Morgan & Laurie: Thursday Afternoon

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Morgan shows up at the mansion. Laurie answers the door and gets unnecessarily offended.

Driving up to the mansion what she saw wasn't really what she'd been expecting. If the school she'd gone to as Vanessa looked like that she might have actually kept going even after she was kicked out of the house. Funny how "mutant" could be called "gifted" now. She didn't remember any pretty euphemisms being thrown around when she manifested. Being in leather pants and a leather jacket from having driven her motorcycle up gave Morgan a distinct feeling of not quiet being properly attired. Oh well, she wasn't going to wear something appropriate to a school while on a bike, was she?

When she walked up to the door and rang the bell, because who would ever hear a knock in a place this big, she half expected there to be a butler answering the door. Someone like Alfred from Batman, maybe. "All they need is a bat cave, too, and the look would be complete," she muttered to herself amused.

"I've got it!" Laurie called as she rushed to open the door, beating one of the Stepfords by a hairs breath and shooing her away with a smile. She finally looked up, and grinned at the person she'd never seen before. "Um, sorry about that. So, are you here to see someone?"

Morgan was busy trying to brush stray white hair from her face and usher it back toward the loose ponytail it had fallen from when the door was opened by a girl. Red eyes looked over her quickly before replying with an awkward, "Uh, aye, kind of." A smile cracked on her face as Morgan laughed at herself internally for that brilliant reply. "I need some help. Heard this was the place to find it. I'm not really sure who I have to see." Her accent made it easy for anyone to place her from Boston, even with the lingering Irish under it. After the blue skin it was the most distinctive thing about her.

"You've come to the right place then." Laurie said with an easy smile. You lived at the mansion for any length of time and you got used to strange looking people turning up at the drop of a hat. As long as they weren't trying to blow the place up, or themselves, it was usually just a case of leading them to the Professor and letting him deal with the rest. "Come on, I'll take you to see Professor Xavier."

"Sweet, thanks." Helpful people, Morgan did so enjoy those sorts of people. Being useful made up for being obnoxious, which the girl wasn't but there was always the potential. Especially with teenagers. "So what exactly is the deal with this place anyway? Mutants incorporated? Place to hide away mummy and daddy's 'special' child?" She'd literally taken it for the modern day version of sending your daughter away to live with her "aunt" when she got pregnant.

"It's an institute, actually." Laurie replied, leading her down the hall towards Professor Xavier's office. He should be in at this time of day, and Laurie briefly entertained the amusing picture of this guest being offered a cup of tea. She didn't appear like your typical tea drinker. "Sort of a school, plus home, plus lots of other things. It's hard to explain. Professor Xavier will be able to tell you more. Mostly it's just a place where we can be who we are without someone telling us it's wrong."

"Why just be yourself when you could be anyone," she asked lightly. An institute? Now it was really sounding like that place you sent your pregnant teen in the fifties. Or maybe where you sent your gay son to be reprogrammed. Perhaps the place you locked up your schizophrenic sister no one talked about. Suddenly Morgan wondered if the institute-slash-school was the better choice over the research facility. Pros and cons and which out weighed which, right?

"I suppose it depends on how strongly you're you." Laurie mused, avoiding a running student with a practiced side-step. It was almost time for the next classes to start but Laurie had a free period today. "I don't think I could ever imagine being anyone else but who I am. Do you make a habit of changing yourself, then?"

"You're always you," she told her seriously as she mirrored Laurie's side-step without even thinking. "Even if you pretend otherwise you can't escape yourself and no matter how long you act you can't actually just change that. It's just layers and under them you're still you. To the great dismay of some, I'm sure. But, yeah, I do. It's what I do. I could be you right now even," she said with a mischievous smile. "It's amazing how entertaining inducing confusion can be."

"Please don't." Laurie said, too polite not to control her visceral fear at the very idea but her voice had cracked even so. The damage that could be done by someone who could pretend to be her, it was unthinkable. "I don't mean to be rude, so please don't take this the wrong way, but I think maybe your idea of entertaining and mine are completely different."

Morgan could see the fear cross into her eyes for a moment. She could see the way muscles tensed until they were forced to relax. A handy side effect of spending so much time studying people meant it was easy to pick up on reactions. "Well, don't take this the wrong way, but you need to lighten the fuck up, kid. Mischief and malice can masquerade as each other but they're not the same. Everything's grey and I didn't walk in here with malicious intent, alright? In a practical joke sort of way two of you walking around is damn funny potentially. In a serious taking your place kind of way? Well, your fear is entirely valid there. But if I really wanted to walk around with your body and commit unspeakable acts there problem isn't a lot you could do about it. But if I was going to go for the sweet and innocent look to do that I'd pick someone older anyway. I'm not here to freak you out but I'm not going to pretend the idea of it shouldn't. But, hey, that's life." She shrugged and while her words at been blunt her tone had been gentle. At least it was as gentle as Morgan's tone generally got which to some people was still fairly abrasive.

