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Jun. 9th, 2006 08:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsMarie and Kevin meet and talk about the dangers of their powers. Marie is hopeful for some kind of connection, but Kevin isn't ready yet.
Backdated to June 8, 5:00 PM
Marie stood in front of Kevin's suite and felt butterflies in her stomach. Scott had told Rogue about the new arrival to the school and that his mutation was similar to hers. She had never met another mutant who couldn't have any physical contact before and was both excited and nervous. Excited because this was someone who could finally understand what it was like to be her, but nervous about how his development would go. She hoped he would have more luck than she had.
Unfortunately, Kevin's arrival had coincided with her jaunt to Cairo with Remy and 'Ro, so she hadn't been able to meet or speak with him as soon as she would have liked and she felt bad that she hadn't been able to greet him earlier. Marie quickly adjusted her gloves and knocked on the door.
Kevin was lounging on his bed, his gloved left hand resting over his eyes in a drowsy state. His light brown hair was damp from a recent shower, but he was fully clothed in his usual style of dress: cover everything except the face. He blinked and removed his hand from his face at the knock, glancing toward the door. For a few moments, he mentally debated whether it was worth getting up to answer or not and then he decided that there was nothing better to do, so why not?
He rose from his bed, heavy boots clunking against the floor, and headed over to the entrance. Without a second thought, he grabbed the door knob and yanked the door open. "Yeah?"
Marie was startled by the abruptness with which the door was opened. "Um…hi," she stammered. Gathering her composure, she continued, "You must be Kevin, right? Ah'm Marie." She twisted a strand of white hair nervously around a gloved finger. She didn't know how much he knew about her and suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
Kevin visibly paused, almost instantly regretting the attitude with which he'd greeted her. Marie, that Mr. Summers had mentioned? With powers like his? Kevin spotted the gloves on her hands. His eyes went down to his own hands for a second and then flashed upward. "Sorry." He muttered, not meeting her eyes. "Yeah, Mr. Summers told me about you." He glanced behind him, into the suite. The vague idea of being polite crossed his mind. "You wanna come in or something?"
He reminded her so much of her when she had first arrived. Jumpy, scared and wondering how long she would be able to stay at this place before she moved on to the next one. She hadn't even been able to fathom the concept of stability back then.
"Yeah sure," she said while walking into the room. Sitting on a chair, she looked Kevin up and down, taking in the absence of exposed skin along with the slightly haunted look in his eyes. "Ah could ask you all the standard small talk questions about how you're settlin' in and what y' think of the school…but Ah don't think that's what you want to talk about," she said bluntly.
Kevin suddenly remembered that Mr. Summers had also said that Marie was some sort of adviser. He made a mental note not to turn this conversation into some sort of 'express your inner feeeeelings' discussion. He leaned against the wall across from the chair, crossing his arms over his chest, and blowing a stray strand of hair out of his face. "Getting a lot of that, actually. I've got answers memorized."
Marie nodded, sensing the boy's aloofness, but unsure what was causing it. Then again, she probably hadn't been the brightest ray of sunshine during her first days at the school. "Yeah, Ah remember that from my first week here. Ah'm fine, the school seems fine, everything's fine…and all the time Ah was counting the days until Ah'd have to move on, find the next stop along the road."
Kevin didn't like how much that sounded like his own thoughts. He was counting down the days. He knew what he'd done to his father was unforgiveable and it would eventually catch up with him. This place was a haven for mutants, but Kevin knew that it wouldn't last forever. Something was going to happen. "Did you hurt someone?"
Usually, Marie felt like fleeing from the room at this point in any conversation. With Kevin, she just felt the desire to be completely honest and straightforward. She looked him straight in the eye and softly said, "Yes." Pulling at her gloves, she elaborated. "The first boy Ah kissed went into a coma." She paused, waiting to see how he would react to her disclosure.
Kevin thought about the day that his powers had finally manifested into their current strength. He remembered his clothes slipping off his body, turning to dust, his father attempting to calm him down and succumbing to the same fate, a withered corpse with an face representing pure agony. Kevin bit winced and bit his lower lip until he thought he'd break the skin. "He ever wake up?" He felt horrible for wishing the answer was no, for wanting a further connection. He didn't want to be alone.
"No," she answered. Marie debated telling him that Cody was not the last to succumb to her touch, but decided this wasn't the right time to be that candid with him. "Ah still remember that moment as if was yesterday." Closing her eyes, she saw Cody twitching on the bed, the life drained out of his beautiful blue eyes. She remembered hearing screaming and it taking a few minutes to realize that it was her voice, the look of horror in her parents face and the fear of them coming anywhere near her. "Ah know Ah'll never forget that day…but Ah also don't think about it all the time anymore either."
