[open] you've got to stop lying still because this is no kind of life

[motherofnemesis]

Date & Time: May 21st-31st
Location: group housing, the memorial set up in the garden, the rooftops at night, anywhere else you would like
Characters: Max & ANYONE
Summary: Well that sucked, raise your hand if you agree and just want to chill out.
Warnings: references to past violence

o1. home. 21st.

[ She lingers down in the lobby of the housing for a while, too unsettled to willingly put herself in the same room with people she really doesn't want to mess up or if Tony's just gotten back with the relief that will be associated with that. So for a while she simply paces in the lobby, back and forth, but eventually she has to admit that her clothes are still bloody and she could really, really use a very hot shower and about 20 hours of sleep, and now before her head ceases to feel like it's filled with white noise and decides to actually react to everything that just happened and how many people died around her.

So she finishes up pacing, slings her coat over her shoulder and heads back up to the room. ]

o2. garden memorial.

[ In the moments over the next week that she vanishes, she can sometimes be found in the memorial Gwen has been working on setting up and the nearby garden. Weeding is easy, repetitive, and she's got enough to handle in her head with the increase in - charge she's come to recognize as the aftermath of a mission.

If sometimes she simply sits with her arms around her legs and forehead resting on her knees, tired and sore and with her own people to remember, well. There's rarely others around, after all. It's fine. ]

o3. nighttime rooftops.

[ She hasn't done this sort of work in a while, and the crime levels in Exsilium really aren't that high. Frankly it's a little ridiculous that she keeps roaming the streets at night in the vain hope of finding some sort of situation she can fix, especially since she can't even be bothered to wear some sort of costume. She just would really like to fix things, a little, instead of just maintain a sort of terrible average.

Sometimes she really does miss this. ]

o4. anywhere.

[ There's a lot of wandering, going on. Sometimes she's in the training room, though her time there is short and she's careful to stay in corners and out of the main lines of sight since Kara and Lee clearly know where this is. She spends a fair amount of time in Tony's workshop, building new and improved ways to damage the United Earth soldiers because she needs to. And sometimes she's just moving, restless and uncertain of what she's doing but knowing that she can't be still. ]

[ ooc: permissions are here for empathy things, which could be a good idea since it's currently in the process of leveling up! there's a strong chance of tags becoming sporadic in the next few weeks again, but i will backtag everything forever. ]

Comments

[motherofnemesis]

[ Outside has been one of her favorite places for a long time, and this garden in particular is rapidly growing to be one of her most favored spots for peace. She's definitely familiar enough with it to take in the sight of someone else in it as being out of place.

Not to mention the floating upside down in the air thing. That's also pretty out of place. ]

So you can - float? [ A beat, a cautious widening of her empathy to see if she can get any surface read from him. ] Why upside down?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[The brush of psi-power hits him before the words do, and while he's pretty much radiating calm, his shields are also right there, and at the little prod, he... well, prods back. Not a full psi-attack, but acknowledgement, a testing of defenses. At the same time, he opens his eye]

Discipline, mostly.

[motherofnemesis]

[ She pulls in her empathy almost immediately at that test back, shields slamming up instinctually. They're not as thorough as they could be, clearly cracked from previous great strain, but they're not bad anymore either. ]

How does hovering upside down help with discipline?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

It takes a lot of TK control to hold steady like this. Holding that while letting the rest of your thoughts go requires even more practice.

[And then he adds, mentally:] Your shields could use some work. [He could probably smash through if he tried, but not only would that be incredibly rude, it'd probably be painful for both of them]

[motherofnemesis]

Telekinesis? [ But not entirely waiting for an answer. She's fairly certain she's right about that one. ] Seems like a one way trip to getting dropped on your head, you know.

[ Her mouth thins at that, though, shoring them up further as she can. She's never fond of that being pointed out to her, given the reasons why. ] If you've got something to say, you can say it out loud.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Yeah. [To both those first statements really] When I first learned how to do this, I practiced over grass - falling on your head is a pretty good incentive to push yourself, though.

Sorry. Too used to psis who prefer speaking mind-to-mind, I think. [Though it's clear enough she heard him, so he doesn't bother repeating himself]

[motherofnemesis]

I guess it would be.

[ She shrugs, at least maintaining a fair appearance of calm. ] I'm not a telepath. I can't speak mind-to-mind.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[He rights himself in one quick, practiced motion, landing on his feet. Because an upside-down conversation gets a little weird even for him after a while]

Empath, then? Or something else?

[motherofnemesis]

[ A little more normal, and she tilts her head a little to watch him, refusing to back off or show that she's not entirely comfortable. ]

Empath. [ He could tear the answer from her head if he chose, that much she can tell. That he hasn't indicates at least some sense of code. ] But you are a telepath.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[He probably wouldn't even have noticed a funny look. People give him funny looks perpetually.]

And a telekinetic, yeah.

[Thankfully other people have managed to get him to understand psi ethics]

[motherofnemesis]

Not doing anything by halves.

[ She operates by the theory of never showing that something's wrong. ]

I appreciate the lack of intrusion.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

They tend to occur together fairly often, in my world - particularly in my family.

[motherofnemesis]

A genetics thing? [ Curious. ] Are powers pretty common where you're from?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Depends on how you define 'common'. It's less than a percent of the population so far, but that's still a few hundred thousand. And yeah, for most of us, it's a genetics thing.

[motherofnemesis]

[ A thoughtful pause, and then she sits down cross legged on the grass, rests her hands back and watches him. ] That go over well for you with the rest of the population?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Not really, no. [It's almost like you understand oppression!]

[motherofnemesis]

[ It's almost like people really hated powers in her world. ] Yeah, I didn't think so. I wonder if anywhere gets that lucky?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[Congratulations welcome to the X-Men! Where being universally hated is a rite of passage]

I'd like to think so - but I haven't seen anywhere that's true.

[motherofnemesis]

[ you guys' life sucks. jsyk. ]

You seen a lot of other universes?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[And Nate's life sucks even by X-Men standards]

A few. Depends on how you feel like counting different points in the timestream.

[motherofnemesis]

[ that's pretty impressive right there ]

Depends on how different the points were, I guess.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Some more so than others. A few were... possible futures is the best way to put it, I suppose. Things that might have come to pass for a world, but never did.

[motherofnemesis]

So how come you were time travelling at all?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[He shrugs a little.]

Same reason we're here - saving the world.

[motherofnemesis]

Sounds like a little bit of a tall order, there.