Lorna Summers ate all the cookies (cosmiccastaway) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-02-01 02:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alma wade, lorna dane (polaris) |
Who: Alma Wade and Lorna Dane
Where: Urdnot Ranch
What: talking, freaking out
When: early afternoon
Warnings/Rating: pg-13 for spoooooky stuff
Status Complete!
Lorna was glad to be back at the ranch. Well, moderately glad. The trip to San Francisco had actually been pretty fun and refreshing, but she’d started feeling crappy again when they’d gone to Disneyland. She assumed because her vacation was over (even though she wasn’t actually working for another few days). Her shop had been ready last month before the Sentinel attack, so she was glad to once again spend her time helping out the kids at the ranch.
This time she was refereeing a soccer game, which was actually a lot of fun. It meant plenty of running around, and lots of fresh air. She needed plenty of both at the moment. The game went pretty well, and the whole group trooped back inside. She was getting to know a lot of the kids, and normally spending time with them helped her feel better.
Today, though, when she wasn’t running around outside, she was having a hard time maintaining her enthusiasm. She went up to the employee lounge to see if coffee might perk her up. She saw Alma as she went, and stopped to say hello.
Alma gave her a smile. She was wearing a baggy sweater, but it couldn't quite hide how...obviously pregnant she was. Lorna hadn't seen her since this had happened, and she didn't have a handy explanation. If asked, she would have to settle for the truth.
"How did the game go, Ms. Dane?"
Lorna smiled at the girl, noticing something different, but not exactly sure what, just yet. It would come to her. “It went pretty well. It’s obvious now that I need to smoke a little less, though. I got my butt kicked and I was refereeing.” She grinned. “How are you? It’s been pretty crazy recently.” She hoped Alma was doing okay. She cared about everyone at the ranch.
"As long as they had fun." Alma clasped her hands in front of her. "I am doing okay. There have been some changes that I am adjusting to. I had to quit school, but I already have my degrees. I was going for social reasons."
It was the hands that did it. Lorna felt like an idiot, and decided to blame that on lack of sleep. “It’s better to be around people who are as smart as you, anyway. If you’re going to be social, you should at least be able to talk about your interests.” She knew better than to ever ask any lady ever if she was pregnant unless the woman was having a baby shower in her honor. It just wasn’t going to happen, because God forbid she should be wrong. “I’ve been adjusting to some changes myself, so I can at least be sympathetic about that.” She unconsciously touched her hair.
"My problem was I was kept very secluded from other people my age until early last year. I am still trying to adjust. Without the school, I would not have met my girlfriend." So there were side benefits to that.
"I like it. Your hair."
“That’s true.” Lorna conceded. Still, she couldn’t imagine being as smart as Alma and dealing with stupid high schoolers on a peer level. Granted, she loved the kids at the ranch in a generic fashion, but that was only because she was an adult and dealt with them on an adult level. “Thanks. It’s been an interesting month. Do you want something to drink? I was about to get coffee, I could get you a juice or some water.” When in doubt, Lorna defaulted to feeding people.
"It's fortunate that Beth is very smart," Alma said, unintentionally picking up Lorna's thoughts. There was a chill that passed through the hallway as she spoke. "Juice would be nice. I am craving something sweet."
Lorna shivered, then frowned. She hated whatever the heck was making all these weird things happen. She quickly smiled again, but it had less sincerity than normal. “Juice it is. I’ll be right back.” She went up to the lounge, hoping there was coffee already made. At first she thought she saw a girl at the top of the stairs, but when she looked again the girl was gone. Lorna made an even more sour face, now that she wasn’t facing anyone. That little girl had gone from creepy to annoying.
Alma followed her up the stairs. She moved as fast as she could, not wanting to use her powers to cheat and float her way to the top. She founded that only made stranger things happen.
Still, she had to catch herself on the final step, before she tumbled down all the way. Shutters slammed throughout the ranch house, and glasses rattled in the lounge.
She pulled herself back up and walked into the lounge. She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she was farther along. She didn't even know how quickly that would be.
Lorna heard Alma stumble, and reached out to catch the younger girl with her powers without turning around. She recoiled a bit, actually stepping more forward when her powers made contact. She couldn’t hide the shock she felt. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Alma said. She was paler and sweating a little. The hallway seemed to close in around both of them, darkening ominously. Out of the corner of their eyes a door looked like a mouth gaping in terror.
Lorna shook with irrational fear, and even deep breathing exercises didn’t help. “It’s been you the whole time. The little girl, the weird things. . .” She shook her head and went into the lounge, to get away, maybe get her head back on straight. She wasn’t prepared for this at all.
“Wait!” There was a panicked edge to Alma’s voice, and she followed Lorna. “I am not doing it on purpose. I cannot control it!”
