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xp_logsLaurie, Xavin, and Felicia have been dropped into an unknown location in what appears to be the middle of winter and will have to determine what's going on and who else is there. In another spot nearby, Jean, Rahne, and Natasha are going through the same thing.
Snow dusted everything in sight, leaving a hush over the ordinary looking landscape. The windows shone with reflected light and everything was quiet. Nothing stirred. A large area of grass was the focal point of the town square with a stone courthouse rising from its middle and topped with a clock tower. Large homes whose lower floors had been converted into smaller shops lined the surrounding streets. Just beyond those were buildings that were still homes and cars were seen in some driveways.
Laurie stumbled out of a side alley, having come to among a pile of boxes that had been turned into makeshift housing by somebody.
She'd been about to go on a training run, that's all she remembered and then...this place. She looked around, noting the snow and the obvious urban setting. Medium sized town, given the shops, but where were the people?
She could hear noises, the usual sounds of animals foraging and birds waking up. That didn't always mean there wasn't anything dangerous around, just nothing that the animals recognized as a predator.
Xavin had woken up face down on the sidewalk and had scrambled to one side to sit back against a wall until the world had stopped spinning and panic had replaced the nausea and dizziness. Sort of replaced. A bit. Not really. They'd been doing homework and then. And then. And now they were here. Xavin stood, finally looking around and thank god thank god thank god seeing someone familiar moving around. "Laurie!"
“Xavin, thank God.” Laurie’s shoulders relaxed slightly as she walked toward the younger person. “Do you know what’s going on?”
"I'm guessing magic," a somewhat familiar voice said, as Felicia looked down from her perch on top of the hanging sign for what appeared to be a bagel shop. Or had once been, anyway; the windows were broken and what remained was covered in dust. She looked around, obviously unhappy about giving up the height advantage she'd found - unsure surroundings, get to higher ground - but quietly slid down, landing near them. "It's always magic when something this fucking ridiculous happens."
Xavin laughed slightly despite the feeling of bubbling terror underneath everything. "Do you think this is Limbo?"
"No," Laurie replied readily, unhappy with the quiet and the fact that they sounded loud against it, anything out here would be able to hear them from miles away. "I don't know about magic, I'd have thought anything like that and the perpetrator would be around to gloat at least. Unless, of course, we are not the target but the bait for one of our magical sorts. Whatever the truth of the matter, we need to be quieter and possibly get out from plain sight."
"You mean like a second floor above a bagel shop with an open window?" Felicia asked dryly, then turned away to look down the street. "There were too many exits anyway. Centre of town will have the most dark pockets, and better odds of finding other faces. No promises on them being friendly, though."
Xavin nodded. "We can't make plans to get back to the mansion and figure out if everyone is okay" and there, there was the centre of the knot of fear Xavin had had since they'd woken in the gutter. "If this wasn't Limbo, then either we're somewhere else, like another dimension or something or another time - can you time travel? Can mutants do that? And we're not getting home till we're somewhere safe and can work it out."
One moment, Rahne had been standing in her room in the mansion, about to get down with some very serious studying - and the next she was stumbling forward into a bank of snow. She screeched at the sudden cold, having faceplanted right into the snow, and flailed about, trying to right herself. "What - the - what?" The snow filled her mouth and she spat it out.
Jean stared out onto the landscape, her face slightly grim with concentration and a dash of confusion. Well, something else strange had obviously happened.
The last thing she remembered was coming home from rounds and getting ready to watch something on Netflix. When she turned a corner she found herself here. It was unnaturally quiet--a little unnerving, really. The familiar buzz of hundreds of voices in her head was muffled down to only a handful. The world looked completely still, everything overgrown and crumbling from disuse. She spotted a military vehicle in the distance, and closed metal gates with barbed wire over the tops that were rusted.
When Rahne spoke up, Jean jumped and quickly reached down, offering her a hand up.
"Rahne? Are you okay?"
"My person, aye, I think so," Rahne said, taking Jean's hand with one of her own while the other wiped the cold snow off her face. Back on her feet, she gazed around with a look of - well, exasperation. "Oh come the bloody hell on! Can we go just one year without bein' zapped all over the place? I mean, where are -"
She stopped cold as her gaze turned to Jean and her eyes narrowed. "Um, Jean? Ye look - different? I mean, ye look like yerself but I don't know, something's off." The other woman looked - harder, more worn down than Rahne remembered her looking. And her scent was off, too. For that matter...Rahne not so discreetly sniffed at herself. Her scent was weird, too.
"What do you mean?" Jean said, then caught sight of her hands. They were rough, callused, and dirty. Her clothes were dirty as well, and sported holes that had been patched with mismatched thread. Looking back to Rahne, she also stared a bit longer, noticing the wrinkles in the young woman's skin. She also seemed thinner, and also sported clothing that was worse for wear.
