etrayalogs | [OPEN] X-Mansion clean-up

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[OPEN] X-Mansion clean-up

WHO: Storm and you!
WHEN: Late May-Early June
WHERE: Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach
WHAT: Come bother a lonely goddess in a blast from the past mansion!
NOTES\WARNINGS: N/A for now, but this is the X-Men - discussion of death, bigotry, and discrimination likely.

A new building has popped up in Etraya - easily visible from the Hospital and Apartment Complex on the main island. Ororo spends a few days flying back and forth from the main island and to the Institute, investigating its exterior and interior, before finally just taking one of the bedrooms in the main mansion.

⏵ i. indoors;

The gate and the doors are, actually, left unlocked for now. Ororo is alone, and isn't too worried about security just yet - it was just her in this large, lonely mansion and she could take on anyone who might feel like trespassing -- not that there was anyone like that here, she'd found. She can imagine people like Scott or Logan or even Hank berating her for being careless anyway, but... she isn't worried. She's more concerned about how much of the institute is even real - and thus, how safe everything actually is.

So, she goes through the entire building one room at a time - testing light switches, checking stoves or microwaves, looking through the computers in the old staff offices (they switch on, but there's nothing saved in them), turning beds so she can offer them to people who might be sick of the apartments... It's a large place, so this takes her a couple of days. It won't be hard to run into her walking through the halls with a little clipboard and a pen -- she'd had a brief moment of missing the modern conveniences of Henry and Forge's tablets -- and a smile for anyone who'd wandered in after her.

"Hello. Come to help me investigate?"

However, if she sees anyone approaching the main elevator, she calls out instead in a sharp warning -- "The sub-levels are restricted. If you'd like to go there, you'll need me to key in some biometrics to access them."

⏵ ii. pool;

The Olympic-size pool is easily seen from surrounding islands. It's dry and empty when Ororo first discovers the Institute, and not yet very clean. She considers putting up a message on the network to ask for help, but... perhaps that'd be better suited for when the pool is actually usable, instead?

So when she's done poking through the inside of the mansion, she figures it's time for a more mundane use of her powers. She blasts the tiles with wind and water to wash away any grime or dirt left between the crevices. Filling it up with clean water later was no trouble at all either, with a convenient cloud of fresh rain.

Maybe she should work on clearing out spaces for some tables and chairs next? But that'll involve more hands than she has, so it'll have to be a project for another day, maybe.

⏵ iii. rooftop;

Between self-imposed chores to make the mansion feel a little less shadowed and a little more lived-in, Ororo takes her breaks on the east wing's roof. She's taken a pool lounger and set it up here, and lies under the sun or the moon or in the shade of one of those odd, chrome structures in nothing but her underwear and a pair of sunglasses, sipping from an insulated tumbler she'd picked up at Kwiktrip and a paperback she'd taken from Corrine's (she'll return it! eventually!)

It's the last place she expects anyone to find her, really, but... people could always surprise her.

⏵ iv. wildcard;

Feel free to mix-and-match or tag in with something else completely, or use the X-Mansion as set dressing for other threads! ♥ If we have previous CR, you can also assume Ororo has messaged your character in some way to help her check the place out. Message me on almondlychee if you want something more specific.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It's less that she minds Ororo, and more than she minds this place. That there's Laura, and Scott, and Sharon, and whoever else might just amble upon this place. It's partially wearying to have to think about it in that way again. To go from being surrounded by people who saw mutants reborn, clad in only their skin, often, and who easily spent time with each other, in just as little, in the Broken Baths. Without anyone caring anymore.

She supposes she hadn't even realized how much that had shifted until just now.

Jean flared her hands, sidestepping, but in a means, she hadn't in ages. But how long had it been—since she came back this time—since she said goodbye to the Phoenix. And now her blood and her soul were the heart of stars again. She rested her fingertips against breast bone, and everything shivered outward, molecules rearranging against her skin, turning from her clothes into a bathing suit.

Easy as breathing. (Again. And, for the first time.) ]

You are a show-off as always, Jean. [ Ororo laughs a little, reaching out to take both of her hands. They could dive right in, but it's also nice - and a display of her own power - to carry them both delicately into the water.

They land where their shoulders remain exposed, just so they can keep talking quietly. There wasn't a need to be quiet, of course, but it felt like a time to share some heavier concerns. ]

I think you need this swim more than I do. What is troubling you?

[ Jean leaves herself in the Ororo's hands, trusting her without fail. The water is delightfully nice as it slides over her skin, sending goosebumps up her skin even as it's gently sent under.

