Lorna Dane loves rocks and math (compassrose) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-11-26 14:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, billy kaplan (wiccan), lorna dane (polaris) |
Who: Billy Kaplan and Lorna Summers
Where: a coffee shop
What: chatting
When: recently.
Warnings/Rating: no warnings
Status complete
Billy had recently had another dream and wanted to share it with Lorna, she was as close as he had to family out here and, on top of that, she knew his dream world. She was also becoming a good friend and he wanted to make sure none of the latest crazy stuff had affected her. He’d been so busy with work and Justin that he hadn’t checked the net in a while.
Entering the coffee shop he found a nice fairly quiet table and waited for her to arrive.
Lorna had a lot of stuff to tell Billy. It was all pretty overwhelming, actually. She was in a great mood when she walked in, smiling brightly. She was working on a hat today, but not very hard. She waved at Billy and went over to say hello. “How’ve you been?”
He waved back and then stared as she came over, “I’m good” he answered somewhat distractedly, “You look different, am I supposed to notice something?” he asked her, not wanting to insult her by saying she looked older in case she was trying a new look or something.
Lorna nodded. “I have a really long story to tell you. I’m going to grab a coffee first, you want anything?”
“Let me get them” he said standing while gesturing to her to sit down, “I’ll be back in a sec and then I have a feeling you’re going to explode my brain with your story” he half joked before going up to order the drinks and bring them back to the table.
She chuckled and told him what she wanted before taking her seat. It amused her that he was so unfailingly polite. Obviously his parents had done a really good job raising him.
She sighed at the thought and pushed it away. The world didn’t really need more mutants, and adopting a kid would be much better for everyone.
He had been raised right, and taught that there was always room and time for manners. Even with friends.
Once he had the drinks he made his way back to the table and set them down, with the addition of a very large cookie he thought they could share. “Okay, so long story?” he prompted with a smile.
Lorna smiled. “Thank you. You’re too sweet.” She took a sip of her coffee, then started her story. “So I traveled in time a week or so ago. We were gone for six years, because we got lost.”
Maybe that was a good place to pause and see if there were questions.
“Six years? Wow. That’s...” crazy, amazing, scary? he wasn’t sure which word to use, “But you were only gone a week here?” he asked, “And where did you go? Future or past?”
“Only an hour, which is the really crazy part.” She shook her head. It had been so many things. Mostly heartbreaking, but that was eventual, anyway. “We went to the past. 1890 to 1896. Spent half a year homesteading, until my hair got us almost run out of town. Then we worked for a rich family in New York. It wasn’t all bad. Alex and I met H.G. Wells, got to know some really amazing people, and at least we weren’t split up. We were supposed to go to the future for a few months and convince a couple kids to come back in the past with us, but that didn’t happen at all.” Which was kind of sad.
“Wow Lorna, that sounds intense” Billy said shaking his head, “I’m glad you managed to come back even if you didn’t get to do what you wanted to do” He’d have missed her if she had just disappeared, like many others he was sure.
“I’m really glad too. I missed you and all my friends terribly.” She was glad to see him again. If she was right about their relationship he was the only family she had anymore, save an aunt and some cousins in Minnesota. “You said you had a new dream or something, didn’t you?” She didn’t want to make this meeting all about her, after all.
Billy smiled, “No more time travelling then” he told her before nodding. “Yeah, I’ve become part of a group - the Young Avengers. I’m calling myself Asguardian. I’m not a huge fan of the name but I think I’m trying to be a bit like Thor” Billy was a huge fanboy in his dreams, possibly a bigger geek than he was here.
Lorna chuckled. “That’s pretty good, actually. I was Magnetrix for an embarrassingly long time. My nickname was so bad alien renamed me.” And Alex still gave her crap about it, years and universes later. “Who else was on your team?”
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and somebody will rename me too” he laughed, though it was good to know that he wasn’t the only one who had a less than cool superhero name. “Iron Lad who is Nathaniel, Patriot is Eli and Hulkling is Teddy” he blushed a little on the last name though pretended it was nothing. His dream self had the beginnings of a crush on his teammate.
Lorna caught it and didn’t bother to try to suppress a grin. “Awww. Sounds like an interesting team. I don’t remember it, I might have been in space when it happened.” Or insane, or on Genosha, or a million other things. She could have even not dreamed it yet. She was just now filling in some past memories. “Have you fought anything crazy yet?”
He shook his head, “Nothing too crazy so far. Mostly just forming the team and everything. I think my powers are coming through though” he added, “Just a little. I managed to start the car without the key the other day and blow up my computer so I guess that might develop when I dream more”
"Oh man, that was a pain in the butt." Lorna said with a sympathetic laugh. "Just be thakkful you're not Cyclops or the Blob." There were worse fates.