"...Nevermind. I think you're definitely right there," she said. She blinked, trying to process everything.
"You seem older. Maybe...early 30s?" Turning around she rubbed her head.
"What the hell is going on this time?"
Natasha approached from around the large row of bushes that was shielding Jean and Rahne from view. She stopped a few steps away and waved. "Jean? Rahne? Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that was changed." She had on a dark winter coat and a matching hat to hide the red of her hair while a survival pack hung from a shoulder. She huddled into the meager warmth as a breeze cut through and made her mid-teens frame shiver. "Any idea what this is all about?"
Jean's eyes widened. The woman she'd known who was about her age was now....definitely much younger.
She quickly shook her head. "No. We're still trying to figure it out ourselves. But...judging by our appearances and the location...My three guesses would be...we're on the Astral Plane, in a computer simulation, or something is warping reality. Either way, we should probably try to seek shelter and see if we can find anyone else."
Next to her, Rahne threw her hands up in disgust. "Stay at the mansion, Rahne, it'll be fine, Rahne," she muttered to herself. She ran her hands down her face and sighed behind her hands. "Alright, aye, so we've buggered off to another dimension, it must be Tuesday. I agree with Jean about finding shelter, it's cold out and I'm willing to bet something out there doesn't like us." She peeked out at the others between her fingers. "Because every time I get zapped somewhere, there's always something that doesn't like us waiting."
Natasha nodded in agreement. Everything she'd heard about the shenanigans at the mansion always had something after whoever ended up in strange situations. She was also wondering why no one else had come into this reality fully equipped for the weather they were currently dealing with. "Do you think there are more of us here? As much as I'd trust us to survive in this place, more bodies would be good."
"Hard to say," Jean said, folding her arms to try to get warmer. Her body seemed to ache more than it usually did. "We should probably get going."
Instead of responding, Rahne went perfectly still, eyes slightly unfocused. A moment passed before she glanced behind her. "Someone's coming," she said, voice quiet. "Too far away for my nose to tell who they are but I can hear them walking towards us." They were far enough away still for the sounds to be faint to her but even still, she recognized the sounds of people walking through the snow.
Jean turned toward where Rahne was concentrated, putting her hand to her temple. She slowly smiled.
"They're friendly. It's our people. Maybe...three more?" she said. It was unfortunate that some of the others were stuck there too but at least they had reinforcements for whatever the hell was going on.
Natasha nodded thoughtfully. Okay so a larger group, good for survival, but also inconvenient since it meant that their chance of getting noticed also increased if they weren't careful. "Let's go meet them and figure things out."
Snow dusted everything in sight, leaving a hush over the ordinary looking landscape. The windows shone with reflected light and everything was quiet. Nothing stirred. A large area of grass was the focal point of the town square with a stone courthouse rising from its middle and topped with a clock tower. Large homes whose lower floors had been converted into smaller shops lined the surrounding streets. Just beyond those were buildings that were still homes and cars were seen in some driveways.
Laurie stumbled out of a side alley, having come to among a pile of boxes that had been turned into makeshift housing by somebody.
She'd been about to go on a training run, that's all she remembered and then...this place. She looked around, noting the snow and the obvious urban setting. Medium sized town, given the shops, but where were the people?
She could hear noises, the usual sounds of animals foraging and birds waking up. That didn't always mean there wasn't anything dangerous around, just nothing that the animals recognized as a predator.
Xavin had woken up face down on the sidewalk and had scrambled to one side to sit back against a wall until the world had stopped spinning and panic had replaced the nausea and dizziness. Sort of replaced. A bit. Not really. They'd been doing homework and then. And then. And now they were here. Xavin stood, finally looking around and thank god thank god thank god seeing someone familiar moving around. "Laurie!"
“Xavin, thank God.” Laurie’s shoulders relaxed slightly as she walked toward the younger person. “Do you know what’s going on?”
"I'm guessing magic," a somewhat familiar voice said, as Felicia looked down from her perch on top of the hanging sign for what appeared to be a bagel shop. Or had once been, anyway; the windows were broken and what remained was covered in dust. She looked around, obviously unhappy about giving up the height advantage she'd found - unsure surroundings, get to higher ground - but quietly slid down, landing near them. "It's always magic when something this fucking ridiculous happens."
Xavin laughed slightly despite the feeling of bubbling terror underneath everything. "Do you think this is Limbo?"
"No," Laurie replied readily, unhappy with the quiet and the fact that they sounded loud against it, anything out here would be able to hear them from miles away. "I don't know about magic, I'd have thought anything like that and the perpetrator would be around to gloat at least. Unless, of course, we are not the target but the bait for one of our magical sorts. Whatever the truth of the matter, we need to be quieter and possibly get out from plain sight."
"You mean like a second floor above a bagel shop with an open window?" Felicia asked dryly, then turned away to look down the street. "There were too many exits anyway. Centre of town will have the most dark pockets, and better odds of finding other faces. No promises on them being friendly, though."
