xp_logs | Kyle, Meggan, Amanda

One for the wayback machine - not long after Meggan's arrival she meets Kyle and decides that yes, he is Good People.

There were more than a few people Kyle could recognize by smell right off. Forge, and Jay, naturally, and a few of his teachers and classmates. In this case, Amanda; he recognized the light smell of smoke and the slightly singed spicy smell that was unique to the witch. He figured it had to do with magic and that magicians smell like burnt thyme, like Forge smelled of plastic and metal, and Dr. Hank smelled like cotton and fur and coffee.

This time, the unique Amanda-smell was accompanied by something else. Definitely another person, smelling an awful lot like clean laundry and cut grass and fresh dirt, and a whole lot of other things Kyle couldn't quite place. The other person definitely smelled like Outside.

Hanging upside-down from his branch, lower legs wrapped around the tree limb, Kyle looked down. If the one smell was Amanda, and he was certain it was, the -other- was probably the kid she'd found, Meggan, the one who'd been in a cage. He bit back a growl, trying not to think about that. Kids, no matter what, didn't belong locked up, mutants or not.

Meggan LIKED going outside. It smelled really good, and the sunshine was warm on her now-short fur. And Manda was teaching her words for outside things. "~Grass,~" she said solemnly, pointing to it. "~Tree. Rock. Mud. Tree.~" She looked up into the tree, and saw Kyle looking back. "~Tree animal person?~" she hazarded.

"~Tree animal...what?~" Amanda blinked at this new addition to the litany, and looked up at where Meggan was pointing. "Oh, hi Kyle. I'd ask what's up, but apparently that's you already. You haven't met Meggan yet, have you?"

"Its a good day for climbing, and nope, not officially or anything." He'd figured out pretty fast that the small monkey was Meggan. Especially when she was pointing up at him and saying... something. At least, Kyle was pretty sure Meggan was a she. Meggan was a girl-type name, and she had a girl-type voice. Even if she looked more like a monkey.

He slid off the branch, twisting in mid-air and landing on the ground in a crouch, nearly on all fours. "Hey. I'm Kyle." he said. Even if Meggan wasn't speaking English, and he remembered that Amanda had said something on the journals about that, it was decent to introduce himself personally.

Meggan clung to Manda's hand, inching forwards a bit. This was definitely a Monster, not a People, which was reassuring. He looked almost as not-normal as she did. "Meggan," she said, pointing to herself, and then reached out to pat his arm gently. It was sort of half-furry. And... she leaned forward a little more and sniffed... he smelled interesting.

"She's empathic," Amanda explained, hoping this wasn't going to go the way of the meeting with Manuel. "Touchin' people helps her read 'em, from what I can understand." She squeezed Meggan's hand gently. "~Kyle's a good person,~" she said in Romany. "~He's one of Nate's, like I am.~"

Kyle nodded, keeping in his low crouch so that Meggan could keep doing whatever she needed to do. "So she can read how people feel, like Dani and Manuel?" Okay, he could deal with that. Manuel was kind of a creep, but Dani was good people. Weird people, but good people. He grinned at Meggan investigating how he smelled. "Maple trees, which is why I smell like syrup kinda. Only kinda though."

He felt nice inside, Meggan decided. Sort of furry and warm. And young... she was learning to tell the difference between adults and not-adults. This one definitely wasn't quite grown up yet, even if he was very big. "Kyuh," she attempted, giving him a shy smile that showed sharp teeth.

"Kyle," Amanda repeated, stressing the "L" sound for her a little. So far, so good - no signs of biting yet. And the smile was definitely a good sign. "She's not like Manuel - she can only read, not project," she told Kyle, perhaps a little snippily - she was still not happy with Manuel's attitude towards her little girl. "But yeah, otherwise she seems t' be able t' pick up emotions. I think that's one of the things that makes her change - when she's happy, her fur gets all soft."

"Gotcha. Just reading, not writing." Kyle nodded. "So she gets fuzzier when she's happy? Cool." He smiled back at Meggan showing equally-sharp-if-bigger canines. Cute kid. Still looked like a monkey, but definitely cute. "Had a chance to meet Miles and Artie and the rest of the midget bunch yet?" He kept his attention on Meggan, remembering how much it had sucked when the doctors at the detention center had talked around him. Kyle didn't much like feeling stupid, and he figured neither did anyone else.

