xp_logs | Crystal and Dori - Storytime in the Medlab

Crystal checks on the newest medlab patient. She tells Dori about one of the times she discovered a new aspect of her own abilities, then discovers something she finds unsettling. (backdated to yesterday)

Crystal examined the hands of the young patient on the bed in the medlab. The blood that had been on Dori's hands and claws when she came in had been cleaned off, but new blood could be seen. Gently, she wiped the visible blood away. "How are you feeling?" Crystal asked the girl. "I refer to both the physical and emotional aspect of this new part of your mutation."

"I feel weird," Dori said honestly. The pain killers were leaving her really fuzzy and making it hard to think, "Are they gone yet?" she asked about the claws. She didn't think so, but as fuzzy as things were right now she honestly couldn't tell, "I don't like them."

Crystal shook her head. "No, Dori, they are still there, and I am fairly certain that they will stay in existence. I do not believe that they will go away, but hopefully you will be able to learn how to control them. New abilities can be frightening, especially when we already believe we already know what they are yet find out that there are more parts to them than we had expected. This is what happened to me years ago, and that is how I found my way to Xavier's."

"Really?" Dori asked, upset that the claws were still there. She had really hoped maybe she had knocked herself upside the head in the woods and had a really weird dream. Like when you ate too many twinkies before bed and suddenly Monkey Joe was Godzilla terrorizing Tokyo. "What happened to you?"

Crystal disposed of the gloves she had been wearing, and sat down in a chair next to Dori's bed. "I manifested at an early age, so at the age of 15 I had already had my powers for more than seven years," she explained. "In that time, I discovered many uses of my air powers, but it was not until my family was on vacation in Hawaii that a completely new aspect emerged. I was upset and tried my best to avoid using my powers, as at that point in time the fact that my family and I were mutants was not public knowledge. While I did not create any gusts of wind, I did manage to cause rain to fall. Not too much, just over myself, but still. I was quite confused, not sure at all what was going on. Mr. Summers's younger brother, Alex, was also at the beach that day, and after I managed to stop forming rain, we went to talk to my parents and they decided to send me to school here."

"Oooooh," Dori crooned, like it had been the most obvious thing in the world, "Did you like it when you came here?"

"I..." Crystal paused. "To be honest, no, I did not care for the school very much and only stayed because my parents wished it. There were multiple situations that caused my negative feelings about remaining here as a student. They say that first impressions are lasting, yes? I believe that people received the wrong impression about me, and I received the wrong impression of them. Eventually, though, I became friends with the woman who had been the main original reason as to why I disliked the school. That was several years after I graduated, however... at least for me."

"Who was that?" Doreen asked, "Do I know them?"

Crystal shook her head. "No, Lorna left the mansion long before you arrived here, and is still pursuing a degree in California. Cooking was one of the classes she taught, and she was also very much the Kitchen Goddess. I, however, did not know anything about cooking other than the fact that I wished to avoid it doing so but needed to take a cooking class with her. It did not make for the most pleasant of introductions. Also, she hijacked an order of Chinese food I was having delivered to my room." There was a hint of a smile creeping through for the last sentence.

"Hijacked your food? That's evil," Doreen said. Having firm opinions about food.

With a smile, Crystal nodded. "The food was brought to the mansion, and Lorna took it and brought it to me. Apparently, she had been afraid that I would slam the door in her face if she just appeared at my suite. I would not have done this, of course. Slamming a door in someone's face is quite rude, and I told her that."

"Yeah, it's not nice to do that," Doreen thought. And then thought how often her brother did that to her or she did that to him. She missed her brother, "It was nice of her to bring you your food."

Maybe Dori had missed the part about Lorna taking her food in order to have an excuse to knock on Crystal's door, maybe not. The events being discussed had happened years earlier, and Crystal had long forgiven Lorna for the various unpleasant incidents that she had made happen. It was interesting how that happened, how some words and events were let go if not forgotten, while others seemed to still exist out there somewhere, unspoken and remaining at the front of the mind.

"Are you hungry now?" Crystal asked, wanting to check on that before asking the question on her mind.

"I like food," was the answer, "Can I have some?"