Laurie walked for several more steps before she attempted to answer that, gathering her thoughts together from the confused bundle they'd escaped to. "Sorry, it's just that I don't know you, you see? And having someone talk about taking my form, even for just mischief when I don't know them. I didn't mean to say you would be malicious, but I can't help but be cautious, even so. There's been a lot of things happen around here, I guess it breeds a certain amount of heightened caution."

"Unsolicited advice?" She didn't wait for an answer before going on. "Life's too damn short for unwarranted caution. Besides, I need contact to pick up a mimic and I'm not exactly reaching out to fondle you for your form at the moment, am I? So chill. Aye, you're too young to have that level of worry going on. It kills the fun, y'know? You need fun before you're too old to have the time for it." She really hoped all the people around the place weren't so damn jumpy about things. It's just a body, after all. Sure, damage could be done with it, but a person could copy the girl easily enough with plastic surgery as well. Except for the height thing, anyway. And the finger prints. And blood type. Really, Morgan was so much more effective about it.

"I'm eighteen soon, that's hardly young." Laurie replied, bristling slightly. She wasn't a child, no matter how much those around here wanted to treat her like one. "And it's not unwarranted when someone's taken one of the resident's forms and then poisoned the Professor before. So I'll tell you again, mischief or whatever, you'd do well not to take other people's reactions for granted. You might find yourself at the wrong end of something sharp and pointy."

Morgan rolled her eyes at the reaction. "I really hate to break it to ya kiddo, but eighteen's fucking young. And you prove it remarkably. Every teenager likes to think they're all grown up, that they're an adult. But they're not. Teenagers are still kids. No matter how much you may have been through so far you're still a kid and you still think, act and react like a kid. I'm still young, and I'm, what, nearly a decade older than you? Yeah, spank your inner moppet and embrace the fact that you're young because eventually you're going to wish you were young again and that things were so simple. And you don't get this back so fucking be grateful you've got it." Morgan didn't like going into lecture mode, but the teenager was doing that thing where she puffs out her chest metaphorically and tries to strut around to prove how big and tough she was. Morgan wished she could have just been a kid when she was one but a lot of that time ended up being someone's fantasy for a price or learning to kill. Not exactly the stuff of childhood.

"I'll tell you again, lighten the fuck up. Good ole Prof's not dead so the poisoning failed, didn't it? No one said I was taking your reaction for granted, I just don't fucking care about your personal issues. Why should I when I don't want you and you're more concerned with getting uptight than proving you're more than just a kid and your reaction is worth paying attention to? And for the record? Sharp, pointy things don't scare everyone."

"No, he's not dead. Do you normally swear so much?" Laurie asked, tone mild for having just been verbally spanked. It was an effort of will though, no mistake about it. "And you'd be surprised at just how old I feel some days. So, are you here for training, a job, what?"

"Yeah, why?" Right, kids. You weren't supposed to swear around kids, were you? Wasn't nearly eighteen old enough to be sworn around though? Maybe she was one of those suburban June Cleaver types, if those existed anymore. God, if she was offended by Morgan's swearing she hated to see how the kid would react to the rest of her personality. "Well then don't feel old. I mean, don't let it get to you. Been there, done that, not recommended. I guess part training and part what," Morgan told her with a smile teasing the edges of just half her mouth. "Kinda need help with a side effect of my mutation. Nothing major. Well, I hope not anyway."

"Just makes me jump, is all. Doesn't help, what with being overly tense due to finals, I suppose." Laurie admitted, swear words were almost always harsh sounding and sharp, and she was tense enough at the best of times these days. She would be so incredibly happy when she was finished with this stage of her schooling. Not that the letter from NYU suddenly sitting on her desk upstairs wasn't also causing her no small amount of grief. She'd not been accepted, and she had no idea at all of what she was going to do about that. "What side effect, if you don't mind me asking?"

Morgan made a face, not because she didn't want to say but because she wasn't sure how to explain it properly. She didn't really explain her powers to people much so trying was no easy feat. At least not if she wanted it to come across as it actually was. While she figured out how to explain it she chewed on her lip. "Well, you know how I said people were layers and no matter how many acts you put on under it all there's the layer that's you? Well, I kinda work in a weird way and this might not make sense. So I need contact to mimic you, right? Well, I don't need much contact to just take your form and only slightly longer so I get a good enough copy for your vocal cords so I can have your voice. But if I hold on long enough, and trust me it's plenty long enough that it's not happening by accident, I get other stuff. If you're a mutant I copy powers. If you're anyone else I sort of pick up your reasoning. Only way I can try to explain it. If it was you, for example, I'd be able to choose to think like you, but my own way of thinking is still there. Kind of the difference between saying damn and darn in a way. I can choose which way I want to think. So I'd rationalize things the way you do, I'd use the same logic as you and as a result I'd react the way you would. If I'm pretending to be someone else I then have to use that and I have to know the person well enough to know if they'd show their reaction and all. Well, I wore a lot of bodies in a row and it got to the point where I sorta...well I started thinking too much like the person I was in a mimic of. Nearly got some friends killed because of it. So I'm hoping with the big, shiny telepath that the Prof is that he can help me sort that out, stop it from happening again and all."

