Genosha - Stemming the Tide: Home Base
May. 31st, 2012 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsHaving reached Jayresh's people, tours are given and stories exchanged.
Their guide appeared to be around eleven years old, but she walked the camp with the confidence of long familiarity. Her skintone indicated she might be of mixed parentage, but it could also have been attributable to hours spent in the sun. Her name was Zoe.
"You can stay here," she said, opening the door of the dwelling for her guests' approval. It wasn't quite a shack, but it did have that rough-and-ready sort of construction that indicated it wouldn't be mourned if left in a hurry. She turned to regard them with serious brown eyes. "I'm staying with Tanya and Daniel until Demarco comes back so nobody's here. There's two cots. Someone can sleep on the floor too if you want, but bugs come in at night." She seemed to consider for a moment. "Also check your shoes and clothes when you wake up. A lot of people don't know that." She glanced at Marius. "Except you don't have clothes. You should probably get some."
Marius peered past the girl into the shack. There were no rooms. One end held two cots separated by a privacy cloth and some mosquito netting. Another corner hosted a table, camp stove and a cooler, plus a few gallon containers of water. A rough shelf held a few personal effects and a handful of battered books. Old but sturdy rubber bins occupied some space under the cots, indicating they were the occupants' equivalent of a closet. That was all.
"They became inconvenient," Marius replied, pressing his hand to the shredded cloth that wrapped his waist like an especially hard-worn bathtowel. He turned his attention back to the girl and smiled. "Though now that we've settled a bit I shall be pleased to find some."
Molly glanced around the hut. It was like camping. Except the tent was made of wood. She didn't really look at Marius, cause, yeah.
"What kinda bugs?" she said. Were there scorpions? The Indiana Jones movie had scorpions.
"Spiders and ants mostly," the girl replied in the same matter-of-fact tone she would have used to declare she needed a new toothbrush. "Sometimes millipedes come in. They can get long as your arm. They don't bite but one of them fell on my head once. Not here, though." Zoe pointed at one of the bins under a cot. "You can borrow some of Demarco's clothes. He's okay with sharing."
"We bought a few spares ourselves, but the offer is appreciated." Marius tilted his head at the girl. "Who's Demarco, then? Your brother?"
"No, I just stay with him. He's friends with my mum and dad." Zoe dropped into a squat and put her finger out to touch the side of the shelter. She pulled it away holding something thin and twiggy-looking, which she moved to the back of her hand before presenting for Molly's inspection. "See, here's one of the bugs. This is one of the outside-kinds though."
Molly inched closer to the bug, her eyes wide with a mixture of curiosity and wonder. It was the first time she'd really not been scared in a little while. She remembered bugs. She liked bugs, when they weren't bitey.
"Can I hold it?" she said, looking from Zoe to Marius.
"Sure, these ones are nice. Their legs are prickly though." She amiably transferred the bug onto the older girl's hand and smiled. "I used to collect them. Sometimes they rock. It's neat."
Molly brought the bug closer to look at, tilting her head. "Rock? What do you mean?" she said.
"Why don't you collect them anymore?"
"It's hard to find a good place to keep them here. Besides, they're all over, so I don't need to." Zoe pointed to the stick insect. "Sometimes if you leave them alone for long enough they start moving. Like, swaying? Dad says it might be because it makes them look like they're branches moving in the wind."
Swaying? Molly lifted her hand a little, watching the stick bug walk down her arm. It tickled a little. She wasn't used to tickling and it made her squirm a bit as she let out a quiet giggle.
"Really?" she said, glancing up to Zoe with bright eyes, she smiled. "That's so cool!"
Glad as he was to see Molly interested in something, Marius found himself beset by some very uncomfortable suspicions about why a girl Zoe's age was living in a place like this. Her next question only fed the growing knot in his stomach.
"Are you a mutant, too?" Zoe asked, giving Molly a curious look. She shrugged at Marius. "I know he is because he's got a tail, and some of the other people have wings, but you look normal so I'm wondering."
Crouching down, Molly let the stick bug crawl off her hand back onto the ground. She shook her head.
"I was. I lost my powers, though."
Zoe's eyebrows raised. "You're not a mutant anymore?"
"She's still a mutant, she just can't use her powers at this particular moment," Marius interjected before the conversation had an opportunity to set course for Due Semantics. He turned to Molly. "You still read as mutants. And Korvus gave me a lend of his before we got out, an' he wouldn't have been able to if anything was actually changed, you know. Another mutant just blocked them off for a bit."