"Kyle," Meggan repeated, patting his hand gently. Definitely a nice one. "~Manda, Kyle tree why?~" She'd seen flying animals... birds, that was the word... sitting in trees before, and sometimes the little scampery animals, but why a Monster would be up there was a mystery. Was there food up there?

"She wants t' know why you were up the tree," Amanda translated to Kyle with a grin. She could have explained herself, but better it came from Kyle.

"Its what I do?" Kyle held up one hand, claws out, and then pointed down at his bare feet. "I dunno, I just like climbing. Its .. " He shrugged. "Its a thing. I feel better out here in the trees than I do all shoved into a room where I can't move." He left out the chasing squirrels and birds and hunting deer part. Meggan might not be upset, but it was probably better to check with Amanda first.

Meggan crouched to look at his feet, reaching out to feel the heavy claws that poked out of his toes. They did look like they'd be good for climbing with... One paw still on Kyle's foot, she looked up at Amanda, awaiting the translation.

Amanda furrowed her brow, trying to think of the best way to translate this. "~He likes to climb. It makes him feel good,~" she explained in Rom. "~It helps him... be himself.~" Okay, that last was probably moving a little too far into the poetic, but it was the best she could come up with, and she blamed all those spell books for her occasional turns into the wanky. "It's hard t' explain stuff sometimes," she continued to Kyle. "She didn't get talk much in the way of words, and while she's pickin' up stuff really fast, I have t' remember she doesn't even know the names of most things, let alone what they're for."

"Yeah, I figured... " Kyle shrugged. "Might be kinda hard to explain 'Oh, and also trees are better for sneaking up on squirrels and birds and stuff.' And the whole hunting deer thing. Hard to explain." Half the time it boggled him to think about. That he and Rahne and Catseye could actually -do- that kind of thing.

While watching Meggan explore the claws on his
feet, a thoughtful look, rare for Kyle, passed over his face as he put two-and-two-and-two together and came up with questions. "Um. So, Meggan changes her shape right? If... if its okay, and she can do the claws thing, I could take her climbing. I mean, on low trees, not the big ones. You know, whenever she's up for it."

Meggan sniffed him again, smelling trees and other interesting smells. "~Kyle good,~" she decided, giving his foot another pat and wrapping her free arm around Manda's leg. She looked up at both of them, glancing from one to the other as they talked.

"I dunno how much control she's got overall, but yeah, if she'd like that, we could work somthin' out." Amanda smiled at Kyle, pleased at the suggestion, and the interest. She translated his questions to Meggan, adding to Kyle. "She likes you, by the way. Decided you're one of the good ones."

"Cool." Kyle said, nodding. "I, uh.. won't, you know, take her climbing without you around, no matter what Alison might've said about Miles and me the once." Or twice. Or whenever Miles made that "But pleaaaase" face. Kyle was far too aware of how very dead he would be if Alison ever found out just how high up Miles had gone. "One of the good ones?" He questioned, trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean. There were 'bad ones'? Though, given the rumors about Amanda and Manny, maybe -he- was one of the bad ones. Which made sense, Manny was a creep.

"~I climb,~" Meggan agreed, having looked up at the tree and thought it over. She got tired too easily now, but Manda had promised that would go away in a while. And she did get tired less already, now that she had so much good food to eat. "~Climb with Kyle.~" She beamed at him, and risked letting go of Manda long enough to give him a quick hug around the waist.

"I think that answers the question 'bout good ones," Amanda said with a grin. "She says she'd like to climb with you, by the way. Not now, 'cause she's still not very strong, but later. An' I appreciate it, you not takin' her out without me, tho' I think after the first couple of times'd be all right any way."

"Cool. Very cool." Kyle said, grinning. "'s good exercise too, or so Dr. Hank tells me. Good for muscle building because of all the hauling up your own body weight and stuff." As typical for Kyle, his thoughts wandered off on tangents, and he remembered.. "Oh! The gym has a climbing set, I bet that you could put a mat under it and it's adjustable. Because of people who can standing leap a couple of feet in the air, and not everyone
can."