Jean squeezed Ororo's hands gently,
with a wry smile at that last question. ]

Too much?

It's not too much if it is something you need. Goddess knows this place is enough to drive most people up the wall all on its own. [ All this talk of multiverses, universes, saving and not saving them... ]

But we have all that on top of what concerns us at home. [ She squeezes Jean's hands back. ] We're allowed to need some quiet time to think.

[ Jean doesn't let go of Ororo's hands, but there's a sigh out of her nose. Maybe like she's forcing herself to look in the direction she hasn't quite let herself, even while it's been crowded right around her the whole time, too. Not hiding from it, but not looking at it head-on. ]

It's a little bit of everything, really. All the people in here; all the people and worlds out there. [ With a small look down, as though it hadn't been first in her mouth. ] Scott. [ A beat. ] Both of them.

[ And maybe she's on a roll. ] Logan. The kids.
All of our friends and family back home.

[ The Phoenix, wings of fire burning through her soul again, always. ]

[ Ororo's smile turns a little strained - just barely, but probably enough for Jean, one of perhaps three people in the universe who could actually and truly read her, to notice. Everyone at home... She knew things were dire. She may lack the true details, the specifics, but everything was as one might expect to happen to them eventually.

But she wasn't there. Ororo could hear the accusation in the voice of a hundred different people -- it was Callisto, the Morlocks, Rahne, Sarah, Marisol... Nameless, the Arakki, the Great Ring... The same story, every time. What good is her power if she is never where she ought to be, when she ought to be?

Even now, when Jean's fate is so uncertain, where had Ororo been? Off-planet? Was that ever going to be a proper excuse for not being there for her, yet again?

She holds the hands in hers tightly, a silent apology. ]

Well. That's quite a lot to think about, for one woman, even if she is a telepath of your caliber. [ As if Ororo wasn't as guilty of doing the same. But she offers what advice she can - something she does herself. ] Shall we go through them one at a time, and start with the most immediate thing?

What do you think of everyone in here? [ A beat, just like she'd taken, then: ] And Scott; the one haunting the rooms in the mansion here?

[ There's so much she shouldn't say, and she knows by the weight in Ororo's eyes she knows the weight of it, the direness, if not the shape of it. She can't tell her about the Gala, about what happened while she wasn't there. (Not yet?) Jean pressed a slow breath out her nose and let the easy, directness of her dear friend's thoughts and narrowed direction (over her too-large weight of topics) lead her gently.

Her gaze shifted over Ororo's shoulder, less here and present, even as their hands stayed linked. The rest of her skipped across dozens of minds here and dozens not here. ] They're scared. Most of them. But trying to be strong, even as what they all just went through has left jagged marks on so many of them already. They don't know what this is, and they've never been through anything like this before.

Inter-dimensional displacement is not easy for anyone. Even for those of us who have experienced it before. [ She hates it - hates leaving people at home, knowing there were things to be done, people who needed her, duties to see to. Lives that hung in the balance, enemies waiting for the slightest sign of weakness. She isn't there.

But she is here - and there must be a reason. ]

We went through something difficult a few weeks ago. Not everyone survived - but those who did not, have simply... come back to us. It is unclear how. [ She smiles wryly. ] In the aftermath, everyone scattered - trying different ways to be strong. Not everyone has or had someone they could trust themselves to be vulnerable with. [ Ororo knows she hadn't had anyone like that, didn't really need anyone like that. But she had been feeling the familiar, tempting pull of solitude and had a little bit of fear for a while - what if she fell into old habits, started freezing herself off from people, just because they were strangers?

Then, one by one, people she knew and loved started appearing; it was a little too well-timed. ]

... It's not something we can solve easily. Certainly not a problem I can simply strike down with a thunderbolt. So it is unsettling, yes? Not knowing how to help yet.

[ There's an irony in it, and one that's not funny, for all that the phasing springs to mind. To be worried about what's behind her, tangled up in the place she isn't yet either, and then at the same time, hearing Ororo's words, to be met with the wall of apologetic longing to have been here earlier. To have helped more during these earlier events that Jean was, of course, heard too much about already, just whispering through the thoughts of the people all around her here.

Jean pressed her fingers lightly, before drawing Ororo toward the stairs.
Even for as much as she'd said swim, Jean had the urge to sit down now. ]

But we will—solve it. Like we always do.

The X-Men, and the Avengers, and whoever else here is willing.