Blinking a little Molly glanced up. "I am?" She let a little hopeful smile creep across her face. "Are you sure?"
"Callie said we might not get our powers back so...I thought...y'know."
Marius nodded gravely. "Quite certain. That is my power, after all. And it is not so uncommon an occurrence as one might think. One of my best mates I met whilst similarly blocked due to a particular device he had created, and some years ago I encountered a mutant who could induce a similar suppression of power. Neither proved permanent." He gave her a grin. "So -- though I can make no promises, I wouldn't worry overmuch, eh? It's a bit of an embuggerance, but hardly hopeless."
Biting her lip, Molly's eyes grew impossibly bright. Hopping up she wrapped her arms around Marius and hopped up and down at the same time. It was kinda hard but she tried her best.
"Really? Oh my gosh! That's awesome!"
Then she could beat people up. She had a few people she wanted to beat up.
The hug was a little awkward, but Marius accepted it anyway. He let it go on for a moment until he noticed their guide wasn't saying anything.
"Zoe? Something wrong?"
"No." The girl dropped back into a squat and began to poke at the liberated stick insect with gentle affection.
He wondered, briefly, why a girl living in a camp of escaped mutants, ideological dissidents, and whatever other misfits the Genoshan regime had produced would appear disappointed at the prospect someone could be made no longer a mutant. Though she read as human, she certainly seemed to have no trouble living amongst them.
Then he thought about the all the reasons a girl her age might be living out here, with a friend of her family rather than the family itself. And she did have one, because there had been a photo taped above one of the cots that was probably no more than a year old. It showed Zoe, an older couple who were probably her parents, and a teenaged girl who must have been her sister. He remembered hearing Jenny Ransome had been 16 when she'd undergone the mandatory testing to determine her genetic status. For the first time, he realized the local mutate population would have families, too. Any who chose to fight would not have the luxury of Xavier and his resources.
With the exception of Zoe, none of the faces in the photo were present in the camp.
Marius disengaged himself from the hug and looked down at the younger girl. "Oi, Moll, perhaps we should let Zoe show us the rest of the camp, eh?"
Glancing between the two of them, Molly bit her a lip with a frown, confused. Zoe seemed...sad...and Marius was quiet.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no," Marius assured her, glancing at Zoe. She had stopped poking the stick insect to look at them, but did not seem inclined to disagree. "I just thought it'd be best to get acquainted with the place. Fewer questions later and that. D'you mind?"
"No," Zoe said, standing up. She brushed the dirt from her knees and said, "At night we use kerosene lamps, so if you run out we keep some tanks over--"
"A moment, please." Marius turned to Molly and winked at her. "You've had a long day, yes? Would you care for a ride?"
Molly cocked her head to the, peering at him curiously.
"Like a piggy back?"
He was skinny like Matt sometimes.
"So to speak," Marius grinned. He took a step backwards to give himself room, then shifted.
His form was larger and heavier built than Catseye's, but it was still, when all was said and done, a giant feline somewhere around the lines of a panther or mountain lion. However, the most immediate difference was his coat: rather than purple, a dark grey.
Or rather, it had been before borrowing Wanda's chaos powers, after which the addition had whirled the pigmentation into a tabby-like streaking of grey, scarlet, and dark purple.
Molly's eyes grew large. "A kitty. Like Catseye," she said, her voice hushed. She glanced at Zoe, then back to Mariuskitty.
"Oh um...you wanna...climb on the kitty too?" she said, thumbing her thumb toward Marius awkwardly before she peered back at him.
"Is that okay?"
Marius, shaking himself from the remnants of the rapidly fraying cloth, bobbed his head in assent and curled his tail towards his back in clear invitation. Their combined weight would be a little much, but Korvus' power wasn't quite out of his system and he was certainly long enough to accommodate them. Compared to Catseye he moved through the trees like a Clydesdale, but in this particular case comparison to a draft animal was not necessarily a negative.
Molly climbed on Marius's back, scrambling a little because she didn't want to pull his hair, then she reached out her hand to Zoe, her eyebrows raised. She could sit in front. She was littler. Molly was older. THIS WAS NEW!
