Logs:Oh, Deer!

Oh, Deer!
cn: some animal carnage
Dramatis Personae Emilia, Joshua, Scott
In Absentia	2024-01-13 << That's reassuring. >>
Location ???, Vermont
Running. She'd been running for so long. Run, hide, kill. Not humans, of course. She did what she did best. But what she did best was not the best. Animals, only. Deer, bears even. Anything she could get her hands on. Then she remembered the muzzle. That mask they'd put on her, shiny and golden, like their prized dog. Felt at the base of her neck, felt the metal embedded there. And she carved it out, ripped the muzzle off. No longer would she be their dog. Where even was she? Still Canada? Had she crossed into Ontario, or left Canada completely? Sense of direction was hard when you had no idea where you were. But then she realized just how hungry she was. Hungry, eat. Those were the only two thoughts going through her mind. In reality, she had wound up crossing the border at some point, swam, ran, whatever, and had made her way into the forests of Vermont. Although it was more like walking across the bottom of a lake with her Adamantium skeleton. And currently she was munching on a bear that she'd... prepared. She didn't care that it was raw, that she hadn't cooked it, hadn't cleaned it. She was hungry, and she needed to eat. And she weighed over 300 pounds with that skeleton, so she probably needed to eat a lot. The caloric intake she would need from lugging around such a skeleton... She'd skewered the bear, munching meat off of her claws. Someone had noticed the girl with bloodied scrubs, watched her munch on a bear with claws coming out of her hands and feet, said 'screw that', and called it in to... the only organization they could think of. Animal Control. She ate the bear all the while, unfazed, though she did snarl at the man who found her, as if to say 'get away from my food.' That man later described he felt as though he was looking at an animal, not a girl. He was mostly right. Joshua is quiet, too, a brown-skinned man with a jowly morose face dressed in tac pants and boots and black leather X-jacket over several warm layers, a satchel slung casually over one shoulder as he gets his bearings in the woods. He does not have any keen senses, and the red light night-vision mode flashlight he has in one hand testifies to that. He does look down with an oddly unchanged expression at the bloody partially-consumed carcass they have alighted near, taking a small step back as his red flashlight sweeps over it. His head turns as if he's listening -- to the rustle of wind in the trees? The scurry of small animal feet in the underbrush? Maybe it's those, though, invisible and unseen a broader telepathic awareness is expanding. His flashlight swings to one side when he feels someone else there and, undramatically, he offers into the darkness: "Yo." Beside Joshua, Scott's visor is glowing an eerie night-vision red that matches the flashlights; both the visor and the beam of his flashlight skip off the bear and into the darkness beyond it. Where did the two men come from? Were they here a moment ago? Scott is a taller white man, dressed similarly to his companion but with a confusing matte black visor covering his eyes. He doesn't say anything, but Joshua hears a moment later, << Really? "Yo"? >> The munching of the bear has stopped for now. Low growling, clearly human, but almost not, emerges from the darkness. Covered in blood, both the bear's and others', steps Emilia, white scrubs painted red and a slightly darker red from the dried and fresh. None of it is hers, though. The snarl is evident in her features, her whole face curling back, like a wolf ready to strike. She does not trust these men, does not know them. They look like them. << They hurt me. They kill me. Not let that happen. Strike first. Kill them. Destroy them. Destroy all of them. Not animal. Am woman. >> Her thoughts are disjointed, feral. This is a girl who's been broken, by whatever she's thinking about. All of her following thoughts are about these mysterious evil people, which can only really mean one thing with scrubs like that. It's not a hospital. There's an embossed X on the scrub top. She can't differentiate if these people are here to help, or here to hurt her. She almost wonders if it matters. The scrub top and bottom are all she's wearing, no shoes to be seen, revealing the claws more clearly, metal and sticking from her knuckles and between her toes. The ones between her toes are smaller, four in number, while her hands have three, giving her fourteen in total. The buzzcut she has was clearly given to her, as it's uneven, as if she was struggling while it was done to her. Just what happened here? That would come... in time. "Seemed better than 'got enough to share'?" Joshua's voice is a low murmur, and he goes quiet when the growling begins. He takes a small step back, though this seems more communicative than out of fear -- not startled, just signaling that he isn't intending to come closer. The light telepathic aura that unfolds is subtler -- almost certainly not consciously noticeable to those who aren't familiar with it, but it comes with a faint feeling of warmth and calm. His flashlight picks up the young woman stepping into the faint red glow and he drops the beam lower to the ground, though not before marking that X on the scrubs with a small lift of brows. A small puff of breath exhaled. "Sorry," he says first, "didn't mean to startle. S'pretty cold out here and we thought -- you might need help." Scott doesn't respond aloud to this, either, though the puff of his breath -- visible in the cold -- is accompanied by (surprisingly?) strong amusement. He steps back when Joshua does, and holds up the gloved hand that isn't holding his flashlight in a universal see?