![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
x-welshpixie.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsMegan and Julian meet for the first time, she reminding Julian of an old friend.
Megan sat perched on a stool in the boat-house-turned-art-space, sunlight filtering in through a small window and glaring off her bleach blonde hair. She flicked a pencil against her cheek, frowning, glancing between her sketch book and the empty canvas before her. Thus absorbed, she didn't notice right away when someone entered.
Julian stood by the door for a moment, just looking at Megan in a trying-not-to-be-creepy-but-you-remind-me-of-my-dead-friend sort of way. Realizing he was lurking, he cleared his throat and took a few steps forward. "Miss Gwynn, correct?" he extended his hand as he approached her.
Megan looked up, clearly surprised. She was still wearing her contacts that day, which gave her the appearance of normal eyes with white sclera. "Oh. Yes." She slid off the stool and met his handshake. "You're one of the teachers, right?" He seemed very familiar.
A loud, abrupt guffaw escaped Julian's mouth before he clapped his free hand over it. He was still chuckling when he dropped it, "Sorry, no- not a teacher. That would be...wow, I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified to teach anything...though, I do have degrees n-" he stopped himself, or was it the fail-safes Xorn had put in that were stopping him from saying the word 'now.' "I'm Julian, and I'm one of the mentors for the Generation X program." In order to change tracks he nodded at her canvas, "What are you working on?"
Sorry, a mentor is what I meant." Her voice made it kind of rhyme-y. "I do intend to get back into the team soon. I just got my job back and finally got my enrollment in design school settled." She looked back to the white canvas on which a geometrical design was sketched out. "For school. I need to pick my best composition among these - " she held up the sketchbook, " - and paint it for the final piece. But now I can't decide." The sketches looked very balanced, very geometrical - the differences were in the colors. Around the edges, however, the margins between the sketches were filled with tiny, stylized faces and intricate little patterns.
Julian squinted as he took in the details she'd added in, "It's quite the ambitious project you're undertaking." He stood up again, smiling congenially, "You don't need to hurry back to the program, Miss Gwynn- I understand that finding a balance between it and your life outside the manor grounds can be...difficult. I'm not here to push you back into it- I just wanted to see how you are doing." His mind flashed back to the day he'd helped her recover a painting from inside the boathouse- which caused Julian to make a mental note to ensure the wards on the grounds were functioning optimally.
"Thank you." Her smile brightened to make a dimple on one side. "I'm doing well, although everything is different now. Before I took my gap year-and-a-bit-more, the world seemed safer, at least for mutants. I'm glad I got to travel, but I'm happy to be home now. Who is on the team now?"
"The roster seems to change fairly regularly, but right now we have Molly Hayes, Tandy Bowen...some guy named Quire, to name a few." Julian paused, "And of course, you, once you're ready."
"Brilliant! And you're mentoring, and Angel I assume as well and - hey, how did you know I would be in the boat house?"
Julian shrugged, "I heard you were an artist and thought this would be the first place I should check." He hoped that covered it, as 'I knew you liked to hang out here in an alternate timeline,' sounded a bit odd in his head and he doubted saying out loud would be any better.
"Honestly, this place kind of gives me the creeps, even after all this time," she admitted.
That was interesting, "Creeps how?" He needed to read up on the new history of the institute.
"Ah, it's part of the reason why I left shortly after the New Year, in 2014. There was a demon abduction in this very building." She idly scratched her bleached hair with her pencil - it was starting to grow back in pink already, except for one small section that was black. "It was me - I was taken to a demon's realm..." She voice had gone quiet. "But he's dead now," She added cheerfully. "Once I felt in control of myself again, I decided to get away for a bit. Traveling helped put many things in perspective. But I don't know if I'll ever step free of the slimy touch of fear in this building."
His mouth had dropped open half-way through her story, "Oh," was all he could manage. This version of his friend was obviously stronger than her predecessor, who had not been able to do much more than make eye-contact with the boat-house. It was interesting demons had plagued this Megan, something had to be in play and Julian made a mental note to ask Amanda about it. "I suppose no one could blame you for wanting to travel a bit after being kidnapped by a malevolent, inter-dimensional, embodiment of evil."