It was sliding into the touchy-feely zone and Kevin really didn't feel like going there yet. Except, now that he was here and she was here and they were discussing...he felt trapped. He leaned his head back agains the wall, looking up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and gnawed on his lower lip again. "So, what you'd do to stop thinking about it?"
"Anything Ah could. First Ah just tried to forget it ever happened. When that didn't work, Ah turned to other escapes. Running, meditating, reading, working." Shrugging her shoulders, Marie smiled ruefully at Kevin. "I found it helped to find something Ah could do that shut my brain off. Ah didn't want to think or feel things, y'know?"
Kevin considered her words, making a mental list of things to things to try. She mentioned running. That was a nice, safe, exercise, right? No contact. "And lemme guess, everybody was like, you need to talk about it?"
She nodded. "But Ah didn't want to talk about it then, or maybe Ah just wasn't ready. It's hard to talk about going through something like that with people who say 'Ah understand' when you know they don't."
He gave lowered his eyes, staring at the ground, feeling ashamed and not knowing why. This entire conversation was bringing up too many bad thoughts. Bad thoughts about Kevin's dad, to be specific."They ever shut up?"
"Eventually." Marie made a mental note to let the staff know not to push Kevin to talk; the wound was too fresh. Glancing down at his gloves, she remembered how awkward it had been to find ones that fit and she liked. "Ah'm going into town in a few days to pick up some new gloves. You…you're more than welcome to come, if you want to take a look around," she said hesitantly, unsure how he would respond to her offer.
Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen, fiddling with it nervously. "Thanks," He began slowly, honestly trying to be polite. "I think that might...you know...that might be nice. I mean, if I've got time," He gestured toward his bedroom. "I'm, uh, decorating." He actually was, but not to the extent that it would take up all of his time. Kevin was still a little too uncomfortable to start into the whole social butterfly business.
Marie smiled reassuringly. "Just let me know…this summer Ah don't have much going on and Ah look for almost any excuse to get out of the mansion for a bit." Her eyes fell to the pen in Kevin's hand. "That's great that you're decorating. Ah've been moved in for a month and Ah still haven't done much to my place."
"I'll keep that in mind." Kevin replied, giving her a nod and a half smile. He slipped the pen back in his pocket, flexing his fingers, feeling the material of the gloves on his skin. "I like things looking nice." He instantly felt like an idiot. What kind of lame statement was that? "It's just a...thing."
"Well maybe Ah should pick your brain. Ah just get so many ideas of what to do that Ah have trouble picking one." Pushing a lock of hair out of her face, her mind was going into panic mode. She felt like she was supposed to be helping Kevin, and here she was blathering on about decorating her room. He probably thinks Ah'm an idiot now.
Kevin hesitated. He saw that she seemed to really be trying to treat him nicely, but he did not want people walking around him like he was glass forever. "It's kind of a thing I gotta do on my own." He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it. "You know, expressing myself or whatever doctors say you're supposed to do so you don't become an axe murderer..."
Marie let out a short laugh. "At this school, Ah think an axe murderer would almost be a relief. Have some of the other students filled you in on the…" she paused, searching for the right word. "…weirdness," she said, settling for Laurie's description.
"Um, I saw somebody flying earlier and Mr. Summers can blast stuff with his one eye. That's pretty weird." Kevin's expression was serious, but his voice held a slightly amused tone to it.
"Yeah, we have a few flyers around here," she said in a bemused tone. He could find out about that particular talent of hers later. She shook her head, wondering how no one had tried to scare the kid with stories of demon invasions and evil relatives. "In a few weeks, you won't even think of that stuff as weird anymore because you get so used to it."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "That'll help me sleep." In truth, he was jealous of the flyers. Their powers were so...useful. What could Kevin do that wasn't destructive? He was an outcast. He bit his lip, self-pity and anger boiling up with in. "I think I better get back to decorating."
The change in Kevin's attitude felt so abrupt, that Marie winced. Her attempt at a bit of banter had obviously backfired and caused him to begin shutting down again. She stood and walked to the entry of the suite, but paused at the door and turned to face the boy. "Ah can't promise Ah'll always say the right thing, because Ah can actually give a better guarantee that Ah won't. But Ah'm always around to talk or listen or just sit and do absolutely nothing." She pulled at her gloves, feeling the lump in her stomach tighten. She had expected…well, she didn't know what she had expected, but this wasn't it.
