xp_logs | The Magnificent Seven: There's No Place Like Home (Reply)

Clearly, allowing Nathan and Jean to continue as a not-entirely-rational gestalt energy is not a feasible option, and 'Auntie Em' steps in.

The last of the critical tasks accomplished, the JeanandNathan withdrew, still somewhat gleeful at how quickly the enemy troops had broken and scattered with what had been a very simple telepathic illusion, really. They were aware, dimly, that reaching across such a great distance was only possible because of the state of the astral plane. That they were slipping through cracks in ways that were perhaps, not entirely safe.

But it had gotten the job accomplished, hadn't it? Several jobs, actually.

They drifted across the astral plane, a hazy, vaguely bird-shaped cloud of red-gold light, increasingly disassociated from what was going on in the physical world now that the danger was mostly passed. They could see the Wakandan troops on the borders, driving back the rest of the invaders. Could hear the Wakandan politicians in N'Jadaka, talking to their Kenyan and Tanzanian counterparts, listening to how they proposed to get their rogue military elements back under control once they were back on their own soil. Bewilderment, anger, fading to purposefulness - and something close to triumph, from the Wakandan soldiers. Things were settling. Equilibrium was being restored.

But how had it all gone so wrong in the first place? #We're only seeing a part of the puzzle here,# the JeanandNathan mused, drifting. #This is all part of a much grander design.#

#Mmm, yes. But how much of that is illusion caused by near-limitless knowledge of the full breadth and scope of Human Experience? And how much of that is because we're paranoid?# There was a wisp of exasperation which drifted through them, accompanied by the idea of the sound of a laugh.

#It's not paranoia if they really are out to get us.#

The JeanandNathan shivered with amusement. #But they're always out to get us! That's why we get them first. I wonder...# The cloud drifted more purposefully towards the astral reflection of the fighting still going on at the northern border. #If we made the sun dance for them, maybe they'd run away too. We like it when they run away...#

#I do believe that's quite enough of that nonsense# The voice was sharp and cut across the landscape, as Emma stepped into the astral plane. #You are not a gestalt entity and you won't go chasing troops around the countryside until each of you is properly inside your own head.#

Chagrined silence from the JeanandNathan. Then: #Well, aren't you just the spoilsport of all spoilsports, Frost.# If a psychic entity could have stuck its tongue out, the JeanandNathan would have managed it. #We have been burning out insane Chechens and invoking local gods - what have you accomplished today? Leave us alone,# they said dismissively, beginning to drift away. #Plenty of loose ends left to be tied up. And we're having too much fun to stop now. Cry havoc and let slip the firebirds of war!#

#Really# replied Emma. #I'm quite disappointed in the both of you.# The shift in the plane was abrupt and suddenly Emma was sitting behind a desk that looked remarkably like Xavier's in a room that looked remarkably like Xavier's. The small child that stood in front of the desk was androgynous, eye and hair colour shifting back and forth, a strange double-echo emanating from its mind. The sullen pout, however, didn't shift as the JeanandNathan entity sulked furiously.

#Sit# directed Emma, pointed at the chair next to the table and the JeanandNathan child sat on the chair, legs swinging furiously and shifting muscle structure and skin tone with each swing. Emma came out from behind the headmistress' desk and stood over the small child, her fingers lightly touching at its temples. Her scan took only a moment and then she stepped back and sighed. #You should know better than this, the pair of you. However, in the circumstances, it may perhaps have been an unavoidable side-effect.# The combined power of the JeanandNathan entity was far greater than that of Emma but, new to the gestalt, its level of control was reduced. Emma had no problem keeping the plane, and the entity, stable in her choice of environment.

A second, identical chair materialised beside the one that the JeanandNathan entity sat in. Emma reached out, placing one hand carefully on the shoulder of the JeanandNathan child, another gripping its hand tightly. It took only a sudden, sharp twist for the arm to come off in her hand. Emma inspected it carefully, skin tone and structure, and then checked the arm that still remained in the same place on the androgyne, as if it had never been torn off. The arm in her hands was definitely Nathan's, while the arm that remained attached was slim and feminine with a manicure grown slightly ragged over the last few days.

Emma placed the arm on the empty chair and then proceeded with dismantling the androgyne child. Slowly she stripped the pieces of Nathan from Jean, like a demented game of Barbie doll dismemberment, where the Barbie doll remained intact even as she tore away its limbs. Finally, she popped the head from its neck and placed it on the body, duplicated outraged pouts turning into the confused separate expressions of Jean and Nathan.

#There now# said Emma. #That wasn't fun, was it? I guess we won't be turning into a gestalt entity that requires telepathic separation using Auntie Em's patented dismemberment technique again now, will we? Now run along and play with the troops if you wish, children. Don't be nice.#

Jean blinked at Emma, clearly somewhat thrown by suddenly being the only resident of her consciousness. She was torn by a desire to reach out for Nathan's mind again, although she wasn't sure if it was more withdraw from the awesome power of their mental gestalt or the desire to confirm that they would never, ever speak about having been rescued by Emma Frost, of all people, and in the most absurd manner ever. Either way, though, she knew it would be a bad idea. Particularly as, now that they were separated, certain things that hadn't mattered when they were a non-corporeal psychic entity of absurd power were once again pressing.

#Where the hell did we leave our bodies? And why does my eye hurt? Did we walk me into a WALL?!?!#