Dani Moonstar's a survivor (ms_moonstar) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-21 21:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, dani moonstar (mirage), nathan summers (cable) |
Who: Dani, Nate
What: Moving out the last of her stuff, reconciling.
When: A few weeks ago!
Where: The Summers Residence.
Ratings/Warnings: PG, I'm pretty sure there's nothing bad in here.
Status: Complete!
The house wasn't quiet. Dani was hoping it would be, her last walk through it. She ran her hands over various surfaces, and tried not to see Obi-wan everywhere she went.
But it wasn't quiet, and Obi-wan was still everywhere. The funny thing was that she said she'd moved on. She told him she had. She thought she had. She didn't want him back, she knew that much. It was just all the rest of it. Hard to make peace with, she supposed.
And the cats weren't helping. They were packed into three separate carriers and crying out at her like she'd just starved them for three weeks and taken away their favorite toys.
"You guys are going to be fine, just shut up for three seconds."
Nate wandered out of his room, having come down from Graymalkin, and smiled at her as she worked. “Anything I can do to help?” He was generally glad she was headed out. She had been a good household person, but he figured they would make better friends as neighbors rather than roommates.
It was a mutual feeling, though Dani wasn't sure how to bring it up. She'd felt a lot more respect for him since that dinner talk, and generally more relieved overall. Since she'd moved in she'd had this low-grade 'urge to smack Nate' running in the undercurrent of her feelings, but that had mostly abated now. She never could put a finger on the reason why, and was glad that it was gone.
She waved at him, "Hey, Nate. I'm actually done... well, my stuff's been out for a week or so, but I wanted to get the cats and take one last sweep. I never did find that pair of turquoise earrings I lost."
Nate had felt like she was not very happy to be near him, and so he did his best to not bother her at all. Especially after their first few conversations. “Oh, okay.” He nodded, then canted his head. “I haven’t seen them.” He pondered, glancing around as if the offending things would pop up. “Were they significant or just lost things?” He was curious, and had an idea.
"They were pretty significant..." Dani admitted, with a long sigh. She tugged on one of her braids, in fact, and pondered where in the house she hadn't looked yet. She'd combed through the house thousands of times.
"My mother's. One of the only things I had left, actually. I had this barbecue a little while after I got settled in and I haven't seen them since."
Nate nodded, then hmmed. “Do you think someone took them?” For a moment, his eyes turned blue, almost shimmery. He bit one lip, then hesitantly spoke. “Would you want me to find them, and bring them back, if I could?” He did not want it to seem like he was trying to do anything wrong or untoward and he was unsure of where their barriers and lines were. But he would try that for any friend, really.
"I had a lot of people over, and it was probably a really stupid move." Dani tugged on her other braid, then let her arms drop. She hated feeling vulnerable in general, but pride had made her mess up a lot of things since she'd gotten back. At some point, she'd need to swallow some of it and get over herself.
"I think someone took them, yes. And... I would really, really love to see them again. I don't know how you'd track them down, but... I'm grateful for the help, Nate."
“We all let our guard down sometime, moreso around friends. That’s not stupid, even if it was a mistake, which, heck, we don’t even know, now.” He smiled softly at her. “I’ll do my best to help, and try to find them.”
He rubbed his face. “I can sometimes concentrate my powers to work a little like object reading, in reverse. Back in the dreams I was never powerful enough and at peace enough, for it to work at a large scale, but here... it has a chance.”
"Hah, well they weren't friends. They were a bunch of random people on the internet, but I tried to limit the amount of people who had my address to a reasonable amount. Still..."
Dani wrinkled her nose, "I think we should consider ourselves lucky that the earrings were the only thing that went missing. But if there's a chance this power might be able to track them. I had no idea you had that ability. Do you need anything from me?"
“Only your willingness for me to...” He stopped, then started again. “Sorry, it’s been awhile since I tried to explain it in words, ah... not used to doing so.” He thought for a moment, then nodded. “I need to connect to you, like... how a gps locks on to where something is. In order to find something that is yours, I have to do that to you, for the moment. Nothing permanent, or invasionary, or... anything like that. Just a momentary position lock, onto, well... you as you are.”
He grinned.
“Then I let my brain run and see if it can find the thing.” He waggled his hand. “It might take awhile, though, to actually find it.”
"You need to... link up with me?" Dani wasn't sure she liked the sound of that. How badly did she want those earrings? But he'd said it wasn't invasionary, "You won't poke around in my thoughts too much, will you? I just... there are things in there I'm not sure I want you to know about me."
She hugged herself with her arms, and waited for his answer.
“I won’t hear your thoughts at all. I’ve been making a conscious effort to screen out even your surface, projected thoughts, Dani. This won’t change that. It means, like... for a moment, I will be utterly aware of where you are, in relation to everything else.” He rubbed his face. “Its hard to explain. Sorry.”
Then he eyed her. “And Dani? You’re a good person. We all have darknesses. Yours are your own, but they do not make you a bad person.”
"...I feel like sometimes they do, but that's not your fault," Dani replied, with a sigh. Her brain was still processing everything he was saying, but it latched onto the fact that he'd been actively trying to tune her out, and she smiled a bit, "I really appreciate that, by the way. The fact that you've been screening me out. There's a lot that happened, and I'm really just not ready to talk to anyone about it. Not anyone I know, anyway."