Billy laughed, “Always a silver lining I guess” he smiled, “I just don’t wanna accidentally hurt anybody but so far I’ve just effected electrical equipment and I’m hoping I can learn control from the dreams” He’d hate to hurt Justin with his newly acquired ability.
She nodded, sipping her coffee. “That’s a pretty legitimate worry. The best you can do is try to be careful. It won’t stay out of control for long.”
“That’s what I thought. I’ll be careful. I’m looking forward to playing around with them once they’re under control” he admitted with a smile.
“So what can you do, exactly?” She asked, pulling out her hat to work on while they talked. She could crochet without looking down at this point, but she was still fidgety.
“Well so far mostly low level electrokinesis and a bit of flying” he told her, “I think I hold myself back a lot in the dreams because I’m not practiced enough” He still found it fascinating that she could create something without looking at what her hands were doing.
“That’s smarter than how I was. I was so eager to prove that I was useful like the other mutants.” Lorna shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I was so dumb.”
“Maybe seeing the experiences of you and others who came before us helped me” Billy suggested, “That’s where being the second generation comes in handy, I guess”
“If I can provide an example, good or bad, it’s all worthwhile.” Lorna said, giving him a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. “I hope it’s not too bad. At first being an X-man was terrifying in a fun way, and then it just became terrifying.” She let her hook hover for a moment while she took a drink of her coffee. “You might need some kind of surge protection for your phone. I wonder if Tony Stark could rig something up for you?”
“I’m sorry” Billy said reaching over to place his hand on hers, “You don’t have to talk about this stuff if you don’t want to. I don’t want to make you sad” and he really didn’t. She was a nice person and had been a good friend to him. “I don’t know Tony here yet, you think he’d help me anyway?”
Lorna’s smile warmed, and she put her other hand on top of his, squeezing gently. “I’m already sad, honestly. The dreams. . . They can give us things, but they can take things away, too. I do think Tony will help, if you ask the right way. It’s a chance to show off, and he loves to do that in any universe.”
“I’ll ask him then” Billy nodded before looking at her in concern, “What have the dreams taken away that’s making you sad?” he asked softly.
Lorna pressed her lips together and looked down at her coffee. “In the dreams. . . there’s a curse. It took away a lot of people’s powers, stopped new mutants from being born. Alex and I were gone for six years in a time before birth control. We tried the whole time, but. . . I don’t think we can have kids anymore. We’ve both dreamed of the curse, but not its resolution.” She had to believe it would be resolved. Wanda was probably mad, but she wasn’t evil. Dream Lorna might have her doubts, but Lorna couldn’t believe anyone evil could have a child as good as Billy.
Billy’s hand tightened on hers as he listened, feeling terrible for her. “Oh god Lorna, I’m sorry” he said, “I wish I could change things for you. I think you’ll be a great mom. I hope you dream the cure soon. There’s probably not much I can say or do to help but if I can just tell me okay?”
“I will.” She squeezed his hand again, breathing deeply. “My life has been more than usually crazy right now. Hanging out with you is a much needed dose of normal.” She looked up again, meeting his eyes. “Thank you. I’m sorry I brought the conversation down, let’s talk about something happier. Do you have plans for the holidays?”
“Not sure how much normal I can provide but I’ll do what I can” Billy told her with a kind smile, “You don’t need to apologise” he told her before shaking his head with a little shrug, “Not really. Unless he’s going to visit family I guess I’ll just spend them with Justin” he said easily. He wouldn’t be going home as his parents had been offered to join friends on a cruise and Billy had encouraged them to take the offer.
“If you want to hang out let me know. I’ll be out of town for Christmas, but I’d love to meet Justin and spend some time around the holidays with you.” She took a deep breath and smiled at him again. “Whether we’re related or not I’m unofficially adopting you as my nephew. I could definitely do worse.”
“Sure” Billy replied happily, “I’d love that. I’m sure Justin would too” He blushed at her compliment, “Thanks Lorna. I think I’m pretty lucky to have you for an aunt - unofficial or not”
She grinned at him. “I’m lucky too. You’re a great person, Billy, and I know you’ll grow into a good man.” She Squeezed his hand one last time before withdrawing to resume her snowflake. “You’ll have to find out if he has any food allergies or anything. And tell me if you have any, of course.”
He blushed a bit more but smiled. He really was lucky. He’d not only found friends and a wonderful boyfriend by moving here but now he had family too. It was turning into one of the best decisions he’d ever made. “I don’t have any, but I’ll ask Justin and let you know. I don’t think he does but I’ll definitely check”
“Good. Let me know.” Cookies were always the right color and size, and they were nearly universal in their appeal. Lorna didn’t want to dwell on what she couldn’t have, because what she did have was amazing. Her family wasn’t traditional, but it was fun and she knew they’d all look out for each other. That was the most important thing, in the end.