xp_logs | Log: Dani and Karen

Dani heads to the dreaded Mall and runs into Karen, the not-quite FOHer. Awkwardness and apologies ensue. Dani might've made a friend, kinda. Very romeo and juliet but without the suicide, parents or sex.

Karen sighed as she paid for the Yoga tapes, wishing she didn't have to even buy them. It would be so easy to just go back to her class, but her family would literally kill her. Walking out of the store, her stomach rumbled and Karen decided to head by the food court before going by the video game store to get a brithday present for Josh.

Normally places like the mall were something Dani avoided like the plague. Too loud, too enclosed and way too many people for her, even with the inhibitor on. She didn't want to contemplate even trying to go there without one. But the mall had lots of shops and even Dani couldn't buy everything at Wal-Mart, no matter how much she wanted to. Stopping at Orange Julius at the food court, she bought a drink to take with her...was that Karen? "Hey, Karen!" Dani called through the cacophony of people.

Karen started at the sound of her name and turned quickly from her course towards Subway. After looking around for a few moments for a familiar face, Karen started when she saw Dani. Glancing around to make sure there was no FOH people around, she wondered if she could pretend that she hadn't heard the other girl, their last encounter still bright in her mind.

Dani hurried over, mentally cursing everything. She had to say something and risk Karen's so-called 'friends' again and it was too late to pretend that she had been calling someone else. "Hello," she said somewhat formally, nervous.

Karen bit her lip as she checked around again. The last thing she needed was someone in FOH to see her talking to a mutant. "Umm...Hi." She couldn't just ignore the girl, even if she was a mutant. Dani had been her friend and Karen wasn't one to be rude...

Silences back in Oklahoma were not awkward. They were lulls in the conversation as natural as the wind blowing. Silences since she had come to Xavier's were generally awkward. This was no exception. "So...how are you?" she asked, trying to think of something. And she really did want to know. She didn't remember most of that night when she'd been, well...attacked wasn't quite the right word, but she rememebered pieces. Enough to know she'd scared everyone badly.

Not a fan of akward silences herself, she moved out of the Subway line and over to the side so their conversation would not block anyone else. "I've umm...I've been alright." What did one say to someone who was attacked because of them? "How...how about you?"

"Okay," Dani replied, painfully aware she was floundering, "I um...I didn't hurt you? Or your friends?"

"No..." Karen quickly shook her head. "Whatever you did, it didn't effect me and the boys, well...they were just extremely frightened by whatever you did. No permenant harm." Glancing down at Dani's growing belly, she bit her lip. "Are, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. We're fine," she ammended lamely, "Now, I mean. I scared myself as much as I scared those guys. I didn't mean to, you know. Ended up spending more time in the crazy room."

"I'm sorry Dani..." Karen's voice had grown softer now as she forced the words out. "I...I don't know what I was thinking, just you, being a mutant...it scared me."

"Scares me too, sometimes," and others it was just cool, but that would possibly be another discussion on another day.

Karen just nodded, again chewing on her bottom lip. Again she didn't know what to say, afraid of saying something stupid or making Dani afraid again. Just because her power hadn't affected her before doesn't mean it wouldn't now.

That was less than reassuring, Dani mentally kicked herself, "I can't do anything now. I can't use my powers at all...If I could, I wouldn't be at the mall."

"Why...why can't you?" Creating nightmares didn't seem like something one could turn on and off at will.

Dani sighed, rubbing the small of her back and headed towards a nearby bench to sit, "I'm am empath. I feel emotions. But I can't stop it, I don't know how to tell the difference between what you feel and what I feel. I lose myself. And in the parkinglot I got caught in the fear and anger...the boys, my own...it just kept building and in the end, I didn't even know who I was anymore or how to make it stop," she held up her arm, showing Karen the metal band around her wrist, "This stops my powers."

Karen followed her over to the bench but didn't sit down, instead opting to stand. Everything Dani was saying went over her head, especially the part where the small metal band stopped her powers. "How does that stop them? I mean, thier emotions and that just looked like a metal bracelet..." She really did want to understand, wanted to be sure she was safe in the other girl's presence.

"I don't know. I don't understand it either. It just...does," Forge would be able to explain it if he were here. "I'd probably be dead if it didn't work though."

Sighing softly, Karen finally sat down on the bench beside Dani. "If...if it means anything...I'm glad it works...I mean...I'm glad your here." She looked down at her lap, not blaming Dani if she didn't accept what she had just said.

"Thanks," Dani smiled a little, accepting the words at face value. "Ah, I better go...errandsm ain't it? But it was good to see you...clear the air."

Karen nodded. "Yeah...it was. We should umm...we should talk again. Soon." She stood up, her appetite forgotten. Turning, she offered a hand to help Dani up.

Dani accepted, nodding her thanks. "Later."