Ali Blaire • Dazzler (refulgent) wrote in xemplify, @ 2009-02-04 12:45:00 |
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Who: Ali & Ororo
When: Sunday, November 16th. 2PM
WEEK: 12
Where: Mansion stairwell - danger room.
What: Ali is starting to feel bad about hiding, so goes to Ororo for some help. She gets pulled into a training lesson instead.
Rating & Warnings: Fine for anyone.
Ali tapped the end of her pencil against a blank page of her lyrical journal, there were already spirals and little hearts drawn around the edges of the paper from boredem, her main problem was that a simple lyric kept thrumming through her mind: You tell me that it’s evolution. Her pencil started going with the beat to the famous song as she hummed from that point on, her voice soft and cautious, as if she didn't know how the world would feel in her mouth. An odd thought seeing as she'd been singing this song when she was younger for the hell of it, The Beatles being her grandmother's favorite band, or so Ali had always figured by the mass collection of items the elder had gathered all her life. Maybe it had started as a hobby somewhere else in life, the thought of her grandmother made Ali's voice a little stronger, "You ask me for a contribution, well, you know we’re doing what we can...." What is my contribution? Came the sudden thought, her pencil stopped the beat and her eyes lifted up to the ceiling of her room, her hiding hole. She sighed and thought of all the people she'd met since she'd come to the mansion, mostly of Nick and how depressed he seemed to be with just who he was and how she wanted to help him feel better. Eyes lowered back to the decorated page, the humming picked up again from the start as she wrote out the lyrics of Revolution. She tried to compare the times, what was going on when the song was writted, the war, and now. Was a war going to happen now? There was already so much hate, and all war took was some hate. Once the lyrics were written out she sat there and just stared at them, reading them over and over again in her mind without so much as a hum. What was her contribution to anything? Did she have something to give, was there even something to give to? It wasn't like there was a war going on, it wasn't like she had something to actually donate to. As she stood up, pushed the chair back and closed up her lyrical journal with a look of frustration flooding her face. She took her book and hid it under her pillow before turning the lights off in her room and heading out into the hall and eventually out the front door. Though she had a meaningful step to her walk, she had no idea where she was going or what she was going to do. There wasn't many places she could go to anymore though, there was just the school, and the courtyard was where she ended up going, and into the mansion. She stopped at the door, the meaning to her step floating away as a look of realization finally came over her face. Maybe not realization of a particular thing, more like someone sleep walking finally waking up. What did she think she was going to gain from any of this? What was there to gain, because there was nothing to lose. It wasn't until the very air seemed to change that Ali actually looked up to the stairwell and found someone she knew she could talk to, if only from hearing about her from other people. Ororo was not in one mood or another, nor was she apathetic in any form of the word. She was busy though, too busy to let her mind wander off to worry over anything or anyone in particular. She had come back to the mansion with the intention of throwing herself back into what she was meant to do, and that's exactly what she'd done. Going so far as picking up a new team, the new team, the one-day to be X-Men. The new generation of soldiers in Xavier's army to defeat help mankind realize that there was nothing wrong with mutants, and possibly, fight against other mutants who thought talking was outdated. Maybe it was, but she still believed in Xavier's dream, for now. She came silently down the stairs, a lack of shoes helped in the silent department, and though her jeans were boot cut and she was currently walking on the backs of them, even the flowing temperament of her blouse gave her a silent entrance. Her hair was currently doing in a thick braid down the middle of her back, bangs brushed off to the side and out of her eyes. She worked quietly on her palm pilot, getting names and abilities in order, who had done what, who would be where and making charts as she went. A woman with a deep hate of being late, she already high expectations for these kids, and that was probably why she was appointed with the task of training these specific children. Teach them early and fast that nothing was going to be easy, then if by chance the world did become an easier place, they wouldn't have as many falls to protect themselves from. Maybe a little cynical for the weather witch, but maybe her mood was tilting a little more to the stormy side of her persona. She pulled up a new app and started tapping at the screen with the short slender black rod for the touch screen. Within a few seconds she was done sending out the mass e-mail to the Jr. Squad, it would be short notice, but that was the point. She wanted to see who was on top of their game and who was lacking, who was slow, who was fast - who had a real interest in this and who was doing it as an extra curricular sort of sport. There was a time for fun, but this was not one of them, at least not in her eyes. She planned on being just as hard on these kids as those before her had been on her, which wasn't very, but strict enough to keep her in