Nica and Gabe - The Elephant in the Room
Dec. 29th, 2020 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsCurious about the whole "patchwork dimension" thing. Nica seeks out Gabe to ask some questions.
It wasn't always easy catching the X-Force people around the mansion, but since the Professor's announcement, it seemed they had been making an effort to be around more. Which Nica appreciated as she came upon Gabriel coming down the stairs from the third floor. "Oh! Mr. Coh... er, Gabe? Do you have a moment?"
"Sure," Gabriel looked up from his phone, "if you promise not to call me Mister ever again." The device buzzed, and he gave it the briefest of glances before shoving it in his pocket and scanning her face. He found no clues there as to what Nica wanted, but he at least surmised that he was not enough older than her to be treated like her elder.
"Lucky for you," he said, descending the stairs toward her, "I'm overwhelmingly free."
She gave him an abashed grin. "Sorry, call it a habit. At least I didn't call you sir?" But that wasn't getting her to what she wanted. "I wanted to talk to you, about, well, you know. The whole..." She made a gesture that meant everything and nothing. "Thing."
"Oh, yeah." Gabriel nodded. "The Thing." He should have guessed, really. There was little other reason for anyone to seek him out these days. "Well, we can talk about it, but I'm not sure a staircase is the place to do it. Maybe somewhere more private?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely." Nica grinned. "Um, my suite's just along here and Megan's at work... is that okay?" She looked as awkward as she felt. "There's somewhere to sit, even."
"Sure, if you want." He thought she seemed nervous. But then considering what she was asking about, who wouldn't be? And it's not as if they really knew each other all that well. "Or — hold on." He vanished in a split-second, then returned moments later. "The rec room's free," he told her, acting as if he hadn't just disappeared into thin air. "And maybe less... personal? I just — I mean, wherever you'd be comfortable."
"Yeah, the rec room sounds better. At least I won't have to leave you outside while I pick up our suite." Her body language had relaxed at the suggestion, although she was still unsure of how to deal with this whole thing. "So that's your power?" she asked as they made their way down the hall. "Super-speed?"
"More or less," Gabriel said. "I mean, it's a little more complicated than that, something to do with physics I barely understand, but the end effect is the same." That wasn't entirely true, but they didn't know each other that well. Besides, Gabriel liked his little secrets, and it felt like he had fewer and fewer of them these days. "And you..." He searched his brain trying to remember what he'd heard. "Something with light, I wanna say?"
"Sort of." Nica was only too happy to explain her powers, as much as she understood them. "I can absorb and project frequencies along the EM spectrum - light, infra-red, radio waves, that sort of thing. But the simplest version is I can turn into light." She held up her hand, letting her fingertips glow. "I'm still working on how many frequencies I can tune into."
Gabriel nodded, fairly impressed. He appreciated a power he could see, in a mansion with so many he could not. "A mutant satellite dish, but not." He wondered if that sounded more offensive than he meant it to but decided not to worry about it. Given what they were discussing, a stray remark was not going to be the most memorable thing about their conversation.
"Here we are," he said. As he said, the second floor's rec room was empty. He hadn't spent much time here since the apocalypse and was pleased to see someone had installed a mini-fridge. He zoomed over to it with a grin that quickly faded when he opened the door. "Energy drinks? Really?" He sighed as he slammed it shut, then speeded over to the nearest couch.
"So," Gabriel said, leaning against the cushions and trying to look casual and cool. "You wanted to talk about the narrowly averted apocalypse?"
"Satellite dish?" Instead of being offended, Nica looked thoughtful. "Yeah, I guess I am. Beats being a sunlamp, any way." She followed him into the rec room and grabbed a seat on another couch. "So yeah." She paused, not sure how to start, then decided to plunge straight in. "I guess the big question is... was there another me? In that other world?"
"Ah." Gabriel expected this. It would have been his first question too, but he weighed asking her why she wanted to know. He'd spent so much time thinking about alternate universes and versions of himself, and it took him so long to realize that his obsession with them had little to do with what he learned and more to do with what he didn't.
