xp_logs | Laurie and Crystal - Waiting for Takeoff (Backdated)

Backdated. Waiting for takeoff to Jordan, Crystal and Laurie talk about Forge, Eamon, and the uses of mutant powers.

Laurie pushed the pillow into the small gap between her chair arm and the portal that passed for a window on the plane. They were just about to take off, and up front the stewards were going through the safety talk, one pointing out the variety of exits off the plane should they crash, or have something nasty happen.

"I wonder if anyone ever watches those things anymore?" Laurie asked her companion.

"Hmm?" Crystal looked up from the magazine she had been reading. Her eyes flicked between Laurie and the flight attendant. "Perhaps first time fliers do. I suppose the information must be told to all passengers, but I am sure that most people are well aware of the speech by now. It has even been shown in movies and television shows, so even people who have never stepped foot onto a plane might still have seen the demonstration.

"They always tell us to listen up, even if we've heard it before," Laurie noted, closing her eyes and resting her head on her arm. "But I don't think anything has changed in the last dozen or so times I've heard it. Anything interesting in the magazine?"

"Nothing of particular interest," Crystal told Laurie. "I suppose that I am simply attempting to distract myself with something of not much importance."

"Something in particular bothering you that you need distraction?" Laurie asked, eyes opening, but she didn't raise her head from her comfortable position.

Crystal nodded, sighing slightly. "Yes, I... with all that has happened during the past few days, I did not want to mention it. The day of Yvette's accident, right around the time it happened, actually, Forge and I were speaking and he said some things to me that I rather wish he had not said."

"What did he say?" Laurie asked, and the realised that Crystal might not want to share that. "That's if you want to talk about it, I understand if you don't."

Crystal shook her head. "I suppose the bulk of what bothered me was not even directed against me, but then again, part of it was, and that and his other statement called into question so much that I believe in, that I thought he believed in as well. It was a suggestion of a sort, and I am not sure if he was truly being serious. I do not know Laurie, but he should have seen that I was upset right away, and I am not quite sure understood the impact of what he was saying. He has not said anything about it since then."

"I'd have thought he would've apologised by now."

"He was busy."

Laurie gave Crystal a quizzical look, sitting up again slightly so she could face her friend. "Too busy to apologise? That's a bit silly, or was that 'X-men business' style busy?"

"Inhibitor duty, Laurie," said Crystal. "There has been a lot on everyone's minds these past several days, yes? Matters of importance far greater than an apology for something I am not sure he even feels requires an apology."

"Ahh, I'd forgotten he had to stand guard over it," Laurie admitted, laying back down. "Still, you're obviously still upset. Maybe you can talk to him when we get to Jordan?"

"Maybe." Crystal flipped a page in the magazine. "We will see whether or not he takes time out of his busy schedule to give me a call, yes?"

"He will," Laurie replied, tone confident. "He can be a little absent minded sometimes but he does love you. I'm sure he'll make time to call."

And if he didn't, Laurie would call him herself and give him a piece of her mind for sure. This talk of calling people reminded her she'd yet to try and catch up with Eamon, something she should do when they were in one place for a little more then a night.

"He... what?" Crystal looked at Laurie in shock. "He... did he actually say that to you?"

Laurie blinked at Crystal's reaction, wondering what it was about what she'd said that was so shocking. They were going out, weren't they? Didn't that mean he loved her?

"Well, no," she replied, smiling uncertainly. "But well, you two have been going out for awhile now. Wouldn't it be a little weird if he didn't love you?"

"I... well... he... he has never actually said it to me, Laurie." Crystal tried to get her thoughts together, not feeling very comfortable having this discussion. "I do not know... we have never spoken about it."

"You're both private people," Laurie noted, reaching over briefly to lay a hand on Crystal's arm before sitting back again. She could see that Crystal was getting uncomfortable, and she had no desire to upset her friend. "We can talk about something else if you want?"