"Yeah..." She laughed a little, suddenly embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. So, tell me something. About the school - I'm sure there's much weirder things than demons that have happened in the past year or so - or about you. What drew you to this place?"
He paused for a beat before answering, trying to figure out what he could actually say. "Everything is awesome," he finally settled on. "And Professor Xavier approached me about helping out after seeing some of the work I'd done with a youth program out west." Another mental note was made to talk to Doug about doctoring his electronic past. "I already feel like I've always been here."
"I can understand that. Nowhere else in the world feels like home to me. I'm really glad to be back, I am." And it felt good to be making new friends. Even though she hadn't met Julian before, he already seemed kind of familiar. People who belonged at the mansion just had a certain vibe, she supposed. "The Professor, ah, duw duw, I was sad to learn about his stroke. I trust his powers will come back eventually, although I don't think he really needs them - or Cerebro - to really find us. If that makes sense?"
"Yeah, he does have that whole, most powerful telepath in the world thing going for him," Julian shrugged. "I'm glad you're back too- I mean, looking through the files, I was looking forward to meeting you. You've got some pretty awesome powers." Great...not it sounded like he was flirting with her. He tried to smile brightly to make himself seem less creepy.
"Well, I can fly. Flying is pretty awesome." She smiled back. She tended to mirror people whom was trying to impress, without realizing it. She wondered if her small magic ability was in the files - it had only recently emerged, after her time as Belasco's protégé. "And my dust can be useful in certain situations. What are your powers like, then?"
Julian's eyes filled in with a glowing emerald green as her paint brush lifted from where it was sitting and floated over to a blank canvas where it began to drag across the surface in broad strokes. "Telekinesis," he shrugged, "pretty fun, but a major pain in the ass sometimes." He floated a few inches off the floor, "And flying is awesome."
"Oh that is fun, that is," Megan exclaimed as the blank canvas was filled in, quite precisely, until the liquid in the brush dried up. She looked back to Julian to see him levitating. "Yes, you know! It really is the best." She grabbed her paintbrush out of the air and held it like a wand. "I can also do this - Will-o-Wisp." At the spell-words, a small light bloomed at the base of the brush. A small reward for such a high cost, but then again, the choice to become imbued with magic hadn't really been hers.
"You must get so many Harry Potter jokes with that," Julian chuckled, setting the brush down and examining his handy-work. "I don't remember seeing that as a mutant ability in your file...is it magic?"
"I didn't really show it to anyone yet except for Ms. Amanda and Topaz. An' I can never tell if Topaz gets my jokes. But aye, it's magic. I don't know what I'm going to do with it..." the little ball of light floated free and bobbled around the canvas, slipping right through it as if it were nothing but air ..."but I 'ave it now."
"Are you able to do anything else magical?" Julian asked, both interested and concerned- he needed to actually read her file as he'd hoped the demonic kidnapping hadn't happened to this Megan.
She shook her head.
"Not so far. Ms. Amanda seemed to think there is the potential for it to grow, but it has remained the same so far." While in the demon's realm, she'd been capable of a lot more, but she supposed it was a property of that dimension. Hopefully.
"I was thinking of asking her to teach me a basic glamor spell, though," she added, rubbing one eye. "I am so sick of wearing contacts."
"Contacts?" he hadn't noticed, thinking her eyes were just naturally like that. It made sense, he supposed, to help her blend. "Well, if you ever need to talk or anything- I'm here for you."
"Thanks," Megan replied, her cheeks turning slightly pink. She'd probably already voiced too many random thoughts, but it was nice to talk to someone. She got kind of an older brother vibe from him. Well, not that he was much older. And he was good-looking AND could fly, which made her immediately regret the 'brother' thought. "Yeah, you know I was kind of putting off the training thing, but I think it will be fun. I'll see you soon."
"Happy to have you aboard, Pixie," Julian smiled as he stood up and headed toward the door. He paused at the entry, "I look forward to working with you."