But it certainly wasn't his place to force her to be so introspective, so he decided to answer her plainly. "Well, I can't totally answer that," he cautioned her. "Because, like, I didn't see every corner of the world. But the answer to the question you're actually asking — did we all know another Monica Rambeau in our lives? That's a no."
"Oh." Her response was mixed - part relief and part disappointment. Relief that she didn't have to worry about the inadvertent grief she may have caused simply by existing, but disappointed because there was something... exciting about the whole deal. Multiple dimensions, the end of the world, literal forces of evil... "Well, that makes things a bit easier, I suppose. I have less questions to ask, at least." She looked up at Gabe, reminding herself that he'd probably lost people in the whole thing and that it wouldn't seem exactly exciting to him. "Wasn't it hard? Keeping this a secret from everyone?"
"That part wasn't that difficult," Gabriel said honestly. "Well, not to me anyway." He had kept so many secrets over the years he lost count. There were things so personal that he had still never revealed them; he knew how to keep his mouth shut. "I mean, the stakes were pretty clear. If we said something, the world would come apart at the seams."
"Well, that's a motivation, I guess." She gave him an awkward half-smile. "I have to admit, I don't always get all of the weirdness going on around here. Magic, psionics, alternate dimensions... it's crazy. So the idea of the world being destroyed because someone let slip the wrong thing... it was hard to grasp, to be honest." Nica pondered her next question. "So, what was it like? Here, I mean, before M-Day."
“Fewer alternate dimensions, but pretty much the same.” The answer was fairly flip, and he knew it, so he tried to really think about the question. “Things weren’t as tense,” he finally said, though Gabriel wasn’t sure whether that was true of the world as a whole or just of him. It was hard to separate himself out; when he looked back on that time, it felt more placid.
“Until the last few days,” he added, “when they were 400 times worse. It’s almost like all our anxiety and adrenaline got mixed up in whatever blender this world came from.”
"How was it less tense?" Nica asked. She wanted to ask more about the final days, but she figured asking about someone's last days before the world ended would be a bit gauche. "Were people different about mutants?"
"I guess so. I mean, it feels that way when I look back on it." It was hard for Gabriel to really remember, especially given how the end of the world had gone and the state he'd been in it when they narrowly averted all but certain destruction. "I mean, you remember what things were like around M-Day. The world hadn't been through anything like that before. It's no wonder people hate us more now than they did then." Or at least, they were being more up front about it.
"But I might be projecting," he added. "I wasn't as aware of those sorts of things back then. But then, you know, I don't think I had to be, so maybe that's your answer."
"That makes sense," Nica said slowly, thinking it over. "Like that old cornball saying about not knowing what you have until you don't have it any more." With a half-sigh, she straightened her shoulders and looked over at Gabe again. "Thanks," she said. "For telling me this. I don't really have anything else to ask right now, but if I do, is it okay to just ping you and ask?"
Gabriel shrugged. “Sure.” He considered her for a second or two. “I think this is one of those things that you don’t really know what you want to know until you want to know it.” It dawned him how absurd that sounded, but he carried on. “But I also think it — the answers aren’t always there. Or maybe they’re not what you expect them to be?”
He wasn’t trying to sound as pretentious as he was coming off, but he wasn’t sure how to explain exactly what he meant. Maybe it was something you had to live.
Her expression turned wry. "Something like that. I mean, I'd gotten all ready to hear about another me, and there wasn't one. Or not one here, any way. It kind of knocked me off track. But I'm glad we were able to talk any way." She got up, intending to go, but paused before she did. "I don't know if this means anything, but... thank you. For saving the world. It must have been so hard for all of you who lived through that, but if you hadn't, well, I literally wouldn't be here." She shrugged awkwardly. "Or something like that. Um."
"Oh. Uh..." Gabriel was genuinely taken aback. "I mean, you're welcome?" He didn't know how to explain to her that he didn't really do anything. That he hadn't really had a choice. That the universe put him on a course, and a force he barely understood tried to rip apart the world, and then another force he understood even less offered to patch it together. It was almost funny to hear her treat him like a participant when all these years later, he still felt like a bystander.