Backdated to June 8, 5:00 PM
Marie stood in front of Kevin's suite and felt butterflies in her stomach. Scott had told Rogue about the new arrival to the school and that his mutation was similar to hers. She had never met another mutant who couldn't have any physical contact before and was both excited and nervous. Excited because this was someone who could finally understand what it was like to be her, but nervous about how his development would go. She hoped he would have more luck than she had.
Unfortunately, Kevin's arrival had coincided with her jaunt to Cairo with Remy and 'Ro, so she hadn't been able to meet or speak with him as soon as she would have liked and she felt bad that she hadn't been able to greet him earlier. Marie quickly adjusted her gloves and knocked on the door.
Kevin was lounging on his bed, his gloved left hand resting over his eyes in a drowsy state. His light brown hair was damp from a recent shower, but he was fully clothed in his usual style of dress: cover everything except the face. He blinked and removed his hand from his face at the knock, glancing toward the door. For a few moments, he mentally debated whether it was worth getting up to answer or not and then he decided that there was nothing better to do, so why not?
He rose from his bed, heavy boots clunking against the floor, and headed over to the entrance. Without a second thought, he grabbed the door knob and yanked the door open. "Yeah?"
Marie was startled by the abruptness with which the door was opened. "Um…hi," she stammered. Gathering her composure, she continued, "You must be Kevin, right? Ah'm Marie." She twisted a strand of white hair nervously around a gloved finger. She didn't know how much he knew about her and suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
Kevin visibly paused, almost instantly regretting the attitude with which he'd greeted her. Marie, that Mr. Summers had mentioned? With powers like his? Kevin spotted the gloves on her hands. His eyes went down to his own hands for a second and then flashed upward. "Sorry." He muttered, not meeting her eyes. "Yeah, Mr. Summers told me about you." He glanced behind him, into the suite. The vague idea of being polite crossed his mind. "You wanna come in or something?"
He reminded her so much of her when she had first arrived. Jumpy, scared and wondering how long she would be able to stay at this place before she moved on to the next one. She hadn't even been able to fathom the concept of stability back then.
"Yeah sure," she said while walking into the room. Sitting on a chair, she looked Kevin up and down, taking in the absence of exposed skin along with the slightly haunted look in his eyes. "Ah could ask you all the standard small talk questions about how you're settlin' in and what y' think of the school…but Ah don't think that's what you want to talk about," she said bluntly.
Kevin suddenly remembered that Mr. Summers had also said that Marie was some sort of adviser. He made a mental note not to turn this conversation into some sort of 'express your inner feeeeelings' discussion. He leaned against the wall across from the chair, crossing his arms over his chest, and blowing a stray strand of hair out of his face. "Getting a lot of that, actually. I've got answers memorized."
Marie nodded, sensing the boy's aloofness, but unsure what was causing it. Then again, she probably hadn't been the brightest ray of sunshine during her first days at the school. "Yeah, Ah remember that from my first week here. Ah'm fine, the school seems fine, everything's fine…and all the time Ah was counting the days until Ah'd have to move on, find the next stop along the road."
Kevin didn't like how much that sounded like his own thoughts. He was counting down the days. He knew what he'd done to his father was unforgiveable and it would eventually catch up with him. This place was a haven for mutants, but Kevin knew that it wouldn't last forever. Something was going to happen. "Did you hurt someone?"
Usually, Marie felt like fleeing from the room at this point in any conversation. With Kevin, she just felt the desire to be completely honest and straightforward. She looked him straight in the eye and softly said, "Yes." Pulling at her gloves, she elaborated. "The first boy Ah kissed went into a coma." She paused, waiting to see how he would react to her disclosure.
Kevin thought about the day that his powers had finally manifested into their current strength. He remembered his clothes slipping off his body, turning to dust, his father attempting to calm him down and succumbing to the same fate, a withered corpse with an face representing pure agony. Kevin bit winced and bit his lower lip until he thought he'd break the skin. "He ever wake up?" He felt horrible for wishing the answer was no, for wanting a further connection. He didn't want to be alone.
"No," she answered. Marie debated telling him that Cody was not the last to succumb to her touch, but decided this wasn't the right time to be that candid with him. "Ah still remember that moment as if was yesterday." Closing her eyes, she saw Cody twitching on the bed, the life drained out of his beautiful blue eyes. She remembered hearing screaming and it taking a few minutes to realize that it was her voice, the look of horror in her parents face and the fear of them coming anywhere near her. "Ah know Ah'll never forget that day…but Ah also don't think about it all the time anymore either."