Megan sat perched on a stool in the boat-house-turned-art-space, sunlight filtering in through a small window and glaring off her bleach blonde hair. She flicked a pencil against her cheek, frowning, glancing between her sketch book and the empty canvas before her. Thus absorbed, she didn't notice right away when someone entered.
Julian stood by the door for a moment, just looking at Megan in a trying-not-to-be-creepy-but-you-remind-me-of-my-dead-friend sort of way. Realizing he was lurking, he cleared his throat and took a few steps forward. "Miss Gwynn, correct?" he extended his hand as he approached her.
Megan looked up, clearly surprised. She was still wearing her contacts that day, which gave her the appearance of normal eyes with white sclera. "Oh. Yes." She slid off the stool and met his handshake. "You're one of the teachers, right?" He seemed very familiar.
A loud, abrupt guffaw escaped Julian's mouth before he clapped his free hand over it. He was still chuckling when he dropped it, "Sorry, no- not a teacher. That would be...wow, I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified to teach anything...though, I do have degrees n-" he stopped himself, or was it the fail-safes Xorn had put in that were stopping him from saying the word 'now.' "I'm Julian, and I'm one of the mentors for the Generation X program." In order to change tracks he nodded at her canvas, "What are you working on?"
Sorry, a mentor is what I meant." Her voice made it kind of rhyme-y. "I do intend to get back into the team soon. I just got my job back and finally got my enrollment in design school settled." She looked back to the white canvas on which a geometrical design was sketched out. "For school. I need to pick my best composition among these - " she held up the sketchbook, " - and paint it for the final piece. But now I can't decide." The sketches looked very balanced, very geometrical - the differences were in the colors. Around the edges, however, the margins between the sketches were filled with tiny, stylized faces and intricate little patterns.
Julian squinted as he took in the details she'd added in, "It's quite the ambitious project you're undertaking." He stood up again, smiling congenially, "You don't need to hurry back to the program, Miss Gwynn- I understand that finding a balance between it and your life outside the manor grounds can be...difficult. I'm not here to push you back into it- I just wanted to see how you are doing." His mind flashed back to the day he'd helped her recover a painting from inside the boathouse- which caused Julian to make a mental note to ensure the wards on the grounds were functioning optimally.
"Thank you." Her smile brightened to make a dimple on one side. "I'm doing well, although everything is different now. Before I took my gap year-and-a-bit-more, the world seemed safer, at least for mutants. I'm glad I got to travel, but I'm happy to be home now. Who is on the team now?"
"The roster seems to change fairly regularly, but right now we have Molly Hayes, Tandy Bowen...some guy named Quire, to name a few." Julian paused, "And of course, you, once you're ready."
"Brilliant! And you're mentoring, and Angel I assume as well and - hey, how did you know I would be in the boat house?"
Julian shrugged, "I heard you were an artist and thought this would be the first place I should check." He hoped that covered it, as 'I knew you liked to hang out here in an alternate timeline,' sounded a bit odd in his head and he doubted saying out loud would be any better.
"Honestly, this place kind of gives me the creeps, even after all this time," she admitted.
That was interesting, "Creeps how?" He needed to read up on the new history of the institute.
"Ah, it's part of the reason why I left shortly after the New Year, in 2014. There was a demon abduction in this very building." She idly scratched her bleached hair with her pencil - it was starting to grow back in pink already, except for one small section that was black. "It was me - I was taken to a demon's realm..." She voice had gone quiet. "But he's dead now," She added cheerfully. "Once I felt in control of myself again, I decided to get away for a bit. Traveling helped put many things in perspective. But I don't know if I'll ever step free of the slimy touch of fear in this building."
His mouth had dropped open half-way through her story, "Oh," was all he could manage. This version of his friend was obviously stronger than her predecessor, who had not been able to do much more than make eye-contact with the boat-house. It was interesting demons had plagued this Megan, something had to be in play and Julian made a mental note to ask Amanda about it. "I suppose no one could blame you for wanting to travel a bit after being kidnapped by a malevolent, inter-dimensional, embodiment of evil."