"Is there something that you wish to talk about?" Crystal asked. "What about your love life? Will you be seeing Eamon again soon?" Laurie had seemed to be pretty open to talking about her mercenary friend, so Crystal was sure that it would be fine to turn the conversation onto what Crystal took to be one of Laurie's favorite subjects.

"I'm not sure," Laurie admitted, smiling softly when she thought about Eamon. She'd left him a message a few days back but he hadn't been able to return it yet. She assumed he was on a job, and couldn't answer. "He's been busy since we last talked. I suspect I'll probably call him once we reach Jordan, see what his plans are. Maybe he'll be able to meet me afterwards?"

Crystal nodded, smiling a bit. "I hope so. You are quite taken with him, yes?"

"A bit," Laurie replied, a slight blush colouring her cheeks as she thought of Eamon. "He makes me feel like I'm the most interesting person in the room when I'm with him, and he doesn't treat me like some kind of killjoy, or freak out about what I can do. It's nice."

Crystal was about to tell Laurie that no one should freak out about what Laurie could do, but that wasn't quite right, was it? "I do not believe that anyone who truly knows you would 'freak out' about what you can do, Laurie," she said instead. "All mutants are born with different abilities, some more powerful than others, but no matter what the ability is, if it is one that can be controlled it is up to the mutant to decide how to use that ability. Your ability is a gift, and you are the one who decides how to use it. You wish to use it to help people, yes? You choose to use the beneficial aspects of your powers rather than the harmful ones." Crystal recalled a journal posts from a few months earlier. "You do not really wish to use your powers on unsuspecting bystanders, do you? That way leads to fear, mistrust, and hate. It might not seem harmful to aid people in calming down, but this is not the proper thing to do in all situations. No one wishes to have to have his or her emotions or thoughts tampered with without permission."

"Not unless it was absolutely needed," Laurie replied, remembering her actions during Day Zero. Sometimes she didn't have a choice but to use her powers on the unsuspecting, and she would again if it meant the difference between people getting hurt, and people coming out of a situation with only minimal injuries. "But that would be the only time. You knew that Manuel doesn't want me anywhere near his sister, yeah? After that whole thing at prom he's afraid I'd hurt her, even if I didn't mean to."

"Some abilities do not interact well with others," Crystal noted, glancing through the window of the plane as it moved down the runway. "Manuel cares for his sister and does not wish for her to come to any harm. However, you can control your abilities, and I doubt that you would be as emotional around Valentia as you were around Manuel in the incident which has caused him this worry. The situation would not be the same, and I do not believe that there should be cause for believing that your powers would harm the girl. Still, if Manuel does not want you to spend time with Valentia, that is his right if he is her guardian, whether his reasoning is logical and accurate or not."

"I know," Laurie sighed, curling herself deeper into her pillow. She wanted to sleep, and forget the past week or so for a little while. "It doesn't mean it makes me feel any better, even if I understand that he only wants to take care of her. It still hurts, it still makes me feel like a monster."

"You should not allow him to make you feel this way," Crystal said, frowning. "You are not a monster, Laurie. Not a single one of us can choose what our mutant powers are or decide what unexpected results may come from them. All we can do is work hard to learn how to control these powers, so that we may choose how and when they are or are not used. You did not choose your abilities any more than I chose mine but we have both chosen to control our abilities so that they do not control us, yes?"

"They do though," Laurie said, closing her eyes on the world around her. She didn't want to see the plane's occupants, or watch the safety demonstration. "They control how people see us, and how they react to us. Even if we never use them on a single person, we're still judged by what we can do. How is that fair?"

"Did anyone ever make the claim that life is fair, Laurie?" Crystal replied.

"No, I don't suppose anyone ever did," Laurie replied, and she fell silent, turning away from her friend.

All she wanted to do was sleep now, and forget about fairness and unfairness. Life would move on as it always did, no matter how she felt about it.