Log (Backdated): [Tatiana, Marius] A Talk

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Marius and Tat talk about their similar mutations, and she gets some reassurance - with confusion in the bargain.



Back and forth. Back and forth. Tat was pacing in the hall outside of the kitchen, lost in thought. Your power is like his. Marius. She didn't really know him, didn't really-

Crap. Dinner. It was time for dinner, and he was going to be here and she was going to have to tell him because she said she would, and... crap. "What'm I going to say," she muttered, her hands shoved into the front of her sweatshirt.

"I see I've been preceded," came a cheerful voice. A tall boy ambled up behind her, wearing sweats. His hair had a damp look to it.

"Ah, how embarrassin' -- we've worn the same outfit," Marius remarked as he glanced at her attire. Her flashed the girl a quick grin, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Apologies for the disheveled state. Just came from the shower."

Tat's eyes widened as she looked up, and she wasn't able to stop her cheeks from suffusing with color. She... it was mostly because he was cute, and she knew it was him and it was weird to have only seen someone in icons-

Alright, it might be because she was nervous. Horribly nervous. Really, really- "Oh! Hi." She realised she hadn't said anything, just standing there- Just... looking up at him. "Marius? I mean. Right. Or else you're just a stranger and-" It was kind of amazing that she was just tripping over her own tongue. "Hi?" It was a squeak, and-

She'd said that already. Crap.

"Right the first go. I am indeed Marius, which in turn indicates you to be Tatiana. Apologies for the lack of previous introduction -- I've been a bit consumed in mid-semester projects, and, afterwards, celebrated a birthday in a way which, whilst not regrettable in the least, left some doubt as to whether I would ever regain consciousness." His tone and expression gave absolutely no indication whether he didn't mind her awkwardness or simply missed it entirely, which was an effect Marius had worked on for years. He gestured towards the kitchen gamely. "Shall we see what's to be had? I am given to understand there shall be a distinct lack of meat, but actual edibility is rarely in question."

"You can call me Tat." The sentence was oddly strangled, and her mouth opened and closed again as she tried to formulate some sort of response. His eyes were yellow, and not that she should be staring or that she was staring, but she knew he was talking even though it wasn't making any sense.

"Food. I mean. Good. I mean- right. Let's go see what... No meat isn't bad, really. I mean, it's still food.'

She was babbling. It was maybe a little better then before, and-

"Sorry. I- I just keep... talking."

"No worries, you're in good company there," Marius replied brightly as they stepped into the kitchen. She was thin, he noticed, but he had been thin too when he'd first arrived, albeit for different reasons. Engaging in the fine Xavier's tradition of feeding the undernourished seemed perfectly logical. After a moment of regarding various covered dishes adorning the island, he hooked his finger under the tinfoil covering and had a look. "Tat, I have discovered vegetarian pizza," he declared. "Quite safely in the category of food. Acceptable?"

"More then." She'd lived too long on dollar menu stuff, which sadly didn't mean pizza. She smiled, and it helped chase away that deer-in-the-headlights look. She bit her lip, and shoved her hair back over her shoulder.

He was ignoring the awkwardness, which was a miracle. Good miracle. "So. I. Uhm. Here? Or-" She didn't really want to talk about... that... with other people around.

Marius collected plates from the cabinets, then a fork and knife from the drawer. "Could do the sunroom, I suppose. Sunset rather defeats the intended purpose, so I believe it would suit ours." He peeled back the foil and indicated the pizza. "How many slices, then?"

"Three. Please." She could easily have eaten four, but... "No, four." She flushed, looking down. "Been a long time." She mumbled it, before she cleared her throat. "Do you want anything to drink? I can grab it."

"Cheers, water will do for me." Marius smiled to himself and heaped four pieces on a plate, then another four for himself. In light of prevailing sentiments in the school it was refreshing to encounter someone who didn't waste time arguing a lack of appetite whilst clearly composed of right angles. Perhaps this would be less difficult than he'd been given to believe.

Dinner gathered, Marius lead the way to the sunroom. "Comfy enough," he remarked to Tatiana, toggling the lightswitch with his elbow. "Does it meet your standards?"

"Oh, more then. I mean, I'm not picky." Tat scooted in between two chairs to put the cups of water on the table. "I've never actually been in here. I mean, I've seen it, but that was about it."

Marius settled his plate on his knees, took up the fork and knife, and began cutting his neatly-stacked slices of pizza into individual pieces. "It's a bit sedentary for me. As the sportive sort I have a certain policy for surroundings. If I can't jog it, nor be provided things with which I may life, I'm likely to be sparing in my acquaintance. Have you yet been treated to an explanation of evolution's rather dubious handling of my mutation?"