-hands-empty gesture. The glow of his visor doesn't lessen, doesn't waver, but he's noting the claws on her hands and feet as though he is ticking down some kind of oblique mental list. A scent she cannot identify. One smells like these forests. And smoke. Another smells... well... like the vehicle she was taken in. That sets her off. But then she thinks about it. Why would woods man be traveling with car man? The woods man seems nice. Genuine. There's something in his tone that's so different from the typical clinical falseness she got used to, where they'd put on a smile and talk to her all condescending. The other has a very punch-able face, and Emilia cannot figure out why. But luckily, she does not punch him. That would kill him, considering the claws. Her eyes waver back and forth, sniffing them in turn, as she steps closer, totally invading their personal space. However, she does not-- notably-- get close enough for them to grab her. She doesn't have to. She knows what a flashlight is, luckily. There's still some intelligence buried beneath the broken mind. She still doesn't trust them. We thought -- you might need help. Help? They want to help? Why? What is their goal? << They're going to hurt me, kill me >>, is all she thinks, still too paranoid to see reason. But at the same time, part of her questions if this is really the truth. Surely they would have already. They could try, at least. Good luck. A deer knocks her over, wanting to get the hell away from the crazy predator with claws, unsure if it means to attack her, she carves it to pieces, screaming ferally all the while. So, no sudden movements. Good to know. She breathes heavily, throat now worn out, and looks at the two again, taking several minutes to plot them out before she retracts her claws, standing there, seemingly unaffected by the cold, despite her feet momentarily turning blue, they correct, heal, and she's warm again. Joshua doesn't move when Emilia steps closer, though his head does dip in a very small nod. "You've been through some heavy shit," his deep voice is low and steady. "I was once trapped in a place kind of --" But this is as far as the explanation gets before there is quite abruptly a deer barrelling toward them. He's started to reach a hand up -- protectively? Is he going to fight the deer? It's hard to tell because he doesn't make contact before there is suddenly a flurry of claws and blood and he's squinching one eye closed against the splatter that sprays towards his face. Instead of deer his hand drops to Scott's arm and after that first instant of cervine violence both Scott and Joshua have disappeared, reappeared in the same moment several feet farther away. Joshua blinks, and wipes at his cheek with the back of his hand, watching the carnage with a fixed stare. "Oy." << Deer, >> Scott is helpfully pointing out to Joshua in the same instant that they disappear; his hand, still raised to about his ear height, has flexed hastily, fingers closing over his palm, but if he says anything aloud it is probably lost in the sudden explosion of noise in the clearing. He reopens his hand to wipe his face too. "Hey now," he says, somehow very evenly. "I get that you're -- probably really freaked out. We're not gonna come any closer unless you want us to." Breathing heavily, Emilia looks from Scott, to Joshua, from Scott, to Joshua again. The hand over his ear makes her nervous, that visor can only mean one thing. Either he's blind, or he's like her somehow. She's feral, but she's intelligent. The other man, it could be anything, but when she notices the two disappear, it confirms her mind's suspicions. They're mutants. At least, one of them is. While she doesn't know exactly what a mutant is, not anymore, at least, she knows they're like her. And that's enough. She steps closer, closing the distance. Where would they take her for help? They don't appear to have anything on them. She does not wipe her face, despite it being absolutely painted. Her eyes are still a bit crazy, still wild, but there's a recognition in there. You're like me, it says. She's not completely lost after all. Yet, she doesn't even know if she can speak. Tries anyway, though her voice is hoarse, no more than a whisper. "You hurt me?" Joshua lets out a slow breath when Emilia speaks, his previous tension mostly only visible in contrast to the slight easing of his shoulders now. He shakes his head, decisive. "Not gonna hurt you." His eyes flick down to the deer, then back over to Emilia, looking to her bare feet and then up to her face. "We work at a school. Safe place for people like us. Even other kids there who might understand some of what you're going through." "We won't hurt you," says Scott, somewhat in tandem with Joshua; he nods along in agreement to the rest of Joshua's pitch, the glow from his visor bobbing up and down. "It can be hard to be a mutant," he says. "We both know that. But you're not -- you don't have to be alone." She considers. Unsure. Eventually, she nods. She trusts them enough. They don't smell like the bad men. So that's one point they have over Weapon Plus. Or Weapon X, whatever you want to call it. It takes a lot of time for her to come to a decision. She had heard whatever they'd come in, it made this annoying high pitched whine, like a dog. Barely perceptible to most, but she wasn't most. Her eyes follow the visor, up and down, a nod. A sign of good faith. And the words are true. People who lie seem to have a certain smell from their sweat. So, yes, to her, lying gives off a smell. Scott isn't lying. Neither is Joshua. Luckily her claws are retracted, as they won't have to worry about that. She's temporarily been disarmed. Not that she couldn't call upon them if the two had lied to her. And then Xavier would be down two X-Men. But she was almost glad she wouldn't have to kill them. Joshua's mouth twitches just a little -- it's not quite a smile, just a brief rearranging of his hangdog features. Against Scott's mind he is relaying -- not words, first, but an echoed sense of the girl's decision to trust them. This is followed by an extremely solemn: << She's glad she won't have to kill us. >> His eyes tip up towards the sky. "Our ride's up there. Have you flown before?" He tips his flashlight beam up, poking the red light in the direction of the tree canopy overhead. His hand turns -- slowly -- up, extending only a little bit towards Emilia. "If you're okay with it, I can jump us all up there. It might be disorienting, but it's safe." << Okay, >> Scott decides, << That's reassuring. >> This might be sarcastic; even for a mind-reader it's hard to tell. His wariness is also easing just slightly. Her eyes, then the rest of her body follows the flashlight. The trees. They're covered by the trees. It's like dealing with a cat. The sane part of her squints in annoyance at this. She is not some animal. However, the other part of her believes that's all she is. Some animal, who doesn't deserve a chance at redemption. That was what they told her. She takes Joshua's hand, slowly. She doesn't quite trust it, would rather just climp up to the canopy up there, but if it's quicker... she's tired as it is. Turns out eating two animals makes you rather tired. Joshua doesn't say anything else. There's a distinct sense of relief that washes up against Scott's mind as he takes the girl's hand, drops his other fist onto Scott's shoulder. Without fanfare, there are three fewer people in the forest. The first of some lucky nighttime scavengers are already creeping in to their bounty of fresh deer.