xp_logs | Kurt, sometime in the last couple of days

Kurt is in Savannah. It's amazing how much the strict truth can look like a lie, sometimes.

The bar was not the most popular establishment in Savannah, Georgia. In fact, it was the very definition of a 'hole in the wall'; people could and usually did drive past it without it so much as registering on their radar. It looked run down, moderately disreputable. Its appearance was in fact very deliberate.

A bar that catered to mutants didn't necessarily want to attract too much attention.

Inside, there were a wide range of visible mutants among the patrons, as well as those whose powers were less obvious. They mingled freely, talking, laughing, occasionally showing off their powers. It was a very comfortable atmosphere.

A beautiful blonde woman, wearing a blue-green dress that left very little to the imagination, moved through the crowd, offering a sly smile here and there as some of the patrons tried to convince her to sit and have a drink with them. She managed to leave them smiling, even as she continued to move through the crowd, her attention fixed on a slumped figure at the bar.

He'd been wandering, with an aim in mind but only the vaguest idea of how to achieve it. He couldn't have told anyone how he'd happened to end up in Savannah - he hadn't been following any particular lead, it had just happened. This bar had seemed the obvious place to come, though, since he was in the city. And now Kurt was just sitting, nursing the same drink he'd had for the last hour.

"Hello there," the blonde said, sliding in the chair next to his. She wore that same sly smile. "You look like you've had a very bad day."

"That..." he answered slowly without looking up at her, "...would be something of a very great understatement."

"Bad week, then?" She signaled the bartender. "Bad month," she went on, almost whimsically, "bad year... or is it your life in general you're so grim about?"

He had to think about that. "Not my life", was the final answer. "And certainly not all of the last year."

"Ah." She turned her attention to the bartender for a moment, ordering her drink quietly. "Still," she went on once he had turned away to get it for her, "you have the look of a man who has far too much on his mind." There was something odd about her body language, despite her words. She wasn't leaning closer to Kurt, or giving off any of the small cues that would have said 'Yes, I am trying to pick up this man brooding at the bar'.

Kurt didn't have Doug's power, but he'd learned to read body language as much as someone without it could a long time ago, out of necessity. He gave her a slightly odd sideways look, a little wary but more... curious. "You see things clearly." He raised his glass, for the first time in perhaps twenty minutes, and took a drink.

"A friend tells me it's my finest character trait." Her smile was amused now, almost mocking - but the amusement was self-directed, or perhaps at this friend, not at Kurt. "I'm not sure he's right. Sometimes I see things that aren't quite... comfortable to see."

"Such as?" he asked neutrally, increasingly curious about her but not showing it.

"All the little lies and deceptions. Or right through people's illusions." She laughed softly, sipping at her drink. "Or things I feel obligated to deal with, even if I'd rather not."

"I can imagine how that might be uncomfortable", he agreed, looking away to the rest of the bar. "What kind of things would those be?"

Her gaze was cool, level, oddly amused again. "I'm not the type to reach out to a drowning man - or that's what I would say if you asked me if I was, most days. Turns out that my answer is a little different when the drowning man has something of a claim on me."

That got a sharper look than before, as... something... started to nag at him. "I take it that you mean me."

"Why, Kurt. Would I be that oblique?"

"Evidently you would, since I did not tell you my name." A touch of wariness now... the face she was wearing wasn't one he'd ever seen before, that he remembered.

"I prefer to be oblique whenever possible. Call it another character trait." Still smiling, she met his eyes - and hers went from a deep sky blue to yellow, then back again.

His own eyes widened briefly and then he nodded, not looking away from her face. "I... have been looking for you. Among other things."

"Looking for me, and not being at all discreet about it." There was something gently chiding in her voice, although her smile stayed on. "Not a good strategy, Kurt. I assume you're here on your own because you don't want your... friends knowing that you are looking for me. You aren't the only one who feels that way."

"I have not contacted my friends in almost a week", he admitted quietly. "There might have been more discretion, but I did not know where to start. I tried..." He didn't quite know what to make of her last sentence.

Mystique took another sip of her drink. "I suggest we leave," she said, almost cheerfully. "Some conversations are best held in private, don't you think?"

He nodded in agreement - not without hesitation, he hadn't entirely lost all good sense - but agreement all the same. Because he had been looking for her, and she'd come alone... and he had a suspicion he knew what she'd meant about not wanting friends to know he was there. "You have somewhere to go in this city?"

"Of course." She laid some money on the bar, enough to cover both their drinks, and slid down off the stool with a little laugh. "Somewhere nice and private where no one will find us. For the time being."

He got up in turn, finishing off what was left of his drink, but otherwise didn't move from his spot, looking at her carefully. "For the time being?"

"I have no illusions of my own, Kurt," was the only reply he got. At least until after they left the bar.