"Glad I could help."
It wasn't always easy catching the X-Force people around the mansion, but since the Professor's announcement, it seemed they had been making an effort to be around more. Which Nica appreciated as she came upon Gabriel coming down the stairs from the third floor. "Oh! Mr. Coh... er, Gabe? Do you have a moment?"
"Sure," Gabriel looked up from his phone, "if you promise not to call me Mister ever again." The device buzzed, and he gave it the briefest of glances before shoving it in his pocket and scanning her face. He found no clues there as to what Nica wanted, but he at least surmised that he was not enough older than her to be treated like her elder.
"Lucky for you," he said, descending the stairs toward her, "I'm overwhelmingly free."
She gave him an abashed grin. "Sorry, call it a habit. At least I didn't call you sir?" But that wasn't getting her to what she wanted. "I wanted to talk to you, about, well, you know. The whole..." She made a gesture that meant everything and nothing. "Thing."
"Oh, yeah." Gabriel nodded. "The Thing." He should have guessed, really. There was little other reason for anyone to seek him out these days. "Well, we can talk about it, but I'm not sure a staircase is the place to do it. Maybe somewhere more private?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely." Nica grinned. "Um, my suite's just along here and Megan's at work... is that okay?" She looked as awkward as she felt. "There's somewhere to sit, even."
"Sure, if you want." He thought she seemed nervous. But then considering what she was asking about, who wouldn't be? And it's not as if they really knew each other all that well. "Or — hold on." He vanished in a split-second, then returned moments later. "The rec room's free," he told her, acting as if he hadn't just disappeared into thin air. "And maybe less... personal? I just — I mean, wherever you'd be comfortable."
"Yeah, the rec room sounds better. At least I won't have to leave you outside while I pick up our suite." Her body language had relaxed at the suggestion, although she was still unsure of how to deal with this whole thing. "So that's your power?" she asked as they made their way down the hall. "Super-speed?"
"More or less," Gabriel said. "I mean, it's a little more complicated than that, something to do with physics I barely understand, but the end effect is the same." That wasn't entirely true, but they didn't know each other that well. Besides, Gabriel liked his little secrets, and it felt like he had fewer and fewer of them these days. "And you..." He searched his brain trying to remember what he'd heard. "Something with light, I wanna say?"
"Sort of." Nica was only too happy to explain her powers, as much as she understood them. "I can absorb and project frequencies along the EM spectrum - light, infra-red, radio waves, that sort of thing. But the simplest version is I can turn into light." She held up her hand, letting her fingertips glow. "I'm still working on how many frequencies I can tune into."
Gabriel nodded, fairly impressed. He appreciated a power he could see, in a mansion with so many he could not. "A mutant satellite dish, but not." He wondered if that sounded more offensive than he meant it to but decided not to worry about it. Given what they were discussing, a stray remark was not going to be the most memorable thing about their conversation.
"Here we are," he said. As he said, the second floor's rec room was empty. He hadn't spent much time here since the apocalypse and was pleased to see someone had installed a mini-fridge. He zoomed over to it with a grin that quickly faded when he opened the door. "Energy drinks? Really?" He sighed as he slammed it shut, then speeded over to the nearest couch.
"So," Gabriel said, leaning against the cushions and trying to look casual and cool. "You wanted to talk about the narrowly averted apocalypse?"
"Satellite dish?" Instead of being offended, Nica looked thoughtful. "Yeah, I guess I am. Beats being a sunlamp, any way." She followed him into the rec room and grabbed a seat on another couch. "So yeah." She paused, not sure how to start, then decided to plunge straight in. "I guess the big question is... was there another me? In that other world?"
"Ah." Gabriel expected this. It would have been his first question too, but he weighed asking her why she wanted to know. He'd spent so much time thinking about alternate universes and versions of himself, and it took him so long to realize that his obsession with them had little to do with what he learned and more to do with what he didn't.