For the first time since the visitors had arrived the girl actually looked a little nonplussed, but there was clear interest in her eyes. After a second Zoe nodded and took Molly's hand. She swung one leg over the big cat's back and then fidgeted into a comfortable position between Molly's knees. The girl was feigning disinterest, as if she rode large felines on a daily basis, but she couldn't resist working her fingers against the fur of Marius' neck.
"You're the captain, Zoe, okay? I'll be the driver!" Molly said. Cause she didn't know where they were going but it'd be neat to get there along the way. Molly lifted her hand, pointing toward a random spot.
"Let's boogie!"
Now that she’d seen some of the families in the tents just beyond, following the long hike through the wilderness, Meggan was by turns filled with questions, and confused. Perhaps most of all, she was worried for the lot of them as she went over to sit against what appeared to be one of the sturdier metallic shelves. If things had always been like this, she assumed it would have meant there’d be even larger camps sprinkled around with dozens upon dozens of people added on.
"Meggan? Ah, I thought that was you." Wanda stepped around the corner and, to anyone who knew her even slightly, the sight she presented was surely an odd one. A baby, one able to walk but only barely, sat perched on her hip and the child was thoroughly chewing on Wanda's sleeve. She started to fuss when the older woman came to a halt but Wanda bounced her slightly and the baby quieted. "I saw you walking - want some company?"
“Sure, yes. Please. I’d like that.” She wasn’t about to turn down the offer. As the baby looked her way, Meggan waggled her fingers. She didn’t have any toys nearby, so—brief entertainment with fingers, not likely to disturb the little one if she was finally settling down. If the baby were too interested, her fingers might end up as gnawed on as Wanda’s poor sleeves.
Sitting down proved to be a bit of a challenge but Wanda managed it without making the baby upset and it just took some maneuvering to get both of them settled. "This one's mother will be by in a bit - she seemed rather relieved to have a willing babysitter for a few moments. I am not one for small children but getting handed a baby and asked to tend to it while mother stepped away was how it went in the camps." She hummed a few bars of an old Rom song that she'd heard a thousand times around the fire camp and the baby settled even further, lulled by the sounds.
Meggan nodded as she made more room for the two, expecting that the mother had probably needed a nap or just to go away and do something else for a few minutes. “That one always works,” she noted softly with a small smile, recognizing the tune. She almost didn’t dare interrupt the humming, she wanted to hear it again herself. She thought she could remember the lyrics. It looked to her as though it was working, too. The baby had yawned twice now, even if it wasn’t all the way to sleep.
Wanda didn't miss the smile and she dredged up the lyrics from memory through sheer will. Her singing wasn't perfect, she'd always been more of a dancer than anything else, but the baby didn't seem to mind. For that matter, neither did Meggan. The song was a simple lullaby song to Rom children; a song of protection, love and safety. Simple things but things that they all needed so badly now. It felt good to speak the language she'd been born to and the moment Wanda found herself in made her miss home.
How long had it been since she'd just stopped and gone to see her uncle?
It didn’t matter to Meggan that the singing wasn’t perfect to her ears, just that it was being done. That she was able to hear the comfort of the song in the middle of all the drama and horror, and that it was Rom. “That’s beautiful,” she finally breathed between verses. “And the baby probably thinks so, too.” If that steady breathing was any indication, though, the baby might be asleep. Which was a good review all around.
"Babies make excellent sounding boards," she responded, making sure not to disturb the sleeping baby too much. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an angry baby. "But thank you. It's been too long since I had the opportunity to sing in Rom. It was nice." She turned her head so she could look at Meggan and felt a pang that the young woman was being put through this. It wasn't to say that she hadn't seen some rough times but Genosha was ... different. "How are you holding up?"
Meggan nodded at the thanks—it was just nice to hear the song and language again herself right now, whether it was for her or a baby. She wondered what the baby’s name was, but Wanda probably hadn’t been told, if the mother had been in a hurry. At the question, she looked up from where she’d been watching the baby. She wasn’t going to say she was doing great or incredible, because that would be completely and obviously untrue. “I think I’m doing…as okay as I can be?” She couldn’t really get it narrowed down on a scale. “Mostly worried for people, I guess.” Family, friends, anyone that wasn’t there, and hadn't escaped. "It's hard, this having to pull back and bide our time," Wanda said in agreement, "with our loved ones still being held by the government. But at least here we can keep busy." She made a face. "Even if it isn't how we would like to busy, it is something." Movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop and she turned to see a young woman head their way. "Miranda? I thought you were resting."
