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Tweak says, "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!"

𝕛𝕒𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕖𝕣 (bardcore) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-07-28 01:11:00

Entry tags:

annie wheaton, charles xavier, erik lehnsherr, raven xavier

Who: Charles Xavier, Annie Wheaton, Erik Lehnsherr and Raven ~~Darkholme~~ Xavier.
What: Charles wakes up from a bad dream and finds himself in a bad reality. He is, understandably, displeased.
Where: Charles's room in the X-Mansion.
When: The middle of the night.
Rating: Fairly low.
Status: In progress.

Charles was having a bad dream, not a terribly uncommon occurrence but an unpleasant one nevertheless. His telepathy tended to take stock of the environment around him, so when there was unrest in his home it was usually reflected in his unconscious mind. Sitting up in his bed, he immediately reached out with his mind to check that his family was there and all right. He found Raven without difficulty, his mind drawn almost instantly to her familiar presence, but his mother, step-father and step-brother were conspicuous in their absence. If he was completely honest, uncharitable as the thought might be, he wouldn't mind terribly if something had happened to Cain and Mr. Marko. But his mother was his mother, distant though she was these days, and he didn't like the idea that she was gone.

Infinitely more unsettling was the fact that there were people in his house. Far too many people and none whose minds he recognised. Stumbling out of bed, he looked around the room that should have been his but was wholly unfamiliar. Panic started to rise as he became more and more confused. He was alone but for Raven, in a strange room, in a house full of strange people. And so he reacted the only way he knew, pushing with his mind. Normally, he'd have left Raven out of it, but he was too scared to focus properly. He wasn't actively hurting anyone, yet, but his mental voice rang out in the heads of everyone in the house, and some away from it, loud an forceful. Hopefully it would be enough to drive them all away, then he could find Raven and everything would be okay.

wrong. wrongwrongwrong. get out. getoutgetoutgetoutgetout. Get out. GET OUT!

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wealreadyare
2011-07-28 06:34 am UTC (link)

Erik was staggered by Charles's mental outburst. He'd forgotten just how much they could hurt when he was unprepared for he onslaught, and he couldn't help but wish that he knew where his helmet was at the moment in order to block out the worst of it. Erik braced himself against the door, exhaling in relief as the worst of the attack started to dissipate in his mind, and they were joined by another individual. She wasn't familiar, but the calm aura that seemed to be coming off her in waves made it clear enough to Erik that she was a welcome presence all the same.

His attention shifted from Erik back to Raven, a quiet concern in his gaze at her shift to hide her true appearance. He could only imagine how frightened she was at the idea of someone seeing her and reacting badly to her natural appearance especially at an age where she wasn't capable of defending herself against individuals with the worst intentions.

"That's no need to hide, my dear," Erik said quietly, offering her a gentle smile. "We're all friends here. Even if you don't recognize me."

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bardcore
2011-07-28 06:45 am UTC (link)

Charles didn't want it to be enough. There were strangers and Raven was upset and she wasn't blue any more, and he wanted them all to go away. He wanted Raven to go back to being blue, because when she was blue that meant they were safe. His heart was pounding in his chest, his eyes wide and terrified as he stared at the stranger, and he was suddenly very afraid of what would happen now that he'd used his abilities on this man. What if he told people? What if they sent him back to the doctors? What if -

He stopped. That voice was in his head. Someone had spoke in his head and she knew his name and she felt like calm and safe and all sorts of nice things. He stared at the woman. wide-eyed for a wholly different reason and he was too stunned to speak for a long moment. You're like me, he said finally, still not quite calm or focused enough to keep from saying it to everyone in the room, but at least he was no longer broadcasting to the whole house. You can do what I can do! How can you...how do you... He trailed off, just staring at her. I still don't like him. He said at last.

But the man didn't seem to be at all bothered by Raven's appearance, so he relaxed slightly. "You can be blue," he told his sister with a small, reassuring smile. "It's okay. I think it's safe." He turned his attention to the adults. "I'm Charles Xavier," he said politely. "And this is my sister, Raven. Could you please explain what's going on? Mother will be terribly cross when she can't find us. And Mr. Marko will be very angry."

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trappedinatower
2011-07-28 06:55 am UTC (link)

Although Annie still wasn't exactly sure what was going on, how it was that everything felt off, she had spent enough time in Colligo to know that things would sort themselves out eventually. In the meantime, she would make due and do what she could to keep those she cared about safe. Her lips curved upward into a smile as she stepped further into the room, the door swinging shut behind her seemingly of its own volition. Now with just the four of them there and a less likely chance of more interruptions, she glanced to Erik.

"My name is A-Annie," she said with that same serene smile. "T-This is C-Colligo." Her verbal speech had improved, somewhat, over the years but really it was her telepathy that had grown in leaps and bounds. Communication was much easier that way, for her, now that she knew how to control it. She looked back to Charles, her gaze flickering to Raven as the little girl finally allowed her true form to reappear and stepped out from behind her brother. Annie's attention went back to Charles but her mental projection was to all present.

No one will know you're gone. No one will hurt you here. Her PDA slid from her pocket, rising into the air beside her. She grasped it lightly, gaze dropping briefly to the screen as she pulled up one of the information posts on the message board. Explaining all of it would take too long, be too difficult a feat for her to manage. Once she'd found what she was looking for she turned to Erik, holding it out expectantly for him to take.

