Log: Gaia, Emily & Marius - Meetings
Oct. 12th, 2024 06:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logs Gaia goes looking for an early snack in order to avoid the rush, unfortunately, she didn't count on morning people.
For all the fuss her arrival had caused, Gaia hadn't met many people yet. In fact, she had been going out of her way to not meet people. She had a roommate, a few acquaintances, she didn't need any more. It was exhausting, all this meeting.
Through avoidance, she had picked up on the rhythms of the mansion. The quiet hours, the still moments. It was at one of these times that she wandered down to the kitchen, seeking sustenance.
Some things, however, were inevitable.
Emily paused the spoon as it was about to enter her mouth, chocolate-coloured milk dripping into the bowl below.
Another pink-haired mutant. Quentin’s sister? But there’d been all that fuss at the Excalibur place, so maybe not.
“Um. G’day. You lookin’ for a feed, or just wandering?”
"Hello," Gaia stopped her path towards the fridge, mildly irked at the threat of conversation. "Food, yes. It is so frequently necessary here." She forgot all too often, only dizziness or her stomach to serve as a reminder.
Posh Australian accent, Emily noted. Like Marius, a little mutt-like in its mixture, not truly an indication of where in Australia the other mutant was from but could be any of the main cities except perhaps Perth, but maybe even there?
“You’re an Aussie? That’s so cool. Have you met Marius and Madin yet? Pretty sure we’re getting close to enough people to get a good Aussie! Oi! chant going.”
Emily had ignored the slight crankiness, most people weren’t at their best in the mornings and they didn’t have the benefit of being a morning person like she was. Besides, she was just as cranky in the evenings when all she wanted to do was go to bed. The food comment was a little odd but then, so was making stone claws, who was she to be a judgey mcjugestein?
The pink-haired girl made her way to the refrigerator, not one to let her quest be interrupted, and rummaged around. "Marius and I are acquainted, yes. I put him in the floor." She paused. "What is an... 'aussie'?" Though her stony exterior didn't show it, the other mutant was slightly unnerving. She seemed a very persistent personality.
Not an Australian, they’d have recognised the word. That was odd, and the putting someone in the floor, that wasn’t safe. That was odd. Emily dropped the hand that wasn’t currently involved in holding a spoon down to her pocket and rested her fingers over the emergency button that every Xavier phone had for events just like this.
“Australian,” Emily replied calmly, finally putting the spoon back down into her bowl of cereal as she wondered whether she should press it. “Why do you sound like someone from the posh suburbs of Brisbane when you don’t know what the word Aussie means?”
Gaia narrowed in on these movements. Despite Emily’s calm tone, she could sense the internal panic. “Do I?” was said coyly, as she poured herself a cup of juice. Her expression turned from slight annoyance to interest.
No shock. That was the thing that stood out to Emily the most as she straightened from the slight slouch she’d been in and wondered how long it would take if she pressed the 'emergency' button. What exactly did an emergency mean to whomever it was that would need to answer it? She’d been imagining some kind of teleportation and possibly explosions but also, a big repair bill for that. Maybe just teleportation?
Still, threats from alternate universes didn’t usually calmly pour themselves orange juice. At least, not that she’d seen and to be truthful, that had only been the once. So maybe...maybe no button pushing just yet. At least, not until it was really obvious.
“That’s not really a normal person question. Unless you’re one of the spy types?”
Emily hadn’t met everyone, this girl could be a spy. That was much better than an Eldritch monster from beyond the stars.
She was met with a half-shrug from the stranger. Gaia sipped her juice as she levelled the full force of her steely gaze upon Emily. The other mutant had her full attention now. While not outright threatening, there was an edge of predation to it. A hunter summing up her prey.
Emily dropped her eyes and muttered to herself as she noticed her nails had turned hard, shiny black. Sure, turning your nails to obsidian was better than your hair bursting into flame but it was still a lack of control. She'd been working so hard not to be a weirdo.
