Log: Megan and Artie

[x-welshpixie.livejournal.com]

 Megan scuffed down the stairs in her new fuzzy slippers to the rec room. Purple fuzzy rabbit faces smiled up at her, and she had to feel at least a little bit cheerful. The rec room was dark but the TV was on, filling the room with a comforting blue glow. It was probably the menu channel, which meant no one was really watching it. When Megan was upset, she didn't really want to talk about it but she didn't want to be alone either. She hoped that someone would be awake to not exactly talk to...

Artie was still up, despite the late hour, flicking from one channel to another but mostly settled on SciFi. He'd flicked the lights off a while ago, a legacy of a childhood in the mansion where well-meaning but annoying older residents would point out that he ought to be in bed now, thank you. He looked around when he heard footsteps, squashing a long-buried urge to hide.

"Oh, hi," said Megan to the new kid. Well, he was sort of new to her. She hadn't had the chance to really meet him yet, although they were in the same Sophomore classes. And they’d both been away for different parts of the school year. "Uh, do you mind if I watch too? I don't really care what's on the tube as long as it's not wrestling or infomercials." She padded closer. "Actually, I kind of like the infomercials," she amended.

Artie nodded and pointed to the couch, sitting up and sweeping his feet off it. He really barely knew her, mostly because it seemed as though she’d been gone like, half the year. He clicked the remote a couple of times, putting it onto the shopping channel before tossing it over to her and flashed up a small hologram of Megan watching one, followed by mansion mourners at a funeral.

Megan took the remote and flopped down.
"Hey, it's the Pasta Pot. We have one in my suite kitchen! Someone here must actually buy things off TV or maybe someone got it for them." She looked over at Artie. "Huh? Oh... yeah I'm just a little worried about something..."

He shook his head despairingly. Artie's own suite was free of that sort of thing and he was mildly grateful for it. He raised his eyebrows and flashed up a question mark whilst guesting 'come on'.

"Uh, just uh... family stuff. I haven't seen my older sister Molly for a really long time now. She was supposed to be my guardian after my parents died and she kinda just cut loose. Anyways so I finally got enough guts to send her a letter. And she didn’t reply so... I went to London for like 6 months to look for her... but... maybe she’s somewhere else." Wow, had it really been 6 months? Megan realized she was pushing the round "buttons" on the couch where the fabric gathered and stopped. "Do you see your family much?" A set of dog figures made with Swarovski crystal were up next, mesmerizing in their gaudiness.

He showed her an exclamation mark, this time, and a sadface icon as she talked, the equivalent of anyone else's 'wow, that really sucks' and then shook his head in reply to Megan's question. He used faintly glowing green text, projecting it against the floor as he explained. "no. i dont even remember them really. i know the lady who looked after me and was sort of my mom sent me here when i was 8 but thats all i really remember. ive never even talked to her since then."

Megan scanned the green text, then looked back up at Artie. "Oh... I'm sorry." It could be tricky bringing up the subject of family. A lot of kids had sad stories, and Megan's wasn't nearly as sad as some. "It seems so cruel. When things get tough, and there's nothing I can do, I just try to think of everything as a bad dream that I'm watching unfold. Distance myself a bit, you know? Does that sound like a bad idea, to pretend its not really real?"

He shrugged. "It is real, though. but i don't remember them so i don't know what i don't remember, u know?" He snapped his fingers, drawing her attention and flashed up a picture of Alison (and not the one from the last time he'd seen her, after Apocalypse and all the rest of that). "alison sort of became my aunty after i arrived here, though."

"Oh... she's pretty. I don't think I've seen her before," said Megan, gazing at the faintly glowing hologram of the blond woman. "I've got an auntie back in Wales. My grandmum's sister. Um, she sends cards and stuff but she's old and a little batty. It's nice to still have someone though."

He nodded quietly before saying "she … had some trouble a while back, so." Artie shrugged. He didn't say the last of it, that he still missed the old Alison or that he hadn’t spoken to the new one over Christmas. "i hope ur sister writes back, though."