"Yeah..." She laughed a little, suddenly embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. So, tell me something. About the school - I'm sure there's much weirder things than demons that have happened in the past year or so - or about you. What drew you to this place?"
He paused for a beat before answering, trying to figure out what he could actually say. "Everything is awesome," he finally settled on. "And Professor Xavier approached me about helping out after seeing some of the work I'd done with a youth program out west." Another mental note was made to talk to Doug about doctoring his electronic past. "I already feel like I've always been here."
"I can understand that. Nowhere else in the world feels like home to me. I'm really glad to be back, I am." And it felt good to be making new friends. Even though she hadn't met Julian before, he already seemed kind of familiar. People who belonged at the mansion just had a certain vibe, she supposed. "The Professor, ah, duw duw, I was sad to learn about his stroke. I trust his powers will come back eventually, although I don't think he really needs them - or Cerebro - to really find us. If that makes sense?"
"Yeah, he does have that whole, most powerful telepath in the world thing going for him," Julian shrugged. "I'm glad you're back too- I mean, looking through the files, I was looking forward to meeting you. You've got some pretty awesome powers." Great...not it sounded like he was flirting with her. He tried to smile brightly to make himself seem less creepy.
"Well, I can fly. Flying is pretty awesome." She smiled back. She tended to mirror people whom was trying to impress, without realizing it. She wondered if her small magic ability was in the files - it had only recently emerged, after her time as Belasco's protégé. "And my dust can be useful in certain situations. What are your powers like, then?"
Julian's eyes filled in with a glowing emerald green as her paint brush lifted from where it was sitting and floated over to a blank canvas where it began to drag across the surface in broad strokes. "Telekinesis," he shrugged, "pretty fun, but a major pain in the ass sometimes." He floated a few inches off the floor, "And flying is awesome."
"Oh that is fun, that is," Megan exclaimed as the blank canvas was filled in, quite precisely, until the liquid in the brush dried up. She looked back to Julian to see him levitating. "Yes, you know! It really is the best." She grabbed her paintbrush out of the air and held it like a wand. "I can also do this - Will-o-Wisp." At the spell-words, a small light bloomed at the base of the brush. A small reward for such a high cost, but then again, the choice to become imbued with magic hadn't really been hers.
"You must get so many Harry Potter jokes with that," Julian chuckled, setting the brush down and examining his handy-work. "I don't remember seeing that as a mutant ability in your file...is it magic?"
"I didn't really show it to anyone yet except for Ms. Amanda and Topaz. An' I can never tell if Topaz gets my jokes. But aye, it's magic. I don't know what I'm going to do with it..." the little ball of light floated free and bobbled around the canvas, slipping right through it as if it were nothing but air ..."but I 'ave it now."
"Are you able to do anything else magical?" Julian asked, both interested and concerned- he needed to actually read her file as he'd hoped the demonic kidnapping hadn't happened to this Megan.
She shook her head.
"Not so far. Ms. Amanda seemed to think there is the potential for it to grow, but it has remained the same so far." While in the demon's realm, she'd been capable of a lot more, but she supposed it was a property of that dimension. Hopefully.
"I was thinking of asking her to teach me a basic glamor spell, though," she added, rubbing one eye. "I am so sick of wearing contacts."
"Contacts?" he hadn't noticed, thinking her eyes were just naturally like that. It made sense, he supposed, to help her blend. "Well, if you ever need to talk or anything- I'm here for you."
"Thanks," Megan replied, her cheeks turning slightly pink. She'd probably already voiced too many random thoughts, but it was nice to talk to someone. She got kind of an older brother vibe from him. Well, not that he was much older. And he was good-looking AND could fly, which made her immediately regret the 'brother' thought. "Yeah, you know I was kind of putting off the training thing, but I think it will be fun. I'll see you soon."
"Happy to have you aboard, Pixie," Julian smiled as he stood up and headed toward the door. He paused at the entry, "I look forward to working with you."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}