Crystal smiled. "Perhaps something in liquid form right now, and then we will help you eat something solid later if you wish." She wasn't sure what Dori would prefer; a liquid diet, or being spoon-fed. Neither one was an option people tended to favor, but sometimes certain things just couldn't be helped. "One protein shake coming right up," she told Dori, walking out of view for a few minutes before returning with the promised 'delicacy.' "It really does not taste that bad," Crystal promised the girl as she carefully placed the container into her hands. "Let me know if it hurts or is uncomfortable to hold this."

It took Dori a couple minutes to figure out how to hold the cup without her hands hurting more. And then drinking was slow and lazy, like she was doing everything through a fog, "It's... okay... it doesn't taste like a chocolate shake though. I think it should. Then I'd drink more of them." Being starving though, she planned on drinking this one anyway.

"Drink this one and keep it down and we will see about getting you something tastier, yes?" Crystal was silent for a few minutes, watching Dori drink the shake. "That day on the beach, the one that I told you about several minutes ago," Crystal began, "I was faced with a situation I had not been in before. I think that is why the forming-water part of my mutation manifested at that moment and not during any of the years preceding that and my original mutation. This is what happened to you today, is it not?"

"Yeah, it kinda is," Doreen said, slowly setting the cup aside. Now that she looked back on it, maybe it was something like that. Whatever it was, the result was very Not Fun.

"Dr. McCoy said that Logan startled you," Crystal said, continuing her train of thought. "How did he do this? Did he intend to frighten you, or was it an accident?"

"He was trying to help me because my foot got stuck, but he's so scary," Doreen explained, her eyes wide, "He wasn't trying to do anything bad. He was trying to help me out. I just wanted to run though."

"Is there a reason you you view him as frightening?" Crystal asked, both curious and confused. "Why would you wish to run if he was trying to help you?" She could understand someone wanting to run from someone who was trying to hurt them, but wanting to flee from someone who someone who wanted to help sounded a bit odd unless you had a preexisting reason to be afraid of a particular person.

Doreen wasn't sure how to explain it, "Because he's scary. The way he smells. The way he moves. Why doesn't anyone else get it?" she bemoaned, "It's nothing he DID. He just IS."

Crystal wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. While she had her own reasons for not trusting Logan, they were based on actions and words, not just because he existed. Crystal hadn't been quite sold on the idea of Marius being "the boy who eats people," but once she understood the reason for the nickname-of-sorts she hadn't held his mutation against him. She'd spoken with him, taken classes with him, and even saved his life. Crystal was certain she could get over her own mistrust of Logan if only he'd treat her with a bit of decency and speak with her as an equal, not as someone who was worthless from his standpoint.

"Have you spoken with anyone about this?" Crystal asked. "Is Logan aware of the way you feel when he is around?"

Wow. People just did not get it. "No, and I think he would. I mean... a cat knows that the mice are afraid, right?" she said, not sure how much sense she was making, "He can't not know. Fear has a smell."

"Dori, you should not have to live in fear," Crystal told the young feral. "Logan is not a cat, and you are not a mouse. You are both mutants, and what is going on here between the two of you appears to be a type of powers interaction. I cannot answer as to whether or not he views you as prey, but you certainly seem to view him as a predator. This is something that needs to be discussed, perhaps not right now, but when you are feeling better. We need to see if there is a way to help you with this so that you do not have to feel the need to run away whenever Logan passes by. Have you felt this way around anyone else, or only Logan?" she added, hoping to get a better understanding of what was going on. Logan and Dori were not the only ferals in the mansion, which was also home to other mutants with animal-related powers.

"It's okay, I can normally smell him coming and am gone long before," Doreen said. An that was that. That was all she really planned to do about it. At all. She thought about the last half of the question and started giggling. It seemed really funny. Catseye had kind of made her uneasy at first. And she was mostly okay around Kyle. That was a different sort of fluttering stomach.

That just made her giggle even more.

Crystal wanted to tell Dori that trying to avoid Logan was not a good solution, that she should not have to live in fear of someone sharing the same place she called home. Personal dislike was one thing, no one had had to like everyone, but wanting to avoid someone was different than needing to do so. Crystal wondered if Logan really did know how Doreen felt around him, or if Dori was assuming mistaken information based on the way her own powers worked. Perhaps, even if Logan sensed fear around Dori, he didn't know why. However, Dori was giggling, and Crystal wasn't quite sure that she should share her thoughts at the moment.

"I think, perhaps, that you need rest," Crystal told Dori instead. "I am sure that people will wish to visit you soon, and you should sleep before then. There will always be someone close by in here, so if you need anything, just let us know."