Her nose scrunched up and then she sighed. "That make sense? Eh, and I'll try to down down the language, for the tension and all. But, erm, yeah, no promises, love. I've got a mouth like a sailor, seriously."

"You'll probably want to talk to Marie, she's got some experience with that sort of thing." Laurie said after a moment of processing everything that had been said. "And the Professor is pretty good with helping people, even if he can't always solve the problem entirely."

She'd gotten over her initial dislike of the man finally, once she'd realised that he didn't have some ulterior motive and just sincerely wanted to help. It had been somewhat of a shock to realise there were people like that in the world, who didn't expect any reward in return. They just helped because they could, and for the most part he could.

The look Laurie received was disbelieving. She wasn't sure what sort of experience this Marie chick had but she wasn't sure how similar it was when it got down to nuances. Nuances really could be the difference between a hairline fracture and an entire gulf where understanding was concerned. "If you say so, maybe I will." Morgan wasn't sure if she'd really talk to this Marie person, but she sounded like she'd at least consider it.

"So what brought you here anyway? Aside from your parents which I assume was part of it?"

"No, actually. Mum lives pretty close to here, and I usually go home on the weekend when she's home. Mostly I'm here because I got arrested and it was thought that Xavier's was a better school then going back to the one I'd been at." Laurie said, glancing at the older woman. "I take it your parents weren't too happy with a mutant daughter?"

"Arrested? You? What'd you do, steal cookies from girl scouts?" She was obviously kidding but she couldn't picture this girl doing anything bad enough to get arrested for. "Meh, I like to think my dad wouldn't have cared. I had bad timing. Your eyes turning red really shouldn't happen while family and friends are gathered at the house after your dad's funeral. Bu the physical stuff happened then and mom," she shrugged. "Well, she wasn't in a great place and kicked me out. Haven't seen her since."

"There was a...fight, I suppose you could call it. Someone got badly hurt and they blamed me. Salem Center police aren't exactly mutant friendly at the best of times." Laurie explained, surprised at how steady her voice was considering she hadn't talked much about the incident to anyone except Dr. Samson. "Mr Dayspring defended me and got me off. He and my Mom decided that I needed to learn control, and so Professor Xavier said I could come here if I wanted to."

Unfortunately for Morgan she didn't connect the surname Dayspring with the first name Nathan. If she had a reaction would have ensued, most likely one along the lines of "oh shit," but instead she just nodded. "So what exactly do you do? Mutation-wise, I mean. Did you actually have anything to do with the fight? I'm assuming you did if it was decided you needed to learn control."

What was with this woman? Laurie would have assumed a normal person would know she was innocent considering she was here, and not in jail. "No, I didn't do anything. One of my friends decided that I was a good enough scapegoat for what really went on. I'd rather not talk about it. As to control, I did need to learn it. I can change the way people react physically, using pheromones. It would have been bad if I'd been wandering around out there with no idea how to turn them off."

Morgan gave her a wary look as if she wasn't sure she believed the girl really had nothing to do with it. Some kids went to juvie, why not send the mutant ones here if they aren't really bad? Accidents happen. She shrugged and let it drop. "Pheromones, huh? Yeah, guess that'd pretty much suck for everyone else potentially if you hadn't learned control. Aye, giant disaster, which, you know, I'm sure some people would have loved from a spectator perspective. The live and happening to you version? Not so much."

"It wasn't much fun, especially not when you almost kill a teacher." Laurie replied, a sharp edge to her voice. She shook her head and smiled suddenly. "You'll get the run down on all our wonderful incidents soon enough, I'm thinking. Wait till you hear about the dinosaurs. Of course, then the older ones will start talking about Asgard and before you know it, invasions by British soldiers."

"Dinosaurs?" She'd have really liked to have thought that was a joke but there wasn't a single clue in tone or body language to suggest it actually was. What kind of asylum had she just walked into if people were talking about dinosaurs and Asgard? She wasn't insane enough for this.

"Dinosaurs. They had a few in New York city zoo but those died a little while ago, I think. They weren't exactly natural - some mutant with a nature fetish created them." Laurie explained, stopping by the door to Xavier's office. "And here we are."

"Fetishes are funny things," she said offhand. Nature fetish. Creating dinosaurs. Jesus, Morgan was thinking pretending to be other people and being hired to kill people was a much easier lifestyle than dealing with dinosaurs. "Thanks for taking me where I needed to go." She gave Laurie a smile and nodded at the door they had stopped next to.

"No problem." Laurie replied and knocked on the door politely, not that the man inside would need it. It was just manners that had been ingrained into her. "You can just go in, he probably already knows you're here anyway."

"Thanks," Morgan gave her a small wave and tried to not be creeped out by the fact the guy already knew she was there. Sure, she knew he was telepath but it was weirder in practice than in theory. She turned the handle and soon left Laurie alone in the hallway as she disappeared behind the door.