‘Stop that’ she whispered to her hands, and shook them slightly but her nails remained stubbornly black and pointy.
She glanced at the stranger to see if she’d noticed. Still giving her the weird ‘You might be kidnapped soon’ stare. Which. Well. Rude.
“It’s good juice, right? Although I think it’s from the shops, not fresh squeezed. They have this place called Whole Foods.”
That’s good, Emily. Subject the possible Eldritch abomination to small talk. That’ll teach her.
"Good morning, good morning," came the offensively chipper greeting that was the pair's only warning of the arrival of Marius Laverne. The X-Man breezed into the kitchen like a man who couldn't conceive of being anything but a welcome addition to any conversation, running gear already lightly soaked in perspiration. He flashed a quick as he proceeded directly to the refrigerator.
"Heartening to see other early risers about," he remarked with a total inability to read the room. "Pay me no mind, I come here in search of electrolytes."
Gaia didn’t take her eyes off Emily but acknowledged the man with a tilt of her head. “Marius, greetings.”
"Likewise." Marius ducked into the refrigerator long enough to emerge with a sports drink. Only then did he appear to notice the atmosphere between the girls was something less than cordial. Focussed on Gaia as he had been, he hadn't noticed; borderline hostility appeared to be her ground-state. From Emily, on the other hand, this was somewhat less common.
"All right in here?" asked Marius.
Thank small mercies, an adult. At least, adult shaped. And apparently, Marius knew this lady and so probably wasn’t an Eldritch abomination, or at least not one about to attempt kidnapping.
“She said she put you in the floor.”
This was offered with a tinge of disbelief, given he was standing right there.
"Ah, are we telling that story? She did indeed. Just a bit of youthful high spirits fresh out of the Wormhole, I gather." Marius relaxed. Sharing stories of moderate personal embarrassment was vastly preferable to indecipherable teenaged drama, particularly when one had long since evolved beyond shame.
“She asked if I knew you. I was merely explaining the.. circumstances.” There was no regret in the statement, just a statement of fact. It didn’t seem Gaia was particularly remorseful for her entrance.
Not exactly how she’d expected this morning to go. Marius seemed decidedly not worried at creatures from beyond the stars. Which, Emily supposed, was fair enough if Gaia had been vetted by someone.
“Why don’t you care what people think about you?”
“You are new here, aren’t you?” The immediate distress at strangeness, at difference, told on Emily. “Self-consciousness is weakness. Who’s to say you’re not thinking of me exactly as I wish?”
Her coco pops were getting soggy. Emily looked mournfully down at the bowl and then shook her head as she parsed what the girl had said.
“That’s just bullshit. Emotions aren’t weakness, and showing emotion isn’t either. People who want you to believe that just don’t know how to deal with messiness and so they try to make you think being stoic is somehow better.”
Emily winced as she realised she’d gone a little overboard. It was okay to get taken away when she was in therapy but out in the real world you normally tried not to beat people to death with words.
“Sorry. That was mean. Um. You seem cool. Maybe a little intense and scary but cool.”
Gaia’s mouth quirked up at the outburst but smoothed as Emily continued on. The people of this world were fascinating.
“You misunderstand me. My emotions are my own. The foolish thing is to let others dictate them.”
Emily felt the blush hit her cheeks, and the rush of adrenaline at having made a mistake washed through her body and caused tiny sparks to dance briefly in her hair.
She grimaced and reached up to smooth out the sparks, locks of hair running through her obsidian fingernails without apparent damage.
“Sorry, I run away with myself sometimes. I just wanted to know how you taught yourself not to care, is all.”
"I've always found vast wealth to be helpful," offered an increasingly lost Marius. This conversation was verging too closely to the substantive for his taste. He looked from one girl, then the other. "As long as everything's sorted here I'll be off, shall I?"
Gaia seemed to think it was. She finished her juice and broke her persisting stare, moving to a cupboard to find something more substantial.
Emily for her part decided that this was as good a time as any to do the whole discretion being the better part of valour, or whatever saying meant she could leave suddenly awkward silences as quickly as possible.