The woman, who sported red hair cut dramatically short, gave a slight shrug and held out her arms. "Seems I'm a bit too used to having Tom by my side; did he cause you any trouble?"
Despite the enjoyment she'd had with the baby, Wanda had no problems with promptly handing him back. Small children were best in small doses. "Not really, though he was a bit of a chewer." She leaned back slightly so Miranda could see Meggan and introduced the two of them. "Miranda, Meggan is from Xavier's, the school I was telling you about."
"Oh, that place sounded lovely," Miranda sighed, sitting down in front of them in a cross-legged position with Tom perched on her lap.
Meggan waved hello at the introduction. “Hi, Miranda.” It looked as though little Tom was still blissfully sleepy, even after being moved to his mother from his previous presumably comfortable position. Wanda was right, at least here there were people to be busy with, things that needed doing, to get a sliver of a distraction from fretting. “Yes, it is. I love it there,” she agreed. She’d caught herself before she accidentally said was instead of is.
"The idea that something like that can exist openly, without government interference, just ..." Miranda hugged the baby closer to her and Wanda felt a pang for the young mother.
"We can see how bad they are here but you have been living with it for years," she said, touching Miranda's knee and giving it a quick squeeze. "I am so sorry."
Miranda sighed. "It wasn't always so bad, you know? Before everything went bad, I actually thought that Genosha was one of the best places in the world to be. But now all I want to do is make it to America."
It was impossible to feel anything but awful for the woman’s plight. Still, she had a nagging question, and she hoped it wasn’t too touchy to ask it. “How long since it suddenly turned and became…like this? Since everybody had to hide?” Having seen some of the nastier aspects of the country, it was hard for Meggan to really get a good picture of it as wonderful into her head. Still, she believed Miranda, that it had to have started out better than this.
"While it seems like forever ago, it really was only a few years when things took a turn for the really, really bad. Before that it really wasn't so bad, you know? Good enough to raise a family or so I thought. And the things that were in place seemed to make sense. I just -" She stopped and blinked away the sudden sheen of tears.
"Didn't think it would be the slippery slope that it turned out to be?" Wanda asked gently and Miranda nodded glumly. She didn't point out that it many countries before Genosha had found themselves in the same exact position. Hostile governments who suppressed their people didn't always appear overnight, after all, and subtle, innocent sounding things sometimes led to ... well. This.
Meggan nodded encouragingly, sorry to have been the one to dredge it up with the question and cause the tears. “You couldn’t have known, Miranda. Nobody could have possibly known it would develop into something like…this. With everyone needing to hide.” Outside of the ones in charge of being evil, putting it into a scary tailspin within five years.
"Probably not or, at least, not on my own. But an entire country? How could an entire country not see where this was heading? How could we have been so blind and naive to allow this to happen to ourselves? To our children and our future?" Miranda dropped her head down to nestle her cheek against the top of her baby's head. "Our government betrayed us and we betrayed ourselves."
"But you didn't betray yourselves." Wanda's voice was sharper than she'd intended but the idea that these people, those in hiding and terrified to go back to whatever home they had left, blamed themselves made her angry. Not at them but, nevertheless, angry. "You could not have known, Miranda. Governments are there to keep their people safe. When they do not, when they fail through malicious intent or stupidity, it is not the fault of those they hurt. Could you have done things differently? Perhaps. But it was hidden so well or came up so suddenly that there really was no way for you to know."
Meggan wanted to hug the other woman, but with arms filled with baby Tom and the way the conversation was right now with Miranda kicking herself, she didn’t think it would be the world’s best timing. Miranda shouldn't be blaming herself. “Exactly. And...sometimes you can only see it as obvious when you’re looking backwards at it….because it’s just so good at hiding itself away in the cracks.” She wasn't sure if it made as much sense as it had in her head.
From the look on Miranda's face, Wanda was pretty sure the other woman wasn't buying what they were selling. These people were the victims here and if Wanda couldn't help Miranda see that it was the Genoshian government who was to blame, she could at least help in other ways. "I think we could all do with something to eat." She stood, brushing off the back of her pants as she held out a hand to Miranda. "Feed the body, feed the soul."
The young mother took a deep breath and reached out to clasp Wanda's hand. "Or at least stop the stomach from rumbling," she said, quirking a small smile at them.
“It’s a good first step, to get that to quiet down,” Meggan replied. A step that her own stomach was more than half interested in, as well—so there likely wouldn't be anybody here that wanted to turn away a meal.