But it certainly wasn't his place to force her to be so introspective, so he decided to answer her plainly. "Well, I can't totally answer that," he cautioned her. "Because, like, I didn't see every corner of the world. But the answer to the question you're actually asking — did we all know another Monica Rambeau in our lives? That's a no."
"Oh." Her response was mixed - part relief and part disappointment. Relief that she didn't have to worry about the inadvertent grief she may have caused simply by existing, but disappointed because there was something... exciting about the whole deal. Multiple dimensions, the end of the world, literal forces of evil... "Well, that makes things a bit easier, I suppose. I have less questions to ask, at least." She looked up at Gabe, reminding herself that he'd probably lost people in the whole thing and that it wouldn't seem exactly exciting to him. "Wasn't it hard? Keeping this a secret from everyone?"
"That part wasn't that difficult," Gabriel said honestly. "Well, not to me anyway." He had kept so many secrets over the years he lost count. There were things so personal that he had still never revealed them; he knew how to keep his mouth shut. "I mean, the stakes were pretty clear. If we said something, the world would come apart at the seams."
"Well, that's a motivation, I guess." She gave him an awkward half-smile. "I have to admit, I don't always get all of the weirdness going on around here. Magic, psionics, alternate dimensions... it's crazy. So the idea of the world being destroyed because someone let slip the wrong thing... it was hard to grasp, to be honest." Nica pondered her next question. "So, what was it like? Here, I mean, before M-Day."
“Fewer alternate dimensions, but pretty much the same.” The answer was fairly flip, and he knew it, so he tried to really think about the question. “Things weren’t as tense,” he finally said, though Gabriel wasn’t sure whether that was true of the world as a whole or just of him. It was hard to separate himself out; when he looked back on that time, it felt more placid.
“Until the last few days,” he added, “when they were 400 times worse. It’s almost like all our anxiety and adrenaline got mixed up in whatever blender this world came from.”
"How was it less tense?" Nica asked. She wanted to ask more about the final days, but she figured asking about someone's last days before the world ended would be a bit gauche. "Were people different about mutants?"
"I guess so. I mean, it feels that way when I look back on it." It was hard for Gabriel to really remember, especially given how the end of the world had gone and the state he'd been in it when they narrowly averted all but certain destruction. "I mean, you remember what things were like around M-Day. The world hadn't been through anything like that before. It's no wonder people hate us more now than they did then." Or at least, they were being more up front about it.
"But I might be projecting," he added. "I wasn't as aware of those sorts of things back then. But then, you know, I don't think I had to be, so maybe that's your answer."
"That makes sense," Nica said slowly, thinking it over. "Like that old cornball saying about not knowing what you have until you don't have it any more." With a half-sigh, she straightened her shoulders and looked over at Gabe again. "Thanks," she said. "For telling me this. I don't really have anything else to ask right now, but if I do, is it okay to just ping you and ask?"
Gabriel shrugged. “Sure.” He considered her for a second or two. “I think this is one of those things that you don’t really know what you want to know until you want to know it.” It dawned him how absurd that sounded, but he carried on. “But I also think it — the answers aren’t always there. Or maybe they’re not what you expect them to be?”
He wasn’t trying to sound as pretentious as he was coming off, but he wasn’t sure how to explain exactly what he meant. Maybe it was something you had to live.
Her expression turned wry. "Something like that. I mean, I'd gotten all ready to hear about another me, and there wasn't one. Or not one here, any way. It kind of knocked me off track. But I'm glad we were able to talk any way." She got up, intending to go, but paused before she did. "I don't know if this means anything, but... thank you. For saving the world. It must have been so hard for all of you who lived through that, but if you hadn't, well, I literally wouldn't be here." She shrugged awkwardly. "Or something like that. Um."
"Oh. Uh..." Gabriel was genuinely taken aback. "I mean, you're welcome?" He didn't know how to explain to her that he didn't really do anything. That he hadn't really had a choice. That the universe put him on a course, and a force he barely understood tried to rip apart the world, and then another force he understood even less offered to patch it together. It was almost funny to hear her treat him like a participant when all these years later, he still felt like a bystander.
"Glad I could help."
