xp_logs | LOG: Vance & Terry

Terry and Vance run into a familiar face in a surprising location.

The Mansion was /huge/. Despite having the time to wander around and look at the mansion while he was here, Vance still found himself turned around and lost on a continual basis, which was why today, he decided to take a break from being indoors and was outside instead. It was less difficult to get lost outside, he had found. He was seated on one of the benches along the side of the mansion overlooking the basketball court, clearly visible from the mansion’s interior.

A round orange sphere was sitting on the far side of the bench from Vance. He was clearly ignoring the presence of the basketball, despite wearing clothes that indicated he had been using that basketball just a little while ago. He was instead concentrating on writing in a little black book perched on a propped leg, his pen scrawling over the paper contained within. Every so often, Vance would take a break to look out over the grounds thoughtfully before returning to his writing, a sort of serenity surrounding him.

From around the corner and out of sight, a pair of voices, one female and one male, called out goodbyes. Tightening the ponytail capturing her hair, Terry appeared around the corner, breathing heavily from a run, judging by her jogging clothes and shoes. Her arms were up and blocking her view of anyone sitting on the benches until she was almost on top of Vance. Well, not literally, but close enough. "Oh, 'scuse m--" Her voice trailed off and she squinted at the familiar-looking new face.

Vance had only been paying partial attention to the sound of the voices around the corner from him. But as the female voice neared and started to address him, Vance folded his journal closed after finishing a thought and turned towards the voice. Already in the motion of speaking before his eyes turned to Terry, he started with, “No problem. Hi, I’m--“

Of course, the moment he laid eyes on Terry, his mouth dried up and his tongue stopped working, meaning that he pretty much dropped his words right there, dumbfounded and mouth agape as Terry peered at him. It took a moment for Vance to recover from his own shock of surprise and come to himself. But when he did, he offered just the faintest of smiles, his face having softened slightly from the standard greeting of strangers at the recognized face.

His words were more quiet, carefully tentative. He never thought he would have seen her again. “Uh-- hi. I-- I didn’t know that you stayed here.”

Terry's face was white, save for a pair of blazing patches high on her cheeks. "Vance," she finally said, recognition stiffening her spine and rocking her back on her heels. "I don't. I mean, I used to but-- What are /you/ doing /here/?" she ground out between stiff lips.

“Well,” Vance started, then stopped to set his journal and pen carefully down on the bench next to the basketball. A moment later, his eyes returned to Terry’s face quietly as he noted her obvious body language. He remained seated on the bench where he was, and finished his sentence. “I live here for the moment. …I just moved in,” he added as almost an afterthought.

"You... /How/? /Why/?" Terry stammered, hands opening and closing at her side in subconscious tension. They are stripped of all jewelry except for a claddagh ring on her right index finger. She gave her head a sudden shake and snorted. Brilliant, Cassidy, she thought to herself, getting ahold of herself enough to force herself to relax. "Sorry. This is just..." she said as she lifted her hand to pinch her temples between her middle finger and thumb.

“A surprise?” Vance supplied helpfully. He smiled apologetically and spread his hands helplessly. “To be fair, I didn’t expect to see you here either,” he said as his eyes looked Terry over, watching her movements carefully. There was a slight pause in the roaming of his eyes as he noticed the even more unexpected lack of jewelry, though he quickly passed it over. His eyes finally returned to Terry’s face as she pinched her temples, and he concluded in question, “I thought you lived overseas?”

"Not anymore," Terry replied wryly, lifting her head and inhaling as she twisted her lips into something like a smile. "Transferred. I am living in the City, actually." She paused and narrowed her eyes at him, then glanced around the grounds before looking back at him and adding, "But I was growing up here. At least some of it." There was an unspoken accusation or question in her tone.

Vance looked back at the mansion upon Terry’s revelation, the connection taking a moment or two to spark recognition in Vance’s eyes. Once it does, though-- Vance turned back to Terry, his eyebrows lifting in another mild surprise of his own. “You grew up here?” he repeated back to her, clearly a little more off guard. He looked like he was waiting for an answer, but then started suddenly in realization to answer her unspoken question. “Oh. Ah, the Professor invited me to live here for a little while.”

"No shit. No one does anything around here without asking the Professor," Terry snorted caustically, bristling at his surprise. "Question is, how do /you/ know the Professor?"

Vance frowned at Terry’s sudden turn in mood, shifting on the bench just slightly. “I met him a couple of years ago. He invited me to come and stay if I ever needed to. He thought I might be able to use a hand getting back on my feet.” This coming from a guy that she ran into just a few months ago travelling through Europe. Out of a duffel, and not exactly of extravagant means, of course, but still travelling through Europe.

Terry took a step closer, dropping her voice a little as she asked heatedly, "And you know what this place is? Have you been here long enough to figure that out?" Neither of them had been exactly forthcoming when they met, it appeared.

“Yes. I know what this place is.” Vance returned quietly. Steadily. His eyes held Terry’s, no reflection of the sudden heat in her voice, but a reflection of the quiet calm in his own. After a beat, he added, “It’s why I came here.”

Terry's breath caught in her throat, nostrils flaring wide despite the lack of air moving through them. A moment later, she croaked out a quiet, "Oh," and turned to sit down hard on the bench next to him before her knees gave out.

His first instinct being to catch her, Vance made a sudden move in that direction, arms starting to reach out. However, as it looked like she was just going to sit, he pulled back again and made room for her to sit down on the bench. There’s a long minute where Vance let Terry process the new information, and he offered up a soft apology, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

"We didn't tell each other a lot of things," Terry said after starting to breath again. She gripped the edge of the bench and looked down between her feet. It took a few more minutes before she collected herself enough to say, "So. How've you been?"