Their guide appeared to be around eleven years old, but she walked the camp with the confidence of long familiarity. Her skintone indicated she might be of mixed parentage, but it could also have been attributable to hours spent in the sun. Her name was Zoe.
"You can stay here," she said, opening the door of the dwelling for her guests' approval. It wasn't quite a shack, but it did have that rough-and-ready sort of construction that indicated it wouldn't be mourned if left in a hurry. She turned to regard them with serious brown eyes. "I'm staying with Tanya and Daniel until Demarco comes back so nobody's here. There's two cots. Someone can sleep on the floor too if you want, but bugs come in at night." She seemed to consider for a moment. "Also check your shoes and clothes when you wake up. A lot of people don't know that." She glanced at Marius. "Except you don't have clothes. You should probably get some."
Marius peered past the girl into the shack. There were no rooms. One end held two cots separated by a privacy cloth and some mosquito netting. Another corner hosted a table, camp stove and a cooler, plus a few gallon containers of water. A rough shelf held a few personal effects and a handful of battered books. Old but sturdy rubber bins occupied some space under the cots, indicating they were the occupants' equivalent of a closet. That was all.
"They became inconvenient," Marius replied, pressing his hand to the shredded cloth that wrapped his waist like an especially hard-worn bathtowel. He turned his attention back to the girl and smiled. "Though now that we've settled a bit I shall be pleased to find some."
Molly glanced around the hut. It was like camping. Except the tent was made of wood. She didn't really look at Marius, cause, yeah.
"What kinda bugs?" she said. Were there scorpions? The Indiana Jones movie had scorpions.
"Spiders and ants mostly," the girl replied in the same matter-of-fact tone she would have used to declare she needed a new toothbrush. "Sometimes millipedes come in. They can get long as your arm. They don't bite but one of them fell on my head once. Not here, though." Zoe pointed at one of the bins under a cot. "You can borrow some of Demarco's clothes. He's okay with sharing."
"We bought a few spares ourselves, but the offer is appreciated." Marius tilted his head at the girl. "Who's Demarco, then? Your brother?"
"No, I just stay with him. He's friends with my mum and dad." Zoe dropped into a squat and put her finger out to touch the side of the shelter. She pulled it away holding something thin and twiggy-looking, which she moved to the back of her hand before presenting for Molly's inspection. "See, here's one of the bugs. This is one of the outside-kinds though."
Molly inched closer to the bug, her eyes wide with a mixture of curiosity and wonder. It was the first time she'd really not been scared in a little while. She remembered bugs. She liked bugs, when they weren't bitey.
"Can I hold it?" she said, looking from Zoe to Marius.
"Sure, these ones are nice. Their legs are prickly though." She amiably transferred the bug onto the older girl's hand and smiled. "I used to collect them. Sometimes they rock. It's neat."
Molly brought the bug closer to look at, tilting her head. "Rock? What do you mean?" she said.
"Why don't you collect them anymore?"
"It's hard to find a good place to keep them here. Besides, they're all over, so I don't need to." Zoe pointed to the stick insect. "Sometimes if you leave them alone for long enough they start moving. Like, swaying? Dad says it might be because it makes them look like they're branches moving in the wind."
Swaying? Molly lifted her hand a little, watching the stick bug walk down her arm. It tickled a little. She wasn't used to tickling and it made her squirm a bit as she let out a quiet giggle.
"Really?" she said, glancing up to Zoe with bright eyes, she smiled. "That's so cool!"
Glad as he was to see Molly interested in something, Marius found himself beset by some very uncomfortable suspicions about why a girl Zoe's age was living in a place like this. Her next question only fed the growing knot in his stomach.
"Are you a mutant, too?" Zoe asked, giving Molly a curious look. She shrugged at Marius. "I know he is because he's got a tail, and some of the other people have wings, but you look normal so I'm wondering."
Crouching down, Molly let the stick bug crawl off her hand back onto the ground. She shook her head.
"I was. I lost my powers, though."
Zoe's eyebrows raised. "You're not a mutant anymore?"
"She's still a mutant, she just can't use her powers at this particular moment," Marius interjected before the conversation had an opportunity to set course for Due Semantics. He turned to Molly. "You still read as mutants. And Korvus gave me a lend of his before we got out, an' he wouldn't have been able to if anything was actually changed, you know. Another mutant just blocked them off for a bit."