Meggan looked up at Kyle with a thoughtful expression. His ears were pointy. And his teeth were pointy. Her teeth were pointy too, although her ears were getting to be more earshaped and less batwing-like. She should take a closer look. She held up her arms hopefully. "Up?" she
coaxed.

"Thanks for the heads-up on the climbin' set - might be a way t' get her started where she's safe, build up her strength." Amanda chuckled at Meggan's imploring tone. "Oh, she definitely likes you. She's usin' the cute on you."

Kyle covered his eyes with one hand. "If this gets out to Forge, I am never forgiving you. And 'm eating your iguana." He crouched down a bit to give Meggan a chance to feel comfortable, and then hoisted her up to be level with his eyes. "You." He declared. "Weigh like, nothing. Which calls for oatmeal cookies, but don't tell anyone I said so."

"Cookies!" Meggan agreed, recognizing one of her favourite new words. She felt his ear with tiny fingers, tugging gently on the point. Real. Definitely real. She felt her own ear, which was currently a thin, soft curl of flesh, but which came up to a sort of point at the top. She hugged Kyle around the neck happily. Someone who looked a little bit like her!

"Blame it on the irresistible cute kid," Amanda said with a chuckle. "An' the scary thing is she's heavier than when I found her." She reached over and tickled Meggan's cheek lightly, the expression on her face softer than most people had seen. "Still, we're gettin' there. Lots of food an' sleep an' sun, right?"

Kyle grinned at Meggan as she inspected his ear. "Can't argue with that much. Food and a nap in the sun's pretty much my idea of a good day." That and chasing rabbits - or Catseye, or Rahne around the woods. "You know, once Meggan starts school, they'll probably give her the same wacky schedule I've got, with time built in for having to eat more and get outside and stuff. Means I end up with a bunch of tutoring after dinner, but 's better than flunking something because I can't sit still."

Meggan snuggled happily, patting Kyle's hair. Then she found a leaf in it, and pulled it out and looked at it. "~What?~" she asked Manda, showing her the leaf. Tree she knew, but what the green things that hung from them were she'd never known.

"~Leaf,~" Amanda said, then repeated it in English. "Leaf. They're like hair for trees." Meggan had a very good memory, she'd noticed, so teaching her both Rom and English wasn't as hard as you might have thought. Then to answer Kyle, she went on: "Yeah, school'll happen, once she's more settled an' doesn't mind bein' apart from me for the day. I'm working with Moira on her powers an' all when she gets back - she's not exactly a feral like you or Rahne, an' there's the empathy thing as well. Little bundle of complications, is this one."

"We're all pretty complicated." Kyle said. "I mean, for all that I could probably pass with a hat and trimming the claws, my insides are just as mutant as my outsides." He was still a little miffed about not being able to have chocolate, because it still smelled -good-. "Once you start school, Meg?" He said. "Don't eat the paste. I mean, -trust- me. It smells good, but it tastes really awful."

Meggan nodded obediently, as Manda translated. Yet another thing that wasn't for eating... there were so many non-edible things in the world! Still, if it tasted bad, she didn't want it. "Yes," she agreed, snuggling up and putting her arms around his neck again. "School what?" she added. School was a difficult word... sometimes it seemed to mean House, other times it meant Book-Things or was said like a Bad Word.

"~School's learning time,~" Amanda explained after a moment's thought. "Where you go for people to teach you things, like how to read books."

Meggan nodded again, frowning thoughtfully. It hadn't occurred to her that reading was something you could learn. Did that mean that she could learn? And read stories to herself when Manda was busy? "Meggan read?" she asked hopefully, untwining one arm from around Kyle's neck to reach over and tug on Manda's sleeve, the way she did when she wanted something an extra big lot.

"Yes, love, you'll learn to read. An' write too. An' all sorts of other things." Amanda had learned what the tug meant. "An' now, how about headin' back for some food?" She looked at Kyle to include him in the invitation. "Dani's been makin' frybread again."

Kyle nodded, grinning. "Mmm. Frybread." Thinking about it made his stomach grumble a bit, just in anticipation. "I swear, if Dani wasn't already like, my favorite crazy person, she'd be my favorite crazy person."

"Food!" Meggan agreed, giggling. Kyle's tummy was growling. "Frybread!"

"Sounds like it's unanimous," Amanda said with a chuckle. "Let's go raid the kitchen."