Tatiana stared at him for a moment, his words slowly siphoning down until she nodded. "I... Right." She licked her lips, and then tried again, to hopefully pass herself off as someone with at least half a brain. "I'm not that active, I just... I sit outside a lot. And... no? I mean, I've not really heard anything about your... mutation. Just that it's like mine." She took a rather large bite of pizza at that, still more then a little worried about discussing her mutation.

"Similar, at least. No worries, it had simply occurred to me askin' after your power was a bit impolite whilst mine remained a mystery." Setting the knife across his plate, Marius skewered a piece of pizza and popped it in his mouth. "Right, let's challenge my powers of summary. First I came here, mutation was a bit bollocksed. I developed some sort of deficiency to do with my marrow. Very technical, never did much understand the specifics. In broad terms select bits of DNA were riddled with holes and required constant spackle. My power bein' adaptability, my body strove to compensate. Of course, being also a member of the genetically buggered, wholesale repair did not so much as happen." Spearing another piece, he held out his free hand to display a shiny white circle of scar tissue on one palm. "Clearly, the only logical conclusion is to develop extra orifices with which to biweekly extract marrow from my genetic peers as a means of prolonging personal existence, thereby makin' me the only student in Xavier's for whom the washing of hands counted as oral hygiene."

"I- you-" She stared for a moment, before reaching to touch the palm of his hand- before realising that was probably ridiculously rude, and her fingertips halted about half an inch from his hand.

Her eyes flicked to his. "That had to be so hard for you."

His eyes briefly touched her gaze, then rolled away. The proximity of her hand was an almost tangible weight in his palm. He wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand before lowering it and grinned.

"No worries. After the third near-death experience that silliness was finally sorted. Thanks to a patch-up job courtesy of Forge, Dr. Moira an' a generous donation from my unbearably perfect half-sibling, my powers no longer strive for my demise. However, whilst I no longer require genetic donations there is a certain curious holdover -- though hardly the only way, seems the vital fluids of other mutants continue to confer certain abilities. To whit, theirs." He paused, then took pity on her and summarized. "Mutant blood gives me powers."

Tatiana stared for a moment, then her eyes flicked to his when he moved his hand. "Oh." Patch up. Unbearably perfect sibling. "Mine-" Her brows knit. "When I get- when an animal bleeds... Animal blood makes me turn into... it. Kind of. Half. It's- It's like some kind of monster." She looked down, suddenly not hungry any longer. "That's it. Nothing else." She just got it on her, and then... poof. Half human, half animal.

Marius cocked his head. Stray comments from Jennie aside, he had noticed immediately that Tatiana's signature was in some ways similar to Marie's, and in some way like Mondo's -- the sense of mutability had a distinctly physical edge. The answer therefor made sense, although the delivery indicated the speaker was still somewhat less than comfortable with having to give it. Well, that he could understand.

"As the nature of my powers was revealed by an unexpected transfusion of lycanthropy, I understand the trepidation," Marius said, sitting back. "--perhaps not so much as the originator of the power, admittedly, but unexpected changes to anatomical topography do possess a certain bone-grinding terror."

"I think like them," Tatiana said quietly, still staring down at her pizza. "I- It's only happened tw-three times. It doesn't happen if I'm careful." She'd almost said twice. That it'd only happened twice.

Because she didn't want to think of the cat. Didn't want to remember it, because she'd had to kill it. Had too.

That didn't make it better. "I- I try, but I get their instincts, sort of. Bad things happen. I- When Jennie and Siryn found me, I was- I was a half... rat. And I was cornered, and I-" She didn't want to cry. Didn't want to cry when she talked about the man who'd been trying to beat her and she'd... she'd mauled him. There wasn't any other word for it. "Did what rats do when they're cornered."

That detail Marius had heard about. "Attempt to defend yourself, you mean?" he asked carefully.

"I mauled him." She didn't remember a lot, besides the screaming and the blood. She still had the weird greenish-yellow marks of almost-faded bruises, but that didn't matter. She still expected the police to show up any day, somehow.

"Perhaps, but the bloke wasn't precisely treating you with the gentlest courtesy himself. Self-preservation is a brilliant motivator an' prone to utilizing whatever weapon is closest to hand." Marius had some trouble putting his heart into the statement; whilst no stranger to a convincing salespitch, certain elements of his own past were making it difficult to deliver. It was hard to spin a good pitch under the added weight of hypocrisy. Shaking his head, he moved onto more stable ground. "And -- here, accidents happen, especially at the start. Really, it's a bit embarrassin' how many of us were introduced to the School by means of violence, intentional or otherwise. People are very understanding."