Blinking a little Molly glanced up. "I am?" She let a little hopeful smile creep across her face. "Are you sure?"
"Callie said we might not get our powers back so...I thought...y'know."
Marius nodded gravely. "Quite certain. That is my power, after all. And it is not so uncommon an occurrence as one might think. One of my best mates I met whilst similarly blocked due to a particular device he had created, and some years ago I encountered a mutant who could induce a similar suppression of power. Neither proved permanent." He gave her a grin. "So -- though I can make no promises, I wouldn't worry overmuch, eh? It's a bit of an embuggerance, but hardly hopeless."
Biting her lip, Molly's eyes grew impossibly bright. Hopping up she wrapped her arms around Marius and hopped up and down at the same time. It was kinda hard but she tried her best.
"Really? Oh my gosh! That's awesome!"
Then she could beat people up. She had a few people she wanted to beat up.
The hug was a little awkward, but Marius accepted it anyway. He let it go on for a moment until he noticed their guide wasn't saying anything.
"Zoe? Something wrong?"
"No." The girl dropped back into a squat and began to poke at the liberated stick insect with gentle affection.
He wondered, briefly, why a girl living in a camp of escaped mutants, ideological dissidents, and whatever other misfits the Genoshan regime had produced would appear disappointed at the prospect someone could be made no longer a mutant. Though she read as human, she certainly seemed to have no trouble living amongst them.
Then he thought about the all the reasons a girl her age might be living out here, with a friend of her family rather than the family itself. And she did have one, because there had been a photo taped above one of the cots that was probably no more than a year old. It showed Zoe, an older couple who were probably her parents, and a teenaged girl who must have been her sister. He remembered hearing Jenny Ransome had been 16 when she'd undergone the mandatory testing to determine her genetic status. For the first time, he realized the local mutate population would have families, too. Any who chose to fight would not have the luxury of Xavier and his resources.
With the exception of Zoe, none of the faces in the photo were present in the camp.
Marius disengaged himself from the hug and looked down at the younger girl. "Oi, Moll, perhaps we should let Zoe show us the rest of the camp, eh?"
Glancing between the two of them, Molly bit her a lip with a frown, confused. Zoe seemed...sad...and Marius was quiet.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no," Marius assured her, glancing at Zoe. She had stopped poking the stick insect to look at them, but did not seem inclined to disagree. "I just thought it'd be best to get acquainted with the place. Fewer questions later and that. D'you mind?"
"No," Zoe said, standing up. She brushed the dirt from her knees and said, "At night we use kerosene lamps, so if you run out we keep some tanks over--"
"A moment, please." Marius turned to Molly and winked at her. "You've had a long day, yes? Would you care for a ride?"
Molly cocked her head to the, peering at him curiously.
"Like a piggy back?"
He was skinny like Matt sometimes.
"So to speak," Marius grinned. He took a step backwards to give himself room, then shifted.
His form was larger and heavier built than Catseye's, but it was still, when all was said and done, a giant feline somewhere around the lines of a panther or mountain lion. However, the most immediate difference was his coat: rather than purple, a dark grey.
Or rather, it had been before borrowing Wanda's chaos powers, after which the addition had whirled the pigmentation into a tabby-like streaking of grey, scarlet, and dark purple.
Molly's eyes grew large. "A kitty. Like Catseye," she said, her voice hushed. She glanced at Zoe, then back to Mariuskitty.
"Oh um...you wanna...climb on the kitty too?" she said, thumbing her thumb toward Marius awkwardly before she peered back at him.
"Is that okay?"
Marius, shaking himself from the remnants of the rapidly fraying cloth, bobbed his head in assent and curled his tail towards his back in clear invitation. Their combined weight would be a little much, but Korvus' power wasn't quite out of his system and he was certainly long enough to accommodate them. Compared to Catseye he moved through the trees like a Clydesdale, but in this particular case comparison to a draft animal was not necessarily a negative.
Molly climbed on Marius's back, scrambling a little because she didn't want to pull his hair, then she reached out her hand to Zoe, her eyebrows raised. She could sit in front. She was littler. Molly was older. THIS WAS NEW!
For the first time since the visitors had arrived the girl actually looked a little nonplussed, but there was clear interest in her eyes. After a second Zoe nodded and took Molly's hand. She swung one leg over the big cat's back and then fidgeted into a comfortable position between Molly's knees. The girl was feigning disinterest, as if she rode large felines on a daily basis, but she couldn't resist working her fingers against the fur of Marius' neck.