“Apparently not,” Vance added to Terry’s statement, the tone of his voice still a touch apologetic, coupled with wry amusement. While Terry collected herself enough to speak, Vance alternated between watching her and staring out at the grounds. She could feel the energy rolling off of him while he debated whether to reach out and make contact with her hand rested next to his leg or not. When she spoke, Vance turned his head sideways again to look back at the redhead, “I’ve been okay, I guess. Learning a lot-- seeing a lot. It was time for a fresh start, though.” There was a pause, and then he did take her hand. He didn’t grab it or anything, but simply laid his own hand gently over the one closest to his still gripping the bench. “How about you?” he asked gently.

Terry moved her hand out from under his, tucking her fingertips just under her thigh. "And how is that working out for you?" she asked wryly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, then flicked her glance away. Her jaw set into a stubborn, bitter line, but the emotion was unfocused and diffused. "Better than it has for me, I am hoping."

Vance let Terry’s fingers slip away from his without comment and simply moved his own hand back to his lap again. His eyes remained on her for another long moment before he turned his own gaze outward as well. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs, hands clasped loosely together. “I don’t know. It’s been okay so far, but it’s still early. I’m not really sure the reality has set in just yet-- I don’t have any sort of routine around here.” There was a brief pause for Vance to consider his next works. When he finally chose them, he spoke sideways to Terry, his head turning slightly in her direction, “I’m still feeling my way around. You have any pointers?”

"Reality of what? What even brought you here?" Terry asked, sidestepping the pointers questions.

“Well,” Vance started quietly, his hands still loosely clasped together in front of him, “when the Professor first met me, I was in need of his help. …I was in a lot of trouble.” He ducked his head slightly, as it was now time for him to stare down at the ground. She could clearly see the tension gather in Vance’s own shoulders as he remained sitting there in silence, a mixture of hesitance and dread infusing his quiet voice. “The Professor was kind enough to offer me a new start here in a more positive environment once I was free to do so. Maybe he even thought I could have used a little direction.” His head turned then, and he looked at Terry sideways, “That was a couple of years ago.”

Terry straightened in her seat and shoved her hands into the pockets of her running jacket as she leaned back and stuck her feet out in front of her. She returned his look, albeit sidelong. Some of the hard edge to her expression melted into thoughtful consideration, eyes narrowing on him as she actually looked at him for the first time. "It's a good place for that. Even if you are not much liking the direction." Perhaps she picked up on the hesitation and filled in some of the background. Perhaps not. But in either case, Xavier's had seen its share of people with Baggage, herself included, for her to recognize the signs, however belated in their acquaintance it came. "Have any ideas?"

“Some,” Vance replied, voice tinged with mild relief that Terry had not pressed even further on his delay in arriving to the Mansion. His story was not the kind of thing lightly talked about upon first reunions-- especially if there was already some awkward tension. “I’m just finishing a degree in Criminal Justice. The program for Mutant Studies sounds interesting for the moment. And then there are other-- things I have heard a little bit about. Practicing and learning more control over what I can do. It’s still so new, though.” As the words flowed from his mouth, Vance grew a little more relaxed, more easygoing again. The future was easy to talk about; it held promise and hope, rather than regret, and shame, and pain.

"Which classes are you interested in?" Terry asked, shifting on the bench to face him. She pulled her knee up between them and looped her arm around it. This was easier ground too. Concrete and forward looking, though past attraction still tugged at her from underneath.

As Terry shifted in her seat on the bench to face him, Vance sat back up as well, though his hands remained clasped in his lap. “For the moment, mutant rights pertaining to the law. How mutants are treated by the justice system.” He sucked in some air though his nose and then let it out through his mouth, chest rising and falling with the breath. As he continued, a very small regretful smile that teased at his lips as he looked over to terry fully, “I don’t know how I will be able to apply it, though. I won’t ever be able to be a lawyer. Nor an officer of any kind.”

"There's ways. Advocacy groups and the like," Terry said, her accent washing over the words. "And you can work through school, if that is what you are wanting." She fiddled with her shoe string and picked clumps of dirt off the edge of her shoe, focusing on her fingers rather than her words.

“There are,” Vance agreed, watching Terry quietly as she picked at her shoes. “I’m sure I’ll pick up some sort of work while studying,” he said, and glanced back at the mansion. “I’m not sure how long I will stay in the mansion itself. Probably for a little while until I can get my bearings. Or find someone willing to put up with living with me.”

"There's always people looking for roommates in the City. I'm sure there's /someone/," Terry teased lightly, glancing up to monitor its appropriateness to the conversation. She dropped her foot to the ground and stood up with a small grunt of discomfort, her muscles already cooled from her morning run without a proper stretch. "I should be getting back m'self, I suppose."

“All in good time, I guess,” Vance allowed with a slight smile. “I suppose I should look for work first so I can at least pay my half of the rent.” As Terry stood up, so did Vance in gentlemanly fashion. He hesitated for a moment before finally giving Terry a warm smile, “It’s nice to see at least one familiar face around here. Hopefully this won’t be the last time.”

Terry looked at him askance, her expression more suspicious than friendly, but she eventually just nodded and dredged up a smile that plumped up her cheeks chipmunk style. "Aye. I'm sure it won't be," she allowed, then turned to head back into the mansion, only tossing one look back over her shoulder as she goes as if she still didn't quite believe the coincidence of the meeting.