line and to actually learn while growing into who she currently was. The woman seemed pretty intense, even though she wasn't doing more than walking down the stairs playing around with her palm pilot. Ali straightened out her shoulders a bit before taking her first step, her heels seeming to echo much louder now. Combating, almost, with the delicate and silent step of Ororo's. She cleared her throat and when that didn't get the older woman's attention, Ali moved forward to the end of the staircase where Ororo would have to look at her. "Ms. Munro?" She questioned, because there were probably other toned African females running around here with white hair and blue eyes. It was a common mutation in African-decent mutants, right? No, not at all. If it was, then God was racist, which would be funny in some twisted way. "I was wondering, I kind of need..." She felt so weird for asking this, this wasn't what Ali did. She did not ask for help, she did not go to shrinks and ask for help. This was against her pride code. "I mean, I've been thinking and I kind of have all these random thoughts now that I've been here, and I was wondering, y'know? Maybe you could help me?" She finally blurted out while Ororo took her final steps in front of her. She tried to look up at the woman, keep her eyes focused on the other woman's face, and failed. She was authority, Ali hated authority - now she was asking for help from an authoritative figure. It didn't sit well in Ali's stomach at all, in fact it made almost every muscle in her body tighten with some form of disgust at herself. She felt dirty. Instead she watched the bridge of Ororo's nose for any signs of what the other might be thinking. She also stepped off to the side, she didn't want to make the other feel like she was trying to hold her back from whatever she was going to be doing. She obviously had something she wanted to do, "I mean, you know, when you have time." Ororo would have walked right into Ali, not because she was rude, but because she honestly hadn't seen the tall brunette - even with the loud pink stripes in her hair. Ororo was busy doing something that needed to be done. Crystal sapphire eyes moved to the other when she started talking though, no emotion seeming to crease her face as she took in the woman's words with seemingly little concern. There were a few random taps to her list, "You are..." She paused as she brought up her list and clicked on a few icons before finding the image, "Alison Blaire, photon manipulation." Ororo stated as if she were looking at medical results, not very personable, but she was in 'go' mode and that made her sound more like a soldier than a therapist. She looked up from her palm pilot and to Alison once more, "I would be more than happy to talk with you, Miss Blaire." Ororo started as she finally left the stairs when Alison moved aside, "I have an appointment of sorts right now, I just sent an invite to you as well, which you obviously won't get until you go back to your room however. So, since you've been invited, we'll talk and walk while we go. If this is alright with you, and once the meeting is over, we'll go to my office and figure out what there is to be done, yes?" Ororor offered while shoving her pilot into her back pocket and touching Ali lightly on her wrist, "Come." She didn't look back at Ali as she started to head for the elevator that would take them to the lower part of the building. She hated elevators, but she'd gotten better with them. She could stand the mansions elevator now, but public ones were still a big fat no. She just couldn't take it, especially when there were more than three people on the thing at once. Again though, Xavier's elevator was safe, she knew the backup codes and knew there was less of a chance getting stuck in this one than there was her getting stuck in a public one. Once the duo were finally alone, Ororo gave her attention to Ali, "What thoughts?" Thoughts could be anything from suicidal to homicidal, Ororo would like to make sure this girl was neither. Ali didn't know what to think or which way was up or down when Ororo started talking about invites. Invites to what? She was so use to her invites being something that included pampering that she didn't know how to feel or what to think about this new offer. It took her mind away from what she'd originally been thinking about for a few minutes. Though as she was beckoned to follow, her feet started to move without her brain giving a confirmation, so into the elevator she went, shaking her head and finally speaking up, "Ali, please. I haven't gone by Alison since my father was alive, it's not who I am, anymore." She found the words a little odd, "I mean, I didn't even come here as Alison, where'd you get that name from?" She questioned with a slightly concerned look falling over her face, then came, "Photon manipulation, what the hell is that? I just make lights flash, or dance, or something. I'm a flashlight, which is fine, but it doesn't have a fancy name or anything." What did photon manipulation mean? What did it it mean she could do, did it mean she was more than she thought she was? Who gave her that title though? What was going on here exactly, how did they have information on her that she didn't even have on herself, or didn't tell people. Though Alison wasn't that far of a jump from her actual name, it was understandable...so she guessed. Though it didn't make her feel comforted to know that these things were so easily found out about her, if they could do it, what would keep a stalker from finding her now? Again her head was shaken as her thoughts were brought back to the present conversation, "Uh..yeah