"How can they just be 'Very Understanding', Marius? What if it's something that's hostile? What if-" She shook her head. "If I hurt someone here? Some animals just attack everyone." She sighed, and rubbed her face with her hand. "I'm tired. You know? I'm just... this is so tiring."

"No, no -- here, look." Marius raked a hand through his hair. He began to debate, then quashed it. Considering the territory he was inching into, giving the instinct a second thought was the last thing he wanted to do. He let his hand drop and sighed. "Right. Here. When you change you acquire certain instincts, you said -- to fight back an' that. Whatever is natural to the animal, correct?"

"I... I think so? I mean, it's only happened tw- three times." Not twice. "I... the first time, there was this dog that'd been hit by a car." She swallowed hard. "And I started smelling things and hearing them before I changed, but after, I could only run, because they were chasing me." Her fingers tightened into fists until her knuckles were white. She'd not really told anyone about that mess.

"Right. Well, such things are not altogether uncommon with certain mutations. Kyle, for example, has a set I am given to understand is quite common amongst ferals, though happily it is primarily limited to a virulent dislike of strange hands on his possessions. Before undergoing genetic repair, I was similarly predisposed to abnormal urges." Marius prodded a mushroom with his fork, his eyes squarely on his plate. "Because of my dietary needs, there were circumstances under which I found myself inclined to attack other mutants."

"If you don't mind me asking..." Tat trailed off. "How did you live with it?" She was staring down at her own pizza, not really hungry anymore. "I just want it to go away. To not have to worry that I'm going to turn into- that I'm going to change and people are going to-" She stopped talking abruptly, her shoulders hunching. Scream. Run. Hurt Me. Those were all valid endings to that sentence.

Marius squirmed. "Er. At times, not particularly well. For the first bit it was -- well, not pleasant. 'Manageable' is a sufficient word. When my mutation decided it had not previously been fatal enough, it became somewhat less so. In that time unwise decisions were made."

Which was one way to describe the majority of 2006.

The Australian cleared his throat. "At any rate, suffice it to say retreat was not the most effective of strategies. During this period I arrived at two conclusions: one, that wanting it to stop doesn't make it so, particularly if the problem is biological, and two, that regardless of how it may seem at the time, strikin' out to manage for yourself is at times not a particularly brilliant idea."

"Believe me, I know that." She pressed her lips together. "I- I kind of got thrown out. After the first- After what happened at school." She'd lived hand to mouth, and chances are good if she'd managed to find somewhere to stay, rat blood wouldn't really have been an issue. "I- I guess I'm just... used to it. To it all going wrong." She looked up at him. "I don't know how it can be a good thing, Marius."

Marius cocked his head thoughtfully. "I don't know if it's so much a good thing or a bad thing in itself. I mean, your hair, is that a good thing? You might be able to argue based upon style, but in my experience hair, left to its own devices, demonstrates a distinct lack of ambition either way. To torture the already wounded metaphor, results are determined by current trends and personal maintenance." He paused, then added conscientiously, "Unless you've been bequeathed with a mutation of the inherently life-threatening sort. Then you're just buggered."

"I-" Tat didn't understand. She was trying to follow all this, but then he was talking about hair, and it was a metaphor, but she couldn't stop herself from looking at her hair (and all it's split ends) anyway. "I guess so?" She looked up at him, her brows knit. "I mean... right?" Confusion, thy name is Tatiana.

She rubbed a hand over her face. "I think... I don't know."

In a rare moment of personal reflection, Marius considered his previous statement. "In perfect honesty," he said after a moment, "it is entirely possible I don't either. Apologies. Like many things, it made sense until it reached my mouth."

Tat thought for a moment, then took a bite of her pizza. It could be worse, she supposed. Much, actually. "It kind of made sense?" Sure, she was mostly being nice by saying so, but it had... a little. "I didn't really have anyone else to talk to about this. So, uhm-" She looked down again, not really wanting to see his face at the moment. "Thanks."

Marius waved it off. "Ah, no worries. After all, in regards to new arrivals it is in the best interest of all to gently steer them through the calm waters of assimilation rather than watchin' a lonely and immediate dive into the deep-end." He flashed another grin at her. "But now, onto more important business. To whit, I seem to recall mention of a new wardrobe . . ."