xp_logs | Wednesday night in the medlab (Reply)

Kylun, Jane, and Cecelia get to know one another, and try the mutual-reassurance thing. Potentially awkward topics are skimmed past or stumbled over, but all's well that ends in Jane making more new friends.

Jane carefully made her way down to the MedLab, her fingers trailing along the walls of the hall. She felt a bit dizzy, unstable, like her world was tilted. How did people just disappear like that? She was glad Moira had invited her to the MedLab. She didn't want to be alone.

"This place is insane," a tired-sounding woman's voice remarked from further back up the hall, accompanied by the quiet swish of the elevator's doors. Cecilia stepped into the hall, a cup of tea cradled in her hands. "Just about there, now. I hope Jane's already down here.. I didn't see her."

"I believe I saw her leave before we did, if her journal pictures are accurate," Kylun replied, switching two other teacups into the hand holding the pot so that he had one free to open the door. "We will know soon enough."

Jane heard the murmur of voices behind her and paused. Right now she wanted human contact more than anything else. She waited for the two to catch up. "Hi!" she waved uncertainly, even though she really just wanted to hug them to make sure they were real. However, hugging two strangers she'd only met in the journal system so far was probably overreacting.

"We can hope," Cecilia nodded, looking up to offer Kylun a small smile. It was nice to have such a calming presence handy - it made it easier for her to keep her head, herself. She brightened, though, at the new voice, and allowed herself a relieved smile. "Jane?" she hazarded, before offering her a hand. "Hi."

Jane smiled and practically lunged for the offered hand. It was solid and there, thank goodness. "Cecilia, right? Nice to meet you. Thank you so much for keeping me company, you must think I'm a total spaz." Jane barely held back from hugging Cecilia.

"Not a spaz at all," Cecilia chuckled, shaking her head. "Just scared. I think we all are." She offered Jane a reassuring smile, glancing briefly to her tea after a moment of watching the girl try not to pounce her. She was grateful for the restraint, if only because she didn't want to burn anyone with her drink. "Kylun has tea for you. It may help with your nerves."

"Perhaps not quite as well as the tea I grew up with," Kylun said with a suspiciously impassive expression, his voice as soothing a rumble as he could make it, "but then, there is no yak butter in this house."

Jane smiled at Kylun. "I'm sure if you asked, someone could get yak butter. Lorna likes to experiment with new things to cook, so she'd be your best bet. If we do get any, I'd like to try it. I like new things. Hi, I'm Jane." She stuck her hand out to Kylun. He was fascinating to her. She really wanted to pet his face.

Kylun considered the hand for a beat before nodding slightly and offering his own; his grip was callused and firm. "I am pleased to meet you, Jane, though I wish the circumstances were better." He smiled. "Lorna was very interested in the dishes of the monastery, yes, but I think I will make my excuses until I have been able to try more of the usual foods here. There are so many different ways to eat beef."

Jane nodded. "You look very neat!" she blurted out and then blushed. "Sorry, I'm just really fascinated by mutations like yours that you can really SEE. Actually, I just like seeing eveyone's powers at work."

The mention of powers had Cecilia focusing more intently on her tea, though she was still paying attention - but being surrounded by nervous people she didn't know in a place she still wasn't familiar with made her nervous. All the talk of patrols didn't do much to calm her feeling of being hunted, either.

Kylun's sudden grin showed a quick flash of sharp teeth, before he caught himself and hid them again. "It is useful in the cold; I was always comfortable at home. Here, I am still adjusting to the heat."

"I don't feel any but extreme temperatures, myself, so I don't really know how to help. Maybe you can turn up the air conditioning?" Jane suggested. "What about you, Cecilia, what's your power?"

"It's private," Cecilia replied quickly, and a bit more sharply than she'd really intended. With a wince, she looked to Jane, and mumbled a very quiet apology. "I'm just jumpy," she explained lamely.

"Oh, um, sorry. It's okay, I think everyone is on edge right now. I know I am!" Jane laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Well, my power is to turn into a cloud, just so you know." Jane thought it best to change the subject then, considering Cecilia's reaction. "So where are you two from?"

"The monastery in which I grew up was in Switzerland," Kylun said, a brief shadow flitting across his face. "On a mountain peak. We were able to see many things, from there." He smiled. "Including many, many clouds."

Jane giggled. "Never wondered if any of the clouds were looking back at you before, though, right?"

"I'm much less interesting," Cecilia replied lightly, still feeling guilty for having snapped so. "I grew up in the Bronx. It isn't cloudy, so much as it is smoggy."

Jane nodded. "The Bronx is somewhere in New York City, right? That's cool. I don't know where I'm from, I have amnesia. I was in a mental institution before Professor Xavier and Doc Samson brought me here."

Kylun shook his head, slightly puzzled. "I do not know this word 'amnesia,'" he said apologetically.

"I can't remember my past," Jane said. "They just found me wandering on a roadside one day and that's the first thing I remember."

"It isn't always permanent," Cecilia supplied, regarding Jane for a moment before offering her a small smile. "I'm sure you'll be able to remember, in time."

Jane just nodded. How to say that getting her memory back was something she both longed for and feared at the same time? "Maybe," she said. "So you're a student doctor, right? Are you going to work with the docs here then?"

"That's the theory," Cecilia confirmed, nodding as she brought her tea up for another sip. Soothe, baby, soothe. "Hopefully, everything will be worked out soon so I can ask Do-- Moira and Madelyn about what they want to have me doing.

"It is good to know your purpose," Kylun mused quietly. "I am sure all will be well again as soon as it may be."

"How can you be so sure?" Jane asked in a small voice.

"Because there are those here who will not stop until it is." The shadow flickered across his face again, stronger. "That is . . . not always enough, but we must not lose hope that it will be." He paused, thinking. "'Hope is only a candle in the night,' my teacher once said, 'but even a candle can light the way home.'"

"It's good to have hope. And new friends." Jane smiled at them both.