"I'm uh. That is to say...I'm just gonna go."
For all the fuss her arrival had caused, Gaia hadn't met many people yet. In fact, she had been going out of her way to not meet people. She had a roommate, a few acquaintances, she didn't need any more. It was exhausting, all this meeting.
Through avoidance, she had picked up on the rhythms of the mansion. The quiet hours, the still moments. It was at one of these times that she wandered down to the kitchen, seeking sustenance.
Some things, however, were inevitable.
Emily paused the spoon as it was about to enter her mouth, chocolate-coloured milk dripping into the bowl below.
Another pink-haired mutant. Quentin’s sister? But there’d been all that fuss at the Excalibur place, so maybe not.
“Um. G’day. You lookin’ for a feed, or just wandering?”
"Hello," Gaia stopped her path towards the fridge, mildly irked at the threat of conversation. "Food, yes. It is so frequently necessary here." She forgot all too often, only dizziness or her stomach to serve as a reminder.
Posh Australian accent, Emily noted. Like Marius, a little mutt-like in its mixture, not truly an indication of where in Australia the other mutant was from but could be any of the main cities except perhaps Perth, but maybe even there?
“You’re an Aussie? That’s so cool. Have you met Marius and Madin yet? Pretty sure we’re getting close to enough people to get a good Aussie! Oi! chant going.”
Emily had ignored the slight crankiness, most people weren’t at their best in the mornings and they didn’t have the benefit of being a morning person like she was. Besides, she was just as cranky in the evenings when all she wanted to do was go to bed. The food comment was a little odd but then, so was making stone claws, who was she to be a judgey mcjugestein?
The pink-haired girl made her way to the refrigerator, not one to let her quest be interrupted, and rummaged around. "Marius and I are acquainted, yes. I put him in the floor." She paused. "What is an... 'aussie'?" Though her stony exterior didn't show it, the other mutant was slightly unnerving. She seemed a very persistent personality.
Not an Australian, they’d have recognised the word. That was odd, and the putting someone in the floor, that wasn’t safe. That was odd. Emily dropped the hand that wasn’t currently involved in holding a spoon down to her pocket and rested her fingers over the emergency button that every Xavier phone had for events just like this.
“Australian,” Emily replied calmly, finally putting the spoon back down into her bowl of cereal as she wondered whether she should press it. “Why do you sound like someone from the posh suburbs of Brisbane when you don’t know what the word Aussie means?”
Gaia narrowed in on these movements. Despite Emily’s calm tone, she could sense the internal panic. “Do I?” was said coyly, as she poured herself a cup of juice. Her expression turned from slight annoyance to interest.
No shock. That was the thing that stood out to Emily the most as she straightened from the slight slouch she’d been in and wondered how long it would take if she pressed the 'emergency' button. What exactly did an emergency mean to whomever it was that would need to answer it? She’d been imagining some kind of teleportation and possibly explosions but also, a big repair bill for that. Maybe just teleportation?
Still, threats from alternate universes didn’t usually calmly pour themselves orange juice. At least, not that she’d seen and to be truthful, that had only been the once. So maybe...maybe no button pushing just yet. At least, not until it was really obvious.
“That’s not really a normal person question. Unless you’re one of the spy types?”
Emily hadn’t met everyone, this girl could be a spy. That was much better than an Eldritch monster from beyond the stars.
She was met with a half-shrug from the stranger. Gaia sipped her juice as she levelled the full force of her steely gaze upon Emily. The other mutant had her full attention now. While not outright threatening, there was an edge of predation to it. A hunter summing up her prey.
Emily dropped her eyes and muttered to herself as she noticed her nails had turned hard, shiny black. Sure, turning your nails to obsidian was better than your hair bursting into flame but it was still a lack of control. She'd been working so hard not to be a weirdo.
‘Stop that’ she whispered to her hands, and shook them slightly but her nails remained stubbornly black and pointy.