"I just need some space for a second." Lorna said, as calmly as she could. It wasn't really very calm. "I don't have great control either, and I'm losing my shit right now." She had a healthy respect for the destructive capabilities of her powers. "I promise I'm not mad at you.
"It's the pregnancy," Alma said, standing in the doorway and hugging herself. "It used to be heavy emotions..it..." She trailed off, giving up on trying to explain. She lowered her head, and tried to keep her cool. It was getting worse the closer to the birth she got. She hadn't told Beth, but she was terrified of giving birth.
This was just bad all around. She couldn’t completely reign in her powers, and as long as she was close enough that her powers could connect to Alma she would keep freaking out. She went to a window, figuring being caught was better than hurting anyone. “Five minutes, tops. I’m pretty good at calming myself down.” She opened the window, trying to keep herself contained as much as she could. The wires in the walls warped, and power went out in half the room, but she didn’t think she’d ruined its structural integrity. Her powers were focused on flying, now.
She shot up as quickly as possible, hoping nobody was looking up.
Alma's eyes widened as she watched the woman shoot out of the window. Was she like Scott, or like her? Either way, her powers were kind of genetic. They had to be. She walked to the window and peered up.
It was only three minutes before Lorna came down, much slower. Yeah, someone probably saw that, but she wasn’t confident enough to go shooting through the window. To her credit, flying had been enough, she hadn’t used her emergency joint. “Okay, I’m cool again. So juice, yeah?” Juice was probably a better idea than coffee for Lorna, too.
"Juice is good..." Alma backed away from the window, until she hit her back against the wall. She didn't want to cause more problems for the green-haired woman, than she already had. So she was keeping space between them, and clamping down on her powers and on the child within her.
Lorna felt bad, but she really didn’t want either of them to lose control again. She poured them both juice, and took Alma her glass, then retreated to the other side of the room. “I’m so sorry about that. I didn’t know that would happen.” Holy crap, that had been bad. She shook her head. “I’m sorry you’re having such a rough time. I never considered how pregnancy would affect that kind of thing.” It was interesting to know. “I’d hug you, but. . . that doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
"It is probably a bad idea," Alma agreed. She took her drink and sipped it gratefully. "Though I'm wondering how bad it is getting in the city, now. I am going to have to stay at the Ranch until my child is born."
Lorna nodded. “I live in Irvine and I’ve been effected, but after that little encounter I don’t know if it’s a me thing or a you thing.” She sighed. “Are you okay? It’s not bothering you or anything, right?” She hoped not. That just wouldn’t be right.
"I am sorry that I am causing you problems." Alma considered how much to share. She saw no reason to lie, and knew Scott trusted her. "In my dreams, I had no control over my power, or myself. It led to many terrible things. But I have had a better life here, thanks to this Ranch. I just fear I'll hurt people."
Lorna nodded. “I hope you won’t. And I’ll do what I can to help, but it seems like that might be staying as far away as possible. We aren’t our dreams, even when our dreams are awesome and full of flying around in a bathing suit and kicking butts left, right, and center.” Well, maybe a butt here and there. She wasn’t as good at it as the other X-men, as far as she could tell. “Does Beth know?” That might cause problems down the line.
"Beth knows almost everything. I share what I can through our minds. I do not..I have not told her how scared I am, but I think she knows anyway." She hesitated. "We have a name."
That was good. “What will you call it?” Maybe that would be a more cheerful subject. Sure the pregnancy was obviously rough, but it wouldn’t last forever. Alma had been working on this, after all.
“Her name will be Elise.” Alma seemed proud of this. “Beth picked it out. I wanted something that sounded....pretty.”
“It’s very pretty.” Lorna said with a smile. “I like it. How far along are you?” Minus the creepy effects of her powers, the whole thing was kind of sweet.
"Technically, two months. Physically, almost seven." Alma at least assumed it was two months. She hadn't known Beth before then and she knew that whatever effect her powers had had, it hadn't been anyone else they had drawn from to help create the child. In her dreams, it had been her psychic abilities that conceived her third child. Even if she’d raped Michael Beckett, her body had been dead.
“Wow, no wonder I didn’t notice last time we talked.” She couldn’t imagine preparing for such a big change so quickly. “Your life kind of sucks right now, huh?”
“It was a terrifying change.” Alma sipped at her juice again. For how terrifying it was, she was surprisingly dealing well with it. “But it is going better than the dream ones went.”
“That’s good.” Right? Lorna was pretty sure she didn’t want to ask about Alma’s dreams. The only reason Lorna could stand her own dreams was because they were so over the top in their drama. She imagined Alma’s were more scary and horrifying.