“Thanks, I hope so too. Um, for some reason I think she might be hiding something. We used to be pretty close, but like... with her being the older sister... it seemed like she would always distance herself if there was something going on that she thought would be like a bad influence on me, you know? Like when she started smoking. She didn’t tell me and totally avoided smoking around me so I wouldn’t pick up the habit. Anyways that only lasted for one summer.” The thought had just occurred to her, right as she tried to explain her feelings to Artie. But it made sense--Molly must be avoiding her on purpose. “Yeah... anyway... I hope your aunty gets back to normal. It would be nice if we all could have normal lives.”

He flashed up an image of normalacy, a couple with three kids in front of a double story house and white picket fence deep in suburbia and then shrugged, turning the skin on one parent blue and the giving the other wings and putting a question mark over it all. Artie paused, unsure if she’d get it and switched to text again. “i dont know if we get normal. or if we’d know what to do with it if we did.”

Megan had to giggle a little at the image. The question mark was about right. She really didn’t know how to picture an ideal family for herself.
“You’re right... I don’t think I’d know normal if it was bright purple, dancing on a pub table and singing ‘Normal Times Are Here Again.’ Though maybe I’d go back to Wales...if I was settling down, I mean. I dunno. Cottage by the sea. That kind of thing.” She got a little embarrassed. “Where’s your ideal home?”

Artie shrugged. “i’ve lived here and in the tunnels. so idk, something up really high with balconies and views. that would be cool.”

Megan started picturing a penthouse suite high above the New York streets--then grabbed her mini sketchbook and drew a quick silhouette of black, rectangular skyscrapers against a scribbly sunset background with her ever-present Sharpies. She flipped it around so Artie could see it the right way up. “Too urban?”

He grinned. “no. its perfect. i don’t want to be stuck like, 5 million miles away out in the country with nothing but me and some crazy hick farmer that thinks like, his sister is totally okay as his girlfriend.” The image he displayed with this statement looked, passingly, like Sam as he’d been when he first arrived at Xavier’s. Artie figured Megan wouldn’t notice or anything. Sam was totally grown up and less funny looking these days.

Megan didn’t recognize the hick farmer in the hologram but found the entire scenario funny regardless. “So I’ve learned that people in the way-out areas live pretty much the same way, no matter what country you’re in. I’m from a small coal mining town... you shoulda seen some of the kids at my old school. The fact that we were only an hour away from a major city didn’t seem to make any difference. And if you didn’t leave once you graduated high school, you were stuck forever.” She started doodling idly on the next page as she talked, and it slowly morphed into an angular face from profile with a sloped brow and enormous eyes with eyelashes like wings.

A little stick figure man barfed in time to Megan’s description of the coal mining town. “that sounds horrible. i don’t ever want to live someplace like that. seriously.”

“Well, when it’s all you know? I was popular so school was fun and I basically just pissed about. Spent all my time chatting and texting with my mates, at home or at school. But yeah, looking back, it seems pretty lame. Like, here... I don’t even worry about trying to be popular or keep up with everything. It’s a different world. If you don’t mind me asking... what was it like to live underground? The Irish faeries, the Sidhe, lived underground and I always was really into that lore.”

Artie shrugged and took a moment to project an image of the tunnels. “I really don’t remember much. it was ...dark. i mean, we had lights but it was always dark and cold. you could hear the subway and the rats, sometimes or someplaces you could watch the people on the surface.” Another shrug. “and there were other places where if we saw anyone else at all the rule was i had to run like hell in the other direction.”

“Oh...” Megan wasn’t sure what to say to that. “It sounds a little scary, but... at least you’re safe now. As safe as it gets for mutants, I think.” She smiled at Artie. “Thanks for talking with me.”

Artie just nodded and shrugged slightly.

A special jewelry collection made from cubic zirconium flashed onto the screen next, and Megan watched, the volume down low, as silence settled in the rec room.