She glanced at the stranger to see if she’d noticed. Still giving her the weird ‘You might be kidnapped soon’ stare. Which. Well. Rude.
“It’s good juice, right? Although I think it’s from the shops, not fresh squeezed. They have this place called Whole Foods.”
That’s good, Emily. Subject the possible Eldritch abomination to small talk. That’ll teach her.
"Good morning, good morning," came the offensively chipper greeting that was the pair's only warning of the arrival of Marius Laverne. The X-Man breezed into the kitchen like a man who couldn't conceive of being anything but a welcome addition to any conversation, running gear already lightly soaked in perspiration. He flashed a quick as he proceeded directly to the refrigerator.
"Heartening to see other early risers about," he remarked with a total inability to read the room. "Pay me no mind, I come here in search of electrolytes."
Gaia didn’t take her eyes off Emily but acknowledged the man with a tilt of her head. “Marius, greetings.”
"Likewise." Marius ducked into the refrigerator long enough to emerge with a sports drink. Only then did he appear to notice the atmosphere between the girls was something less than cordial. Focussed on Gaia as he had been, he hadn't noticed; borderline hostility appeared to be her ground-state. From Emily, on the other hand, this was somewhat less common.
"All right in here?" asked Marius.
Thank small mercies, an adult. At least, adult shaped. And apparently, Marius knew this lady and so probably wasn’t an Eldritch abomination, or at least not one about to attempt kidnapping.
“She said she put you in the floor.”
This was offered with a tinge of disbelief, given he was standing right there.
"Ah, are we telling that story? She did indeed. Just a bit of youthful high spirits fresh out of the Wormhole, I gather." Marius relaxed. Sharing stories of moderate personal embarrassment was vastly preferable to indecipherable teenaged drama, particularly when one had long since evolved beyond shame.
“She asked if I knew you. I was merely explaining the.. circumstances.” There was no regret in the statement, just a statement of fact. It didn’t seem Gaia was particularly remorseful for her entrance.
Not exactly how she’d expected this morning to go. Marius seemed decidedly not worried at creatures from beyond the stars. Which, Emily supposed, was fair enough if Gaia had been vetted by someone.
“Why don’t you care what people think about you?”
“You are new here, aren’t you?” The immediate distress at strangeness, at difference, told on Emily. “Self-consciousness is weakness. Who’s to say you’re not thinking of me exactly as I wish?”
Her coco pops were getting soggy. Emily looked mournfully down at the bowl and then shook her head as she parsed what the girl had said.
“That’s just bullshit. Emotions aren’t weakness, and showing emotion isn’t either. People who want you to believe that just don’t know how to deal with messiness and so they try to make you think being stoic is somehow better.”
Emily winced as she realised she’d gone a little overboard. It was okay to get taken away when she was in therapy but out in the real world you normally tried not to beat people to death with words.
“Sorry. That was mean. Um. You seem cool. Maybe a little intense and scary but cool.”
Gaia’s mouth quirked up at the outburst but smoothed as Emily continued on. The people of this world were fascinating.
“You misunderstand me. My emotions are my own. The foolish thing is to let others dictate them.”
Emily felt the blush hit her cheeks, and the rush of adrenaline at having made a mistake washed through her body and caused tiny sparks to dance briefly in her hair.
She grimaced and reached up to smooth out the sparks, locks of hair running through her obsidian fingernails without apparent damage.
“Sorry, I run away with myself sometimes. I just wanted to know how you taught yourself not to care, is all.”
"I've always found vast wealth to be helpful," offered an increasingly lost Marius. This conversation was verging too closely to the substantive for his taste. He looked from one girl, then the other. "As long as everything's sorted here I'll be off, shall I?"
Gaia seemed to think it was. She finished her juice and broke her persisting stare, moving to a cupboard to find something more substantial.
Emily for her part decided that this was as good a time as any to do the whole discretion being the better part of valour, or whatever saying meant she could leave suddenly awkward silences as quickly as possible.
"I'm uh. That is to say...I'm just gonna go."