"You're the captain, Zoe, okay? I'll be the driver!" Molly said. Cause she didn't know where they were going but it'd be neat to get there along the way. Molly lifted her hand, pointing toward a random spot.
"Let's boogie!"
Now that she’d seen some of the families in the tents just beyond, following the long hike through the wilderness, Meggan was by turns filled with questions, and confused. Perhaps most of all, she was worried for the lot of them as she went over to sit against what appeared to be one of the sturdier metallic shelves. If things had always been like this, she assumed it would have meant there’d be even larger camps sprinkled around with dozens upon dozens of people added on.
"Meggan? Ah, I thought that was you." Wanda stepped around the corner and, to anyone who knew her even slightly, the sight she presented was surely an odd one. A baby, one able to walk but only barely, sat perched on her hip and the child was thoroughly chewing on Wanda's sleeve. She started to fuss when the older woman came to a halt but Wanda bounced her slightly and the baby quieted. "I saw you walking - want some company?"
“Sure, yes. Please. I’d like that.” She wasn’t about to turn down the offer. As the baby looked her way, Meggan waggled her fingers. She didn’t have any toys nearby, so—brief entertainment with fingers, not likely to disturb the little one if she was finally settling down. If the baby were too interested, her fingers might end up as gnawed on as Wanda’s poor sleeves.
Sitting down proved to be a bit of a challenge but Wanda managed it without making the baby upset and it just took some maneuvering to get both of them settled. "This one's mother will be by in a bit - she seemed rather relieved to have a willing babysitter for a few moments. I am not one for small children but getting handed a baby and asked to tend to it while mother stepped away was how it went in the camps." She hummed a few bars of an old Rom song that she'd heard a thousand times around the fire camp and the baby settled even further, lulled by the sounds.
Meggan nodded as she made more room for the two, expecting that the mother had probably needed a nap or just to go away and do something else for a few minutes. “That one always works,” she noted softly with a small smile, recognizing the tune. She almost didn’t dare interrupt the humming, she wanted to hear it again herself. She thought she could remember the lyrics. It looked to her as though it was working, too. The baby had yawned twice now, even if it wasn’t all the way to sleep.
Wanda didn't miss the smile and she dredged up the lyrics from memory through sheer will. Her singing wasn't perfect, she'd always been more of a dancer than anything else, but the baby didn't seem to mind. For that matter, neither did Meggan. The song was a simple lullaby song to Rom children; a song of protection, love and safety. Simple things but things that they all needed so badly now. It felt good to speak the language she'd been born to and the moment Wanda found herself in made her miss home.
How long had it been since she'd just stopped and gone to see her uncle?
It didn’t matter to Meggan that the singing wasn’t perfect to her ears, just that it was being done. That she was able to hear the comfort of the song in the middle of all the drama and horror, and that it was Rom. “That’s beautiful,” she finally breathed between verses. “And the baby probably thinks so, too.” If that steady breathing was any indication, though, the baby might be asleep. Which was a good review all around.
"Babies make excellent sounding boards," she responded, making sure not to disturb the sleeping baby too much. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an angry baby. "But thank you. It's been too long since I had the opportunity to sing in Rom. It was nice." She turned her head so she could look at Meggan and felt a pang that the young woman was being put through this. It wasn't to say that she hadn't seen some rough times but Genosha was ... different. "How are you holding up?"
Meggan nodded at the thanks—it was just nice to hear the song and language again herself right now, whether it was for her or a baby. She wondered what the baby’s name was, but Wanda probably hadn’t been told, if the mother had been in a hurry. At the question, she looked up from where she’d been watching the baby. She wasn’t going to say she was doing great or incredible, because that would be completely and obviously untrue. “I think I’m doing…as okay as I can be?” She couldn’t really get it narrowed down on a scale. “Mostly worried for people, I guess.” Family, friends, anyone that wasn’t there, and hadn't escaped. "It's hard, this having to pull back and bide our time," Wanda said in agreement, "with our loved ones still being held by the government. But at least here we can keep busy." She made a face. "Even if it isn't how we would like to busy, it is something." Movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop and she turned to see a young woman head their way. "Miranda? I thought you were resting."
