xavier_institute_logs | Dark Clouds, Silver Linings

Entry tags:

Dark Clouds, Silver Linings

Who: Everyone!
What: The news of the day, brought to you live.
Where: Around any TV screen, computer, radio, or newspaper.
When: All week.
Warnings: Reference to major NPC death. If a thread goes into warning territory for anything else, toss it up in the subject line or take it to a new log.

"...not the cure that everyone has been hoping for, but researchers working with the virus ravaging mutant enclaves around the country claim to have reached a breakthrough -- a treatment which can stop the contagion from spreading from person to person. For more on this, we're joined by our medical specialist..."

"...ravaged by riots for the second time this year, District X citizens have been organizing to repair the damage that's been done not only the the buildings and infrastructure, but also to their sense of community. Several people are in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody in connection with the recent outbreak of violence, but few details have emerged so far..."

"...outpouring of grief from mutant communities and their supporters internationally after a high-profile member of the X-men's death was confirmed. Kurt Wagner, known to the public as 'Nightcrawler', was a long-time staff member at the Xavier Institute, rumored in recent months to have been suffering from the virus affecting mutants around the nation and the world. When asked for comment, a representative of the school asked for peace and privacy, and declined any further discussion..."

"...slight drop in mainstream support for candidates Norman Osborn and Graydon Creed attributed to their well-publicized outbursts against, among others, the mutant and pro-mutant protest groups that have been dogging them on the campaign trail. A video taken just last week of Osborn's rambling and incoherent response to a question posed to him by a mutant attendee of a meet-and-greet event went viral, prompting mockery even from some of the other candidates in the primary..."

"...international news, President Kelly has set a date for a new round of discussions with Genoshan leadership. Speaking with the press this morning, he said that he wanted to give his thanks to them personally for the help that their researchers have provided in the past weeks, and to continue making steps towards the normalization of relations..."

[OOC: As always, feel free to react to any of these prompts or even to related things that aren't explicitly posted here!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...I don't understand.

[No one liked her. That was just how things were, what did Kaede think she was doing?]

Do you need to?

[Kaede liked Krista.

...but why did she like Krista?

At first, it was mostly because she liked pestering Krista. Then because Krista didn't respond like people usually did when Kaede pestered them. So what would bother her? What would irritate her? What would make her stay away?

...apparently, not much that Kaede usually did.]

I suppose not.

[But it niggled at her -- she was sure Kaede was simply somehow wrong about her, at the same time desperate to explain the misunderstanding away and to be convinced that there was something about her worth liking. She squirmed a little further away from Kaede, unable to put any of it into words.]

[Normally, more space was good. It didn't leave Kaede feeling so cramped.

Not this time. She frowned a little; what was that for?]

Are you afraid of me?

No.

[The answer was immediate. She had been at first, with that attitude of hers and the power of her vectors, and she'd been more afraid when she came into her mind that time, but as terrifying as it was to have the worst of her known, she wasn't afraid of Kaede.]

No, of course not. Why would you ask that?

[...hm.

Kaede tilted her head a little at Krista, as if fascinated by what she heard. Which...Kaede was, really. That was an answer she sort of expected--but it didn't feel like a half-truth, or a lie. The colors in Krista's mind stayed just the same as they were.]

You're all the way over there now.

I'm not afraid of you, though.

[What did she have to be afraid of? How much more could she be hurt, really? Kaede had never done anything to hurt her so far, as abrasive as she was.]

I just... feel like you must have made some kind of mistake.

I don't think I did.

[Would moving help...? Or just make Krista nervous?

She held still while she wavered between the two, indecisively.]

There's no reason to like me if you didn't.

[Kaede sighs, though her nose. No, not having this circular argument again.

She stands, still a little wobbly on her feet, steps sideways a little--and abruptly plops herself back down right next to Krista.

There.]

[Krista isn't sure what to say to that, so she doesn't say anything. She sits a little too rigid for a few long, drawn-out moments, but eventually, she relaxes her body just slightly in Kaede's direction.]

[Kaede found herself relaxing back into the cushions a bit sooner than she expected. The tension easing out of Krista's body seemed to have the same effect on her.]

...I like you.

[It seemed to need repeating; it hadn't gotten through Krista's head before.

...the other girl was closer, maybe she could just...lean a bit, until Kaede's upper arm rested against Krista's shoulder. Not going to hurt you, see?]

[She'd told her so many times, in so many ways -- that she was confused, that she was confusing, that there was nothing to like, that no one liked her. It didn't seem like much good to bother saying all of it again.]