[ It's a little amusing to be drawn away. Few people could manage it with Storm! But Jean had managed it since the day she'd first taken Ororo out for shopping and ice cream when they were the only two ladies on the team and Jean had been clamoring for her friendship. There'd been no need to clamor then, and there's still no need now, as she goes where Jean wordlessly suggests they go. Pool steps it is. ]

Plenty are willing. [ Almost everyone here was willing. ] ... Truthfully? I'm most concerned about the average age of the city population. [ She glances over at Jean as they get comfortable. ]

Laura - this version of her - is one of the youngest ones here... but there are a handful of other children, too. Young teens. [ And, if you ask Ororo, they still counted as children. She's very concerned. ] Many of them are willing, too, but... [ they're so young. ]

[ She hadn't meant for this excursion-break into the new pool to be serious, but she's left wondering if her heart knew better than her head on that one. Certainly, Ororo often did. (They way she did just as often for Ororo, herself.) That's a tired, yet tireless, ribbon of relief in Jean's mind for the sheer luck of being together because they can face anything together. ]

There are quite a number of them. I saw Kate opened a place for all of them.
We could reach out and see if she needs help with anything there?

And Laura—

[ There's a momentary glance skyward.
That felt as tangled up in her and home as Scot did. ]

It's strange. Even when I was brought from the past into the future as a teen, I still only knew her as a teen back home. [ One with a small predisposition to kissing Scott and Warren. ] I never knew her this young. Only Gabby, after I came back.

[ How much they could touch with so few words.
How lost would Scott be trying to make sense of them talking? ]

It's strange to look at her and see Gabby,
but it's still very much Laura. Even from another world.

[ It's the way it goes with Ororo sometimes - so difficult to get her into something casual and playful, when she was naturally so serious and formal. Perhaps it was Jean's intent for her to relax - but sometimes Ororo had an unintended habit of pulling people into her own dramatics and concerns. ]

I would like to reach out to Kate Bishop about it, yes. It is just - I think I'm a little too intimidating. You might be better at this than I am - do you remember when we were talking about those children who might have been mutants? We were playing billiards at your home on the moon... [ Ororo smiles ruefully, looking up at the sky, as if the moon they know were up there. She lingers on the memory for a little while - her and Jean, and Scott and Logan and Kurt. It had been a matter of short debate, but she'd gone ahead and taken charge of that issue herself. She isn't sure if she could do that here - she knows the figure she must give off to the people who didn't know her. She could never tell what was it that made her so intimidating; Jean had the benefit of looking and being sweet, even with all the power she carried within her.

And Laura... Ororo's smile gentles. ] I didn't know her this young, either. I was there when she first arrived, did you know? She was older than this, but just as stubborn and willful. Protective of her heart, and so curious. [ About everything. About others. About Logan. For a moment, Ororo thinks of the days in the old mansion, the one that had crumbled before their move to Utopia, where she'd catch Laura in the monitor room late into the night, watching over her friends and her father. ]

Perhaps it's fate that we're here for her, at her age. There are things we can do for her that she may not have gotten. All the children that are here, they might even get along. [ Be her friends, have fun. Have a little more of a childhood that she was denied. Goddess, she really hopes this Laura could have that, at least. She still could. ]

Of course.

[ One of so many cherished memories from living in the Summer House. Surrounded by family and the dearest of friends. She has to wonder if it's still standing or has been reduced to warfare rubble. She had loved it. All of her family in one place. A door through which anyone could step and be there with them, or they could step and be right in the heart of Krakoa. ]

Perhaps you're right.

[ Jean nodded, leaning back against the step, and it's as much to Ororo's words as it is the spool of thoughts connected to it. There's an ease here with Ororo and with only a specific handful of others, where Jean doesn't concern herself with trying to be as careful as possible when it comes to the thoughts of others. Whether it's trying to blanket them or not paying attention—a feat that takes a good deal of effort (or simply the respect of not reacting/commenting) for someone who had so easily heard the thoughts of millions on Earth from the moon. ]

I hope that, eventually, she'll feel able to stay here for longer.
That it's safe, and she's wanted here.

[ Beat. ]

At least as much as anyone can be in these circumstances.

[ Goddess, she does want her here. Ororo feels her hands tighten over Jean's. There's something about family and community and togetherness that speaks to Ororo extremely fiercely - maybe it's leftover from how she'd grown up without it, but wanting it, and finally finding it with the X-Men. Now she wants to make sure everyone could find the same refuge that she did; especially kids like Laura, whose loneliness and instinct to do whatever it takes to survive felt achingly familiar.

But she nods, skirting around those thoughts and settling on the immediate concerns before them. ]

We'll find a way to make her feel that safety, even in these circumstances.