It was sliding into the touchy-feely zone and Kevin really didn't feel like going there yet. Except, now that he was here and she was here and they were discussing...he felt trapped. He leaned his head back agains the wall, looking up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and gnawed on his lower lip again. "So, what you'd do to stop thinking about it?"
"Anything Ah could. First Ah just tried to forget it ever happened. When that didn't work, Ah turned to other escapes. Running, meditating, reading, working." Shrugging her shoulders, Marie smiled ruefully at Kevin. "I found it helped to find something Ah could do that shut my brain off. Ah didn't want to think or feel things, y'know?"
Kevin considered her words, making a mental list of things to things to try. She mentioned running. That was a nice, safe, exercise, right? No contact. "And lemme guess, everybody was like, you need to talk about it?"
She nodded. "But Ah didn't want to talk about it then, or maybe Ah just wasn't ready. It's hard to talk about going through something like that with people who say 'Ah understand' when you know they don't."
He gave lowered his eyes, staring at the ground, feeling ashamed and not knowing why. This entire conversation was bringing up too many bad thoughts. Bad thoughts about Kevin's dad, to be specific."They ever shut up?"
"Eventually." Marie made a mental note to let the staff know not to push Kevin to talk; the wound was too fresh. Glancing down at his gloves, she remembered how awkward it had been to find ones that fit and she liked. "Ah'm going into town in a few days to pick up some new gloves. You…you're more than welcome to come, if you want to take a look around," she said hesitantly, unsure how he would respond to her offer.
Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen, fiddling with it nervously. "Thanks," He began slowly, honestly trying to be polite. "I think that might...you know...that might be nice. I mean, if I've got time," He gestured toward his bedroom. "I'm, uh, decorating." He actually was, but not to the extent that it would take up all of his time. Kevin was still a little too uncomfortable to start into the whole social butterfly business.
Marie smiled reassuringly. "Just let me know…this summer Ah don't have much going on and Ah look for almost any excuse to get out of the mansion for a bit." Her eyes fell to the pen in Kevin's hand. "That's great that you're decorating. Ah've been moved in for a month and Ah still haven't done much to my place."
"I'll keep that in mind." Kevin replied, giving her a nod and a half smile. He slipped the pen back in his pocket, flexing his fingers, feeling the material of the gloves on his skin. "I like things looking nice." He instantly felt like an idiot. What kind of lame statement was that? "It's just a...thing."
"Well maybe Ah should pick your brain. Ah just get so many ideas of what to do that Ah have trouble picking one." Pushing a lock of hair out of her face, her mind was going into panic mode. She felt like she was supposed to be helping Kevin, and here she was blathering on about decorating her room. He probably thinks Ah'm an idiot now.
Kevin hesitated. He saw that she seemed to really be trying to treat him nicely, but he did not want people walking around him like he was glass forever. "It's kind of a thing I gotta do on my own." He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it. "You know, expressing myself or whatever doctors say you're supposed to do so you don't become an axe murderer..."
Marie let out a short laugh. "At this school, Ah think an axe murderer would almost be a relief. Have some of the other students filled you in on the…" she paused, searching for the right word. "…weirdness," she said, settling for Laurie's description.
"Um, I saw somebody flying earlier and Mr. Summers can blast stuff with his one eye. That's pretty weird." Kevin's expression was serious, but his voice held a slightly amused tone to it.
"Yeah, we have a few flyers around here," she said in a bemused tone. He could find out about that particular talent of hers later. She shook her head, wondering how no one had tried to scare the kid with stories of demon invasions and evil relatives. "In a few weeks, you won't even think of that stuff as weird anymore because you get so used to it."
Kevin rolled his eyes. "That'll help me sleep." In truth, he was jealous of the flyers. Their powers were so...useful. What could Kevin do that wasn't destructive? He was an outcast. He bit his lip, self-pity and anger boiling up with in. "I think I better get back to decorating."
The change in Kevin's attitude felt so abrupt, that Marie winced. Her attempt at a bit of banter had obviously backfired and caused him to begin shutting down again. She stood and walked to the entry of the suite, but paused at the door and turned to face the boy. "Ah can't promise Ah'll always say the right thing, because Ah can actually give a better guarantee that Ah won't. But Ah'm always around to talk or listen or just sit and do absolutely nothing." She pulled at her gloves, feeling the lump in her stomach tighten. She had expected…well, she didn't know what she had expected, but this wasn't it.
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