Xavin nodded. "We can't make plans to get back to the mansion and figure out if everyone is okay" and there, there was the centre of the knot of fear Xavin had had since they'd woken in the gutter. "If this wasn't Limbo, then either we're somewhere else, like another dimension or something or another time - can you time travel? Can mutants do that? And we're not getting home till we're somewhere safe and can work it out."
One moment, Rahne had been standing in her room in the mansion, about to get down with some very serious studying - and the next she was stumbling forward into a bank of snow. She screeched at the sudden cold, having faceplanted right into the snow, and flailed about, trying to right herself. "What - the - what?" The snow filled her mouth and she spat it out.
Jean stared out onto the landscape, her face slightly grim with concentration and a dash of confusion. Well, something else strange had obviously happened.
The last thing she remembered was coming home from rounds and getting ready to watch something on Netflix. When she turned a corner she found herself here. It was unnaturally quiet--a little unnerving, really. The familiar buzz of hundreds of voices in her head was muffled down to only a handful. The world looked completely still, everything overgrown and crumbling from disuse. She spotted a military vehicle in the distance, and closed metal gates with barbed wire over the tops that were rusted.
When Rahne spoke up, Jean jumped and quickly reached down, offering her a hand up.
"Rahne? Are you okay?"
"My person, aye, I think so," Rahne said, taking Jean's hand with one of her own while the other wiped the cold snow off her face. Back on her feet, she gazed around with a look of - well, exasperation. "Oh come the bloody hell on! Can we go just one year without bein' zapped all over the place? I mean, where are -"
She stopped cold as her gaze turned to Jean and her eyes narrowed. "Um, Jean? Ye look - different? I mean, ye look like yerself but I don't know, something's off." The other woman looked - harder, more worn down than Rahne remembered her looking. And her scent was off, too. For that matter...Rahne not so discreetly sniffed at herself. Her scent was weird, too.
"What do you mean?" Jean said, then caught sight of her hands. They were rough, callused, and dirty. Her clothes were dirty as well, and sported holes that had been patched with mismatched thread. Looking back to Rahne, she also stared a bit longer, noticing the wrinkles in the young woman's skin. She also seemed thinner, and also sported clothing that was worse for wear.
"...Nevermind. I think you're definitely right there," she said. She blinked, trying to process everything.
"You seem older. Maybe...early 30s?" Turning around she rubbed her head.
"What the hell is going on this time?"
Natasha approached from around the large row of bushes that was shielding Jean and Rahne from view. She stopped a few steps away and waved. "Jean? Rahne? Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that was changed." She had on a dark winter coat and a matching hat to hide the red of her hair while a survival pack hung from a shoulder. She huddled into the meager warmth as a breeze cut through and made her mid-teens frame shiver. "Any idea what this is all about?"
Jean's eyes widened. The woman she'd known who was about her age was now....definitely much younger.
She quickly shook her head. "No. We're still trying to figure it out ourselves. But...judging by our appearances and the location...My three guesses would be...we're on the Astral Plane, in a computer simulation, or something is warping reality. Either way, we should probably try to seek shelter and see if we can find anyone else."
Next to her, Rahne threw her hands up in disgust. "Stay at the mansion, Rahne, it'll be fine, Rahne," she muttered to herself. She ran her hands down her face and sighed behind her hands. "Alright, aye, so we've buggered off to another dimension, it must be Tuesday. I agree with Jean about finding shelter, it's cold out and I'm willing to bet something out there doesn't like us." She peeked out at the others between her fingers. "Because every time I get zapped somewhere, there's always something that doesn't like us waiting."
Natasha nodded in agreement. Everything she'd heard about the shenanigans at the mansion always had something after whoever ended up in strange situations. She was also wondering why no one else had come into this reality fully equipped for the weather they were currently dealing with. "Do you think there are more of us here? As much as I'd trust us to survive in this place, more bodies would be good."
"Hard to say," Jean said, folding her arms to try to get warmer. Her body seemed to ache more than it usually did. "We should probably get going."
Instead of responding, Rahne went perfectly still, eyes slightly unfocused. A moment passed before she glanced behind her. "Someone's coming," she said, voice quiet. "Too far away for my nose to tell who they are but I can hear them walking towards us." They were far enough away still for the sounds to be faint to her but even still, she recognized the sounds of people walking through the snow.
Jean turned toward where Rahne was concentrated, putting her hand to her temple. She slowly smiled.
"They're friendly. It's our people. Maybe...three more?" she said. It was unfortunate that some of the others were stuck there too but at least they had reinforcements for whatever the hell was going on.
Natasha nodded thoughtfully. Okay so a larger group, good for survival, but also inconvenient since it meant that their chance of getting noticed also increased if they weren't careful. "Let's go meet them and figure things out."
