Log: Angel & Rachel

[x-eidolon.livejournal.com]

Angel inducts Rachel into the Xavier's Redhead Club.



Angel laid back on the grass, fiddling with her camera. This lens had looked good when she'd bought it, but it seemed like the second she'd brought it home, it had started giving her problems. Fabulous, she grumbled silently as she sat up. Her frustration gave way to curiosity when she saw a redhead not too far away from where she was sitting. She didn't look like any of the usual mansion-dwelling redheads, or any of the ones who visited. A new person, then, Angel declared as she raised her camera and zoomed in to get a better look at the stranger.

She was seated atop a wall, with her legs crossed Indian style and her eyelids shut firmly against the sunlight. Red hair was pulled back from her face with a thin, black elastic headband and she looked to be a picture of calm.

But Rachel’s thoughts had been all over the damn place since before her arrival in this strangely familiar yet starkly dissimilar world. Staying cooped up in the guest room she had been assigned was not doing much to help her mental health, but every single time she ventured out of the room, she ran into someone whom she did not want to see or who did not want to see her. As it was, it had been getting very, very difficult to keep her emotions in check.

So she meditated. In the gardens. On top of a wall. Focused on her breathing, on every inhale and exhale, until the thoughts and jumbled emotions that were making her an absolute wreck settled in her brain. Not comfortably, mind you, especially with the loss of her telepathy. But it settled down and smoothed out the near permanent crease in between her brows, allowing her to relax into a trance, not even noticing when she began to levitate right off the wall.

Whoa. Not that people suddenly catching air was an anomaly - Angel still had fond-ish memories of her own, slightly disastrous first flight. She just hadn't been expecting it. She must be the new student Mr. Summers posted about, Angel decided as she stood up, stretching her legs and making her way across the lawn. Rachel. Ignoring the stir of feelings this name threatened to bring on, Angel was hesitant about interrupting the girl. Most people didn't like to be interrupted when they were meditating, and that was probably especially true if the interrupter was a stranger.

But letting someone continue to levitate without their knowledge was probably not a good idea either. Especially if she got too high and suddenly snapped back to reality because then, ouch. A stick cracked under Angel's foot when she was just a few feet away from the other redhead, and she froze.

Lids flew open and verdant orbs pinned themselves on Angel with almost frightening intensity. Rachel studied the other redhead, eyebrows disappearing beneath tousled hair as she took in Angel’s expression.

“Can I help you?” She asked, looking quite unfazed at being found levitating half a foot above the wall with her legs still crossed.

Angel wasn't generally one to be put off by intense stares (no matter how frightening); so instead she did the one thing she knew how to do best - she made a joke. "There's a line of therapists behind you waiting to ask that exact same question," she said, a smile quirking at her lips. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Just thought I'd welcome you to the Xavier's Redhead Club. I'm Angel, member since '06."

The telekinetic lowered herself easily to the ground until she was standing an arm’s length from Angel. “S’alright,” she said, her smile more polite than warm even in the face of the other girl’s cheer. “No harm done. I’m Rachel, and I’m guest of the professor’s. So unless you offer temporary memberships…”

"Oh sure," Angel replied easily. "Our packages consist of year-long memberships for those who are only here for powers training, lifelong memberships for the people who get sucked in to the mansion and never leave again, and temporary memberships for people who are just passing through or people who come and go over and over and over - and there are a lot of those. The point is, we're very accommodating."

“Sounds good,” Rachel cracked a more genuine smile as she shifted on her feet. “Where do I sign up?”

Aha! Now that was more of the smile Angel had been looking for. "It's an online process, I'll send you the link later. Benefits include being awesome and unique, being adorable without trying, and being able to choose whether or not you have a soul - because apparently redheads don't have souls. But Matt claims to have one, Maddie says she sold hers to the devil for a cupcake, and I'm not totally sure what happened to Dr. Grey's, but she said a soul gets in the way when she's flying around on her broomstick, so I'm guessing it's gone." Miraculously, Angel managed to say all of that in one breath.

“Ah,” the other redhead nodded solemnly, though there was a spark of amusement evident in the slight crinkling at the corners of her eyes. “Mine ran off a while back. It writes postcards occasionally, though. Last I checked, it was riding elephants in Chiang Mai and flirting with the local men.”

"Wow, elephant riding?" Angel repeated, awed. "That's so cool. Next time you hear from it, let it know my soul's jealous. It's still around, but I think I set it on fire so it's not doing me much good anymore."

“Burn wounds,” Rachel commented. “Are a bitch to deal with. Soul’s probably sulking somewhere and slathering itself with aloe.” She spoke from past experience, of course, but Angel did not need to know that. Reaching up, she plucked the headband from her hair, and fluffed it so that it fell about her face in its usually messy array. “But who needs souls anyways?”

"They're severely overrated, I think," Angel agreed. She tugged at a strand of her own hair, tilting her head a bit. "So what brings you to our humble mansion, if you don't mind me asking."

“A series of unfortunate circumstances,” Rachel shrugged. Better evasive than a liar. “Prof’s working on fixing my problem. Then I’ll be out of here.”

"Ah, one of those," Angel said with a nod, still twirling her hair around her finger. "Got it. So you're probably pretty eager to get out. But you know, if you give us a chance most of us are pretty fun people. Even if you're not going to be here long, you should definitely make the most of it."

“I don’t doubt that,” came the immediate reply, followed by a shrug. “But I haven’t been in the mood for fun lately.” The redhead glanced toward the wall that she had been perched on and that back towards the mansion, suddenly tired of the small talk. Granted, it was less tiring than the talks she had had with those other individuals who had some kind of emotional baggage or response to her being around.

"Fair enough." Angel was a lot of things, but she wasn't entirely oblivious. Especially not when it came to people. And she was well aware of how tiring she could be, especially to people who didn't know her. "Well if you ever are in the mood for fun, I know all the best ways to have it. And some of them don't even involve setting things on fire. But you're kind of looking like you have somewhere you need to be...?"

Not really. “Meeting with the professor,” Rachel nodded, not even blinking at the half-fib. She would just have to make a trip down to his office after she showered. That way it would not be a complete lie. “Soon.”

"Well I don't want to keep you, then." The words were said good-naturedly and with a smile. A quick check to make sure the flash was off, and Angel raised her camera to snap a quick picture of Rachel. "Welcome to the mansion."