[ She pauses here, lets the words hang between them as Ororo thinks back. ]

You mentioned... other worlds? Do you mean the ones Aurora is asking us to save through her arbritrary missions? [ This gets a frown out of her. ] The ones we must apparently choose from, when we ought to be saving them all.

[ They both know the pull so well. The family and community that once belonged in these walls had once thronged to every corner of Krakoa. It was almost too large a mausoleum to house three of them regularly and one in passing. Jean met that fierce squeeze of her friend's fingers with understanding. For the feeling and Laura herself.

The new question isn't surprising, but Jean's focus shifts slightly. Not evasive or away, but more like a hand (that wasn't a hand), reached out into a darkness (that was never dark), and never far, to brush fingertips against the expanse of the beyond swirling outside of this dome, and this planet. Fleetingly. Without purpose. Only re-acknowledgment of existence. ]

A little of both. The other cities here with us, and the worlds out there.

What do you mean by here with us, and out there, Jean? [ She's just saying these things aloud for her own benefit, to keep the conversation going and present. But already she's looking up at the sky. It's daytime, or what passes for it; Ororo doesn't know what kind of planet they're on, what star they use as a sun, but she can tell it's larger than what they see.

If Jean says there are cities beyond the border that keeps them in here, Ororo's inclined to believe her. ]

What can you sense?

[ Her focus stays doubled between her friend and the hand that anchors her down to this gentle lapping water, the solidness of the step beneath her, the even greater solidness of Ororo's mind and focus on her—but the rest of her stretches again. ]

There are two other domes like this on the planet. The one we can see, and one on the otherside, caught in the longer and deeper shadows of this world in its gravitational spin. The one near us is... [ She searches for a word, and it almost sighs out. ] Peaceful. Serene. They are content with their circumstances.

But the other. [ Her brow furrows. ]

They have a dictator, and she rules through cruelty.

[ She turns those words over in her head, what they both imply. They're not the only ones being pulled from different dimensions and universes - but it seems that for others, it's been happening for a while. ]

Neither of those sound appealing at all. [ To be content with this life, or to fight so hard that whatever intelligence was in power - Aurora, Echo, whatever name they wanted to use - would evolve to put them under their heel... ]

I presume those cities are... older, by some measure?

[ Jean nods. ] Much.

It draws into question Aurora's premise here.

Where are those worlds, then? Did they complete their tasks?
Or were all their tasks different for their bubbles?
Are these worlds actually at risk?

Why didn't they go home?

[ Ororo has seen and been part of too many multiverse-level crises to truly and readily believe what Aurora has said about the existence of everything being at risk. Goddess, Jean was beside her, wasn't she, and she (and her family) was one of those embodiments of alternate timelines and universes herself. But the Phoenix could only fix something when they knew what needed fixing, and that's the information they are lacking.

Ororo trails around a finger over the water, watching the ripples that nudge out and crash into other ripples. Some continue on into the rest of the pool, some simply fade away. She didn't want anyone, or anyone's efforts, to fade away. ]

I have never bought into the reasoning into the missions. But the reality is, we are... compelled into them, somehow, for as long as we are here. [ That's the real and present threat - that whatever the reason behind it all was, they still had to take part in all these anyway. To whatever consequence. ]

If we find the real purpose behind the cities and these missions, I think we will find ways to get everyone to their true homes.

[ Jean watched the ripples as they formed out. Droplets of water. Atoms pressing in and out of each other, moving in waves, interweaving among. The blurred space between where the air and water met seemed separate yet mingled on such a microscopic level, too. Each person here was that. Each person—everywhere—always. It's the same current of an idea. ]

I was thinking about what you said about the labyrinth—how everyone was made to go there because they wouldn't be able to breathe if they stayed. What actually happened here, then? If I'd been here, would I have been able to choose to stay behind?

If there are ways to get around the missions. Circumnavigate them.
What happens to people who do, or try to.

No one could stay, no - we were compelled to enter the labyrinth, and fight or complete their puzzles and tasks until we were all collectively released. I think these missions may be unavoidable - or we've simply yet to find out how we can opt out of them, as you said.

What I'd also like to know for the missions that come is if results are truly binary - are the only possible results to pass, and to fail? [ Ororo didn't like that. It's only the beginning of her own idea, her own desires, but... did they have to do everything within the terms given to them?

Could they not simply create a third option? ]

However... if we poke too closely, Jean, it's possible that we put the Etraya's residents at risk of becoming like the city ruled under a cruel dictator. We must be cautious.

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[OPEN] X-Mansion clean-up

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