“Very. Thank you.” Alma nodded her head at Lorna. She wanted to give the other woman a hug, but decided against it. They were like magnets with opposite polarity. “I hope things go well for you too.”
“They’re okay. I’ll be happy when my shop opens up. I just feel better when I’m busy.” Her life wasn’t bad, but the dreams were adding stress that she didn’t want or need. “Hey, let me give you phone number, so you can text me if you want to talk or something. I know I’ve wished I had someone I could talk about my powers with, but nobody I know does anything like I do.”
She pulled out her cellphone, which was now impaled in several places by the Faraday cage she’d made for it. Oh well. She chuckled a little and put it back in her pocket. “Okay, let me give you my card instead. It’s for my shop, but it has my personal cell number on it.” Now she had to stop and get a new phone on the way home. She dug in her pants pocket until she found a business card holder, and passed over her card.
Alma nodded her head, lifting her hand and causing the card to float over towards her. She didn't really need to do the display, but had found it was less creepy than if she didn't move at all when doing something. "I hope your shop is a success."
“Me too, but I have some back up plans.” She wasn’t even sure her heart was in medical marijuana as much as it had been before. She wondered if she could use her powers to help people without outing herself as something different. “So what are your powers, anyway? It’s not just telekinesis, I dreamed about living along side one, and nothing like that ever happened.”
"Telepathy. Manifestation. Pyrokinisis." Alma replied. Between those and TK it pretty much covered just about anything one can do with their mind. "I am not a mutant. My genetic signature is different from yours, or Mr. Summers'. My powers stem from another source, though I do not know where."
Pyrokinesis sounded pretty scary. Not one Lorna would want to have at all. Or telepathy for that matter. Or really anything beside her telekinesis. “I wonder if everyone has dreams where they have powers. Yours all kind of sound like a pain in the butt.” She really enjoyed her abilities, despite their weird origin.
“My fia-girlfriend doesn’t dream of powers. Wrex dreams he’s a turtleman.” Alma, sharer of too much information. “Ms. Shepard dreams she’s a space marine. Hers are more terrifying than mine. The things she has to fight.”
Lorna caught the first reference, but left it alone. Well, except for grinning, but she couldn’t help that. “Wrex is a turtleman? Like. . . man, do you even know about the Mutant Turtles? That was a thing when I was a kid.” She could see Shepard as a space marine, easy.
“Yes, it is a ‘thing’ again now.” Alma nodded her head. The concept was ridiculous and scientifically implausible, but then again, her entire life was scientifically implausible.
“Man, next year’s Christmas present is going to be so much more fun to make.” Lorna said with a laugh.
"Too bad you missed his birthday, but there is always father's day," Alma said, impishly.
“Father’s day?” Lorna asked. “Is everyone having babies?”
“He adopted me,” Alma explained. She’d forgotten that Wrex and Kasumi were keeping it a secret for now. Oops.
“Oh, that makes sense. Then yeah, sure. I won’t be making anything for anyone else this year.” She looked sad for a minute, but she used to dealing with that, and did her best to make sure it was only a minute.
"Why not?"
Crap. Lorna kind of didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “I just came back from my parents’ funerals. They were killed in the attack on San Francisco.” She looked down at her hands, trying to keep herself from getting upset.
Invisible hands hugged Lorna lightly. Alma wanted to offer more comfort but was unable to. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m dealing with it. It’s okay.” She looked up again, giving Alma a faint smile. “I’ve just been feeling sorry for myself, is all. I need to get over it.” She wasn’t going to be that mopey friend nobody wanted to be around.
“Rely on your friends,” Alma assured her, speaking from personal experience. “That’s what they’re there for.”
Lorna actually cheered up a little, because that reminded her of Disneyland, and how many people had come out to hang out with her and her best friends. She smiled. “I am, and I have the best friends in the world. They’ve been awesome to me, and I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
“That is what makes them friends,” Alma confirmed. She didn’t know what she’d do without hers. She didn’t know at all.
Lorna nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Do you want another juice? I should probably take off pretty soon and get a new phone, but I can do that before I leave.” She wasn’t sure whether she should come back again or not. She wasn’t afraid of Alma, but their powers interacted pretty severely. She’d have to talk to Scott, he had more experience with Alma and crazy stuff like this.
“That would be lovely thank you.” Alma stepped aside, and further back to allow Lorna some room. She would have to retreat to Wrex’s cabin when Lorna was on the property. It was several miles away, and should allow a buffer.
Lorna got more juice, setting the glass on the counter. “I’m sorry about earlier, I hope the rest of your day goes okay.” She moved away from the counter, toward the door. This was a weird and kind of sad day. “I hope everything go okay for you and the baby.”
“Thank you. I hope everything goes okay for you.”