The woman, who sported red hair cut dramatically short, gave a slight shrug and held out her arms. "Seems I'm a bit too used to having Tom by my side; did he cause you any trouble?"
Despite the enjoyment she'd had with the baby, Wanda had no problems with promptly handing him back. Small children were best in small doses. "Not really, though he was a bit of a chewer." She leaned back slightly so Miranda could see Meggan and introduced the two of them. "Miranda, Meggan is from Xavier's, the school I was telling you about."
"Oh, that place sounded lovely," Miranda sighed, sitting down in front of them in a cross-legged position with Tom perched on her lap.
Meggan waved hello at the introduction. “Hi, Miranda.” It looked as though little Tom was still blissfully sleepy, even after being moved to his mother from his previous presumably comfortable position. Wanda was right, at least here there were people to be busy with, things that needed doing, to get a sliver of a distraction from fretting. “Yes, it is. I love it there,” she agreed. She’d caught herself before she accidentally said was instead of is.
"The idea that something like that can exist openly, without government interference, just ..." Miranda hugged the baby closer to her and Wanda felt a pang for the young mother.
"We can see how bad they are here but you have been living with it for years," she said, touching Miranda's knee and giving it a quick squeeze. "I am so sorry."
Miranda sighed. "It wasn't always so bad, you know? Before everything went bad, I actually thought that Genosha was one of the best places in the world to be. But now all I want to do is make it to America."
It was impossible to feel anything but awful for the woman’s plight. Still, she had a nagging question, and she hoped it wasn’t too touchy to ask it. “How long since it suddenly turned and became…like this? Since everybody had to hide?” Having seen some of the nastier aspects of the country, it was hard for Meggan to really get a good picture of it as wonderful into her head. Still, she believed Miranda, that it had to have started out better than this.
"While it seems like forever ago, it really was only a few years when things took a turn for the really, really bad. Before that it really wasn't so bad, you know? Good enough to raise a family or so I thought. And the things that were in place seemed to make sense. I just -" She stopped and blinked away the sudden sheen of tears.
"Didn't think it would be the slippery slope that it turned out to be?" Wanda asked gently and Miranda nodded glumly. She didn't point out that it many countries before Genosha had found themselves in the same exact position. Hostile governments who suppressed their people didn't always appear overnight, after all, and subtle, innocent sounding things sometimes led to ... well. This.
Meggan nodded encouragingly, sorry to have been the one to dredge it up with the question and cause the tears. “You couldn’t have known, Miranda. Nobody could have possibly known it would develop into something like…this. With everyone needing to hide.” Outside of the ones in charge of being evil, putting it into a scary tailspin within five years.
"Probably not or, at least, not on my own. But an entire country? How could an entire country not see where this was heading? How could we have been so blind and naive to allow this to happen to ourselves? To our children and our future?" Miranda dropped her head down to nestle her cheek against the top of her baby's head. "Our government betrayed us and we betrayed ourselves."
"But you didn't betray yourselves." Wanda's voice was sharper than she'd intended but the idea that these people, those in hiding and terrified to go back to whatever home they had left, blamed themselves made her angry. Not at them but, nevertheless, angry. "You could not have known, Miranda. Governments are there to keep their people safe. When they do not, when they fail through malicious intent or stupidity, it is not the fault of those they hurt. Could you have done things differently? Perhaps. But it was hidden so well or came up so suddenly that there really was no way for you to know."
Meggan wanted to hug the other woman, but with arms filled with baby Tom and the way the conversation was right now with Miranda kicking herself, she didn’t think it would be the world’s best timing. Miranda shouldn't be blaming herself. “Exactly. And...sometimes you can only see it as obvious when you’re looking backwards at it….because it’s just so good at hiding itself away in the cracks.” She wasn't sure if it made as much sense as it had in her head.
From the look on Miranda's face, Wanda was pretty sure the other woman wasn't buying what they were selling. These people were the victims here and if Wanda couldn't help Miranda see that it was the Genoshian government who was to blame, she could at least help in other ways. "I think we could all do with something to eat." She stood, brushing off the back of her pants as she held out a hand to Miranda. "Feed the body, feed the soul."
The young mother took a deep breath and reached out to clasp Wanda's hand. "Or at least stop the stomach from rumbling," she said, quirking a small smile at them.
“It’s a good first step, to get that to quiet down,” Meggan replied. A step that her own stomach was more than half interested in, as well—so there likely wouldn't be anybody here that wanted to turn away a meal.