She paused and added, in a lowered voice, "I signed up for therapy though. I guess that's a step, depending on who you talk to. Anyway, I think I can do this. How do we start?"
“That’s fine. I know what it’s like to have a past from the dreams. If you ever do want to talk, I’m here.” He nodded to her and saluted. He grinned at her.
“I’ve been in therapy since I was ten... so earlier this year.” He waved a hand and a chair slid up. then another, facing it. “Sit with me? I just need to focus on you and get my powers working. It’s been awhile since I did this, so it might take a few minutes to engage.” He chuckled.
"Oh wait. If we're going to do this, we should let the cats out of their carriers for now. I don't know about you, but I'd have a hard time concentrating over the ruckus they're making," Dani joked, and pointed her finger in the direction of the carriers by the door.
She headed over to do just that, without realising that Nate could have easily used his TK to open them.
“Okay.” Nate smiled as she let them out, and didn’t raise the issue. He tried not to tell people about such things. He could do a lot. And he just kept his mouth shut.
When the cats were loose, he greeted them, mind and voice, his eyes shimmering with that blue light, yet. He liked animals and could, essentially, speak their language. Then he sat, and began to relax, letting himself gain the calm needed to access the power he rarely used.
Watching him made her a little sad. Someday she'd lose her own ability to do that. Possibly someday soon. But he couldn't know that she'd react like that, and she put it aside for now.
She took a seat in her chair and got herself comfortable, then nodded at Nate. He looked like he was already starting to concentrate, so she decided to remain silent.
When he opened his eyes again, they glowed a true and deep blue, and then he reached out a hand to her, and focused along it. For just a moment, his presence washed over her, scent and sight and sound, touch and sheer aura, enveloping her but not swallowing her, around her but not in her, and there was a sound that was not a sound, far off, like the cry of a bird, old and yet young.
Around Nate, for a split second, a blue image flared that was only there to the mind and not the eye, a bird with flaring wings and beak lifted high, then it was gone and his presence gone from her as well as he found her and his mind touched hers, as if knocking from the outside, her name echoing in his mind and into the ether. Dani Moonstar!
And then all was back to normal.
He opened his eyes as a part of his mind ran away, following the feel of his scent of her, so to speak.
“Its begun.”
"That... was definitely an experience," Dani whispered. She wasn't sure if it was safe to speak too loudly, even though he'd spoken to her, first. She was worried that the ability was something like a spell that might be disturbed or fall apart entirely if she moved too much.
Nate smiled to her and hopped up. “Are you okay? I mean, some people, they don’t like the feel of my powers and… I can get you some water?” He didn’t want this meeting to end badly.
He could feel his powers stretching outward as that little piece of him ran looking.
"It was a little odd at first, since I wasn't sure what to expect. But I'm fine. I was scared I'd disturb something, but I guess it's ... doing its thing over there? In your brain?" Dani made a hand motion towards his head then waved a finger around in the air, like she was trying to wrap her head around how it worked.
“Yeah. It is. I can… well, I have to compartmentalize my powers. They’re too powerful otherwise, so in the dreams, I learned to sort of start doing something I knew how to do and tie it off, and then compartmentalize that section so I could go on doing other things.” He nodded.
"So you've got like organizer drawers in your brain?" Dani asked, trying to simplify it into a way of understanding it that made sense to her, "Or is it more like a computer that does stuff in the background while you do other stuff in the forefront? I've never been great with those things, but I know my Starkphone has all kinds of applications running while I'm playing angry birds."
“Both. I’ve got drawers in my brain, and I can run things in some of them, in the background, so to speak, while staying out in the main area.” He grinned. “Those are both really good analogies. I’ll have to remember them.” He nodded, pleased.
Dani smiled, "I guess teaching has been good for more than one thing. It's so funny that I resisted it for so long. I ended up pretty decent at it. If all I can take away from it is the ability to create good analogies for things, I'll be doing pretty good for myself."
Nate nodded. “A lot of leaders had fewer strengths when they started, and a lot of teachers had fewer skills. You’ll do great.” He tapped his chin, then grinned. “Hopefully, within a week or so, I should have an answer for you, but I am hoping you won’t be a stranger between now and then.”
"I really do appreciate this, Nate. And... I'm sorry that I pushed you away at first. I was a little..." Dani trailed off and rubbed at her wrist a bit, "You were intimidating. I was a little scared of you, but it wasn't your fault. I think your words to me just brought back some memories I was trying to bury."
She held her hand out to him, hoping he'd shake it, "Apology accepted?"
His smile warmed and he stepped in and took her hand, first to shake it, then to grip her wrist. “Accepted Gladly, Dani. And anytime you wanna talk, or shoot things, or run, or drink non-alcoholic things that are still bad for you, give me a holler, okay?”
Her smile warmed up considerably as well, and she did something she rarely did - pulled in for a hug. Nate in the dreams hadn't always been the huggy type, but this felt like a good moment for one.
"You'll be at the top of my list."
Nate hugged her back. “Good.” Then he stepped back and snapped his fingers. “Now you should get your cats and your cute but scrawny butt on down to the ranch and settle in. It’s a good day for it.”
She snapped a mock salute in response, and smirked, "Yes, Sir."