[Which, perhaps, was why she ended up blurting out what she did:]

But you don't like Krista. It doesn't make sense.

[That made Kaede pause. Chiefly because the small, childish voice in her mind immediately started clamoring for attention. She knew what it was like, it insisted, I understand.

Kaede's voice had a slightly peculiar undercurrent, this time; almost like two people were trying to use her mouth at once. There was Kaede's usual voice, of course--but also a quieter, very insistent one. Like her voice was when she kept saying "nyu" as an answer to everything.]

Who are you, then?

[Above all, she was curious.]

[Shit. Shit, had she said that out loud?]

[Krista's eyes widened, and she tried to scoot away again.]

--no one. No one, really!

Krista.

[Kaede's voice was back to sounding like...sort of herself. Sort of like one person again.

There was something important here, she could hear it. She wasn't going to let go so easily.]

...there's no one to hear.

[Not with her vectors holding the door shut and her bristling mental presence deterring other telepaths.

Kaede didn't move after Krista, though. She stayed still.]

[No one, she wanted to insist again, because Historia wasn't supposed to exist anymore.]

[(She wasn't supposed to exist in the first place, she supposed. No one had ever wanted her to, no matter how hard she might try to make up for it. She was an accident, and not a happy one.)]

[She shook her head, fingers twisting into the sleeves of her shirt anxiously.]

No.

[Kaede couldn't like Historia. No one liked her as Historia, not from the moment she was born. It would be better for her to just disappear.]

[Kaede was still, almost frozen, giving Krista space.

...but did Krista need comfort too? Maybe just...Kaede put her hand on Krista's elbow, not sure if she was doing this right.

She didn't mind. She was still here. Was she helping?]

[Calm down. She had to calm down, she had to stop panicking and blurting things out, she had to make Kaede stop asking questions...]

[Briefly, she thought about using her power to make her forget she'd said anything at all suspicious. But it could shatter then, couldn't it? This... whatever they had. Friendship? It was too risky, as easy as part of her felt it would be.]

...It's really not important.

[Kaede tightened her grip slightly, curling her fingers a little more around Krista's arm.]

...it's not nothing if it's hurting you, Krista.

[What a stupid thing to say. It made her want to laugh, sharp and bitter.]

[Being hurt was beyond normal -- it was unremarkable, mundane. Nothing. What on earth would be out of the ordinary about something hurting her?]

It's nothing.

[...this wasn't working either. Kaede stifled a frustrated sound, leaning back against the couch until she could stare up at the ceiling at nothing in particular.]

Why are you so defensive about it, then?

[One last thing. Then she...didn't know what to do.

Kaede could poke around in Krista's head again. But that was awful of her to do in the first place. Even if she was already an awful person. She shouldn't...do that, not to Krista. She cared about Krista. She liked her.

...and besides, it wouldn't even tell her what she wanted to know in the first place. Images, she understood. Thoughts as words, to be picked at like a book? Incomprehensible to her.

There was a large space of nothing under the surface of Krista's mind; Kaede knew that. But under that nothing, there was something again. Something that must have had a name.]

[The terrible thing about being called defensive is that "I'm not being defensive!" is the least convincing possible argument.]

[A less direct deflection, then? Slightly more honest, but still designed to put her away from it.]

Because even if there was something there like you think, it wouldn't be something worth anything.

[This time, the frustrated sound was very audible. Kaede's voice was running ahead of her mind now, now that she'd exhausted the things she thought she ought to say.]

Krista. Stop that shit. The only monster here is me. Not you. You're not a fucking monster.

[There wasn't anger, hatred, boiling rage behind silent thoughts in Krista's mind. There wasn't hideous glee at her own cruelties, her torment of others until they were terrified of her.

There wasn't despair at the deafening silence and painful isolation that followed, or longing for the distant laughter and lit houses of lives she could never live.

In Krista's mind there was...quiet. Like some small creature hiding under a stone, wishing for the world to go away and pass it over. There was camouflage, a disguise--but nothing unforgivably awful as Kaede understood it.]

[Where the words ought to have comforting, probably would have been to anyone else, they flew in the face of her reality hard enough to feel like a slap, and she found herself tensing up in something very like anger.]

Do you really need to hear me say it? I don't care about anyone, not even myself. No one has ever liked me unless I'm lying, because that's the only time there's anything for them to like!

[Everyone likes her a lot, when she does. It's simultaneously exhilarating and incredibly depressing.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject