Log: Pixie & Scion

[x-welshpixie.livejournal.com]

 It was almost 2011 and Julian Keller found himself facing some difficult choices. In order to quiet his mind and refocus on the difficult choices he was being forced into, he had retreated to the garage to work on his quarter-million dollar car. Now, stripped the waist and tightening a bolt with a ratchet while listening to his iPod, the young man was at peace for the first time in weeks.

"Hey Julian," Megan piped up from the entrance, hopefully loud enough to be heard over whatever was playing through his earbuds. She had actually been standing there for a few moments but hadn't said anything because she'd never seen Julian working on a car before. It looked really cool, like he really knew what he was doing. She skipped a couple steps, scuffing along the concrete floor, then closed the gap at a normal walk.

Julian didn't have his music up loud enough to drown out her sacrinely sweet voice, he popped the ear buds out as she skipped forward and gave her a weak smile, "Megan, where have you been hiding, kid?"

"London, England. I was on a quest, but it looks like I'll have to find another way to track my sister down. How are you?" She rocked back on her heels and surveyed the tools lying purposefully around the work area.

The once-again-rich-boy smiled, he didn't know much about Megan and suddenly felt a pang of remorse for it. "Well, my family was kidnapped, but we saved them...so, situation normal...oh, and my family has re-accepted me, so that's cool. So, what's this about your sister?"

"Oh, that's amazing. Really amazing." She didn't know a lot about Julian but she remembered when he was having some kind of fallout with his family when she first came to the school. "Well... my sister disappeared when I was still in Wales. I think she went to London, either for school or to try to get into the mainstream rock scene with her band. Anyways, so when she didn't answer my letter I went to London to try to find her. I failed but...I guess... that's sort of significant in of itself. Maybe she's avoiding me? Something is up... I will find out somehow."

"Quite the mystery," Julian relied, wondering why she wasn't more concerned for her sister's whereabouts. "How was England anyway?"

Megan started to feel the tingling burn between the shoulder blades and squelched her emotions to stop the dust from forming.
"It was OK. I stayed in youth hostels and went around exploring, disguising my mutant-ness. I took some cool photos and met other kids who were travelling, mostly university students. It's like... an interesting lifestyle. I mean, being a vagrant by choice, seeing the world. Then it snowed at the end of November and it got absolutely frigid and wet. I got really homesick and came home."

"Ah, I hear ya," he considered her words carefully, "Wait, your eyes are black...how did people not notice that?"

Megan touched her face. "Oh yeah...." She blushed a shade to match her hair. "No wonder the other people in the hostel seemed like they were staring at me. They never said anything, though. At least, not to me. I left my hair natural, so maybe they thought my eyes were contacts and part of my look or something." She'd thought she was being very clever and independent on her journey. But it also turned out that Professor X had been in contact with the hostel managers the whole time, to watch out for her.

Julian shrugged, "That may have had something to do with it." He paused, "My eyes go green sometimes, they even glow."

"Really?" Megan tilted her head sideways and tried to see if she could detect any green in Julian's eyes. "That's cool. My eyes didn't used to be all black. I forget unless I'm putting on makeup or something in the mirror." And she barely wore makeup, or really even did anything to her slightly-messy hair except maybe put in some gel and mess it up more intentionally.

He chuckled as he stretched out his hand and floats an iPod dock over from the top of his tool box, gently setting it on the roof of his car. "Do you know anything about cars, Meg?"

"Not really. I used to watch my dad work on his motorcycle but everything I know about cars is from watching Top Gear on the tele. How did you learn to work on cars?"

Julian blushed slightly and plugged in his iPod, turning the wheel to random, "I learned a couple things from Mister Summers when he was still here, but this is mostly a learn-as-you-go, sort of thing. My insurance ran out back in spring and I haven't paid much attention to her since then. Now that I can actually drive her, I'm just tuning some things up and waiting for the snow to melt."

Megan's gaze traced the sleek contours of the acid green coupe to the angular front. Even the rims looked sharp and curved. "It reminds me a little of a shark. With a Mercedes symbol in it's nose." She grinned to show Julian that she meant it in a good way. "What's its max speed? Have you ever raced it?"

A shake of the head, "Nah, I get in enough trouble around here without adding drag racing to my list of offenses. Oh, and the local sheriff is a bit of a bigot- so, I'd likely be headed to the vault if I got caught...not that I'd ever get caught in my baby." Julian smiled and popped the hood with his powers before floating another tool over from the nearby workbench, "As for speed...no idea, the needle hasn't ever topped out, but I've never really pushed it. Why do you ask?" For a moment, Julian wondered if she was a car junkie, something that Nico had never really shown interest in...or perhaps even a street racer back in England.

Megan moved around to see inside the bonnet. "In one episode of Top Gear last year, they raced your car vs. a Lambo and the Mercedes won. Oh, and Stephen Fry was in that episode. Brilliant. I really like cars... the way they look, how fast they go, but I don't know about their parts and stuff. My dream car is a Nissan GT-R. Fast little Japanese cars are ace," she gushed. "Street racing. Drift racing. What a lifestyle. Of course I don't even have my license yet... need to get on that."

Julian simply smiled as she rambled, "I had no idea you were a gear-head. I'd say we could take her for a spin, but...well, I'm still confined to the property til the end of time."

"Surely you'll be released sometime, right? What did you do?"

"Lied to Doctor Grey-Summers, traveled to Los Angeles under false pretenses, attempted to engage in criminal activity in order to save my family, was belligerant and put certain students into a dangerous situation- though that was more their fault than mine. In all, I fucked up," he shrugged, "they really should have kicked me back to Los Angeles, but between the two of us, I don't think they really trust me on my own." He winked, "Just don't let the Cuckoos hear you thinking that, okay?"

"Jeezus. It must have been worth it to save your family though."

"I'm back in the will, and they want me to move back..." Julian stopped what he was doing and stood up from the engine, considering something. "Huh, you have a gift for getting people talking, Pixie."

"Ah, really? Haha we should talk again sometime, now that I'm back and you're done planning rescue missions." As if life would ever be truly normal around here.