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wealreadyare
2011-07-28 07:20 am UTC (link)

The ease with which the woman next to him managed her psionic abilities despite the slight stutter in her verbal speech was clue enough to Erik that the woman standing next to him was not someone with whom he would wish to go toe to toe with even when in possession of his full strength. It seemed that while Jean's mind had rebelled, divided itself from the full extent of her power, this woman's mind had coped by subsuming the ease of the 'normal' mental processes for the sake of her power. Erik didn't care for the idea that there had to be some sort of trade off for people capable of such fantastic things, but she seemed to be coping well enough.

Reaching out and taking the offered PDA, Erik fiddled with the familiar yet slightly more advanced technology and scrolled through the details that were offered on their current situation. "Curious," He said to himself. "Very curious," He said before looking up at Charles, a slight sadness in his eyes at seeing a friend that he had lost so recently standing before him. Even if it was in a way that he didn't remember him. "It seems we're guests here," He said as he carefully extended his mind towards Charles to relay all the information he'd just collected.

It was be faster and simpler than trying to explain to someone Charles's age from a time when radios were still fascinating technology exactly how to use the digital assistant. Especially in a moment of panic like this one.

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bardcore
2011-07-28 04:17 pm UTC (link)

Annie. It was a nice name. She was nice. Nice and pretty and Charles trusted her in a way he'd never trusted anyone before. He knew without the slightest shred of doubt that they were safe with her. He smiled at her, tilting his head to the side as she said they were in a place called Colligo. He had never heard of it before, but he supposed there were plenty of places in the world he hadn't heard about. Still, how could their house be somewhere else? It was their house. "But our house is in Westchester," he said hesitantly. "How did it move?" He paused to consider this question, his expression serious and contemplative. "Is it like The Wizard of Oz?" He'd liked that film. It was nice. Father had taken him to see it, before he'd died. But no, that couldn't possibly be right. "No...the probability of a tornado in New York...that can't be it." He looked down, embarrassed, clearly expecting to be berated for his foolishness.

But it didn't really matter, because Annie was nice and Raven was blue again. The other man, who had yet to introduce himself, was still there and Charles still didn't like him but he trusted Annie and she said he was safe. Still, he couldn't help reaching for Raven's hand and holding it tightly in his own. He didn't know what he would have done if Raven hadn't been there, but he imagined it would have been far worse than simply shouting in people's minds.

He felt the man's mind reaching out toward his and he stared with wide eyes. People didn't do that. They didn't just reach for him. If anything, they pushed him away, with walls and with words and with other things. He immediately decided he didn't entirely dislike this man, because he was acting nicer than most people did and with minds you couldn't lie. He took in the information, a confused look passing over his face, then passed it on to Raven so she could understand too. Then he looked at the man, really looked at him, for a moment before speaking. "Why are you sad, Erik?" he asked, before realising what he had done and flinching slightly. He wasn't supposed to say things like that. People always reacted badly when he did and Erik surely would too, even as nice as he had been letting him look at his mind.

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whoeveryouwant
2011-08-02 04:31 pm UTC (link)

Raven blinked at the information that Charles passed into her mind, always finding it a bit odd to suddenly know things without having made any effort to learn them. It was also convenient, though, and in this instance Raven was grateful for it. Even if she still had questions, maybe even more than she'd had to start with, at least she knew something about the situation.

When Charles asked the man - Erik, she supposed was his name - why he was sad, Raven stepped closer to her brother and tightened her grip on her hand a bit. Grown-ups never handled questions like that very well and she was all too ready to leap to Charles' defence if this man reacted accordingly. Yes, she knew Charles could hold his own and was equally sure the woman named Annie would stop things before they got too bad like she'd done moments ago, but Raven was just as protective of the only family she had as Charles was of her and she would hardly stand idly by and just let some stranger who was in their house make her brother feel bad for using an ability he'd been born with.

Quickly her yellow-hued eyes cut to Annie but Annie, for her part, didn't seem to be the least bit concerned. Clearly there was something she and Charles were missing in this entire mess and Raven wanted to know what it was. Not to mention sometimes, when Charles accidentally let something slip that he shouldn't know, asking the grown-up other questions right after helped to distract them from what he'd done. Raven knew it probably wouldn't work because clearly this man wasn't like most other grown-ups they knew, but she was still curious so she decided to ask her question anyway.

"You said we were all friends," she spoke finally, her tone quiet. "How?"

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wealreadyare
2011-08-03 07:52 pm UTC (link)

If Charles's question did anything, it only made the sadness that had been settled far back in the depths of his mind flicker more firmly to the forefront of his attention and across the features on his face. "Far too many reasons than can be explained properly, Charles. Far too many," Erik said with a certain gentleness to his tone that hadn't been presence before in his other statements. Whatever reaction Charles had been expecting from his ever so slight flick after the words passed his lips, Erik could only hope that he had given the exact opposite. It was odd, seeing his friend at such a young age in a state where he was likely as uncomfortable with his ability as so many who had just taken it on where, but the one hope Erik did have that he could give them both a bit more of a foundation to be proud of themselves as they were than they had had when he'd first met them.

Raven's question pulled his attention away from Charles, though, and filtered some of the sadness out of his expression. It hadn't been so long before in his understanding that he had lost her completely, the companion that he'd held the most dear and the only one which he still had who referred to him as Erik rather than his homo superior nom de guerre, violently taken from him by the humans and their idea of a permanent solution to the mutant problem. There was an intense relief in seeing her here, whole.

"Time, my dear," Erik said with a gentle smile, "is a matter of importance here," He said before shifting his gaze back to Charles. "Though, I doubt I could explain it properly."

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