her head, her smile undimmed even if her reply comes a bit slow. "Yep, mutants. Though the 'gift'...isn't always a gift. At least not at first." Another pause. "Sometimes not ever. But here you'll at least have help figuring out what yours does, and hopefully how to not crash and burn." She tips her head toward a spark of purple light that's expanding into a portal before them. "But, hey, one thing at a time." | |