thoughts." She mumbled a little more to herself than to Ororo before seeming to get her footing again, squaring off her shoulders and finally finding the woman's eyes. "I came here to get away, I mean to find out more about me too, but the underlining was to get away from the spot light for a little while. The thing going on with the mutants right now, I just didn't want to give up my career because of something I can't control. I need to learn control, I mean, that's what I thought." Rambling was a whole subject to Ali, she was a pro. "At least, y'know, that's what I thought, right? I found myself being questioned more and more about my light shows, and old replies just weren't cutting it anymore. Technolodgy is so obvious though, and no one was buying it - I didn't know what to do. I just figured finding myself here would be best, getting out of the public eye for a while would be good for me. Then I come here, and I meet a few people....and I start questioning myself. I mean, I met this kid, Nick...I don't remember his last name, or if I even got it, but he's kind of like a lycanthrope - you may even have an image of him on your little gadget thing, point is...you know...he seemed so down on himself. I jsut wanted to be his friend, and it turned into this...well I got him to rollerblade, which was fun, but there was still this sadness to him, like he knew he was destined to fail because of his mutation. I found myself trying to tell him it was ok to be who he is...I mean I even realizd that I was ok with being who I really am. So now I feel like a total hypocrite, that's the word, right? Saying one thing and doing another. I'm telling this kid that he's ok being who he is, that I'm ok being who I am, but I'm hiding who I am to the public." She paued and flailed her hands a little, "I don't know what to do. I find myself wanting to come out of this little mutant closet thing and show the public that it's ok, that it's cool...you know, that we're cool. Why is that so wrong?" Finally some desperation was worming into her voice, not so much a 'save me' tone, but a 'tell me it's ok,' tone. Ororo took in what Alison, Ali, was saying with the same concentration she took on when she spoke with any of the students, even if they were just resident students of some type. She also took in Nick and his mutation, that would be someone to talk to if he was having the problems Ali was saying he was having. Besides, lycanthropy may come in handy on the new team, there was no better way of helping someone feel like they were alright than to help them feel like they were a part of something. A group, a team. It could do something for him, she'd have to look into who he was. She also started to have a greater liking for this young woman the more she spoke, she seemed a little confused all on her own, but she'd tried. she'd tried to help someone and tried to make them understand they were ok just being who they were, even as she'd been fighting what seemed to be an internal battle. That was commendable. "Calm down Ali, let me just say first that I just assumed your name was Alison as I'm sure every other official person in this place will assume. I didn't dig into any files and try to figure out your past, second, photon manipulation is just a fancy way of saying light manipulation. A photon is a unit of retinal illumination, equal to the amount of light that reaches the retina...just a fancy word for what light is, basically." One thing Ororo did know about Alison was that she was in fact Alison, and that she'd dropped out of school, only recently earning her G.E.D. That was fine, book smart did not equal smart to Ororo. At the same time, she wasn't going to treat the girl as if she were stupid, she would have to keep up just like the rest. "As for what you're going through, I have to say it's not an uncommon feeling for a lot of the younger generation. A lot of the kids here come from broken homes, or really well families that just don't understand and see the mutation as an imperfection, as something that will bring dishonor on their family. You, my dear, are not just a child in a family. You belong to the public, you have a responsibility to yourself and to your fans, it is up to you to figure out which is more important though, being true to yourself or to the image you've presented to these people. Are you going to be ok with this image even if it means turning your back on the people you meet here, or is it turning your back on them at all? After all, it's just a job. Then again, are you someone who has one set of friends at a certain time, and another when it's safe to?" Ororo smiled, a genuine yet simple smile, "It's not just about the other people though Alison, it's not about who you think you are, it's about who you want to be." She paused as the elevator came to a stop, the ride had been smooth and with Alison there she had forgotten that she'd been in an elevator, more points to her, "It's about who you want to be, and if you will be able to stand looking at yourself in the mirror." As the doors slid open Ororo exited the elevator, "Come along," it wasn't a dismissal of the conversation, but she did have things to do - as she'd warned Ali. Ali didn't know how to respond to Ororo's words, she'd managed to keep her sights locked on the woman while she'd spoken, but as the other walked out of the elevator...Ali was stuck in the elevator watching the other woman walk away, unaware of the thoughts she'd left Ali with. Would she be able to look at herself in the mirror every day knowing that she was a lie? Did she really want to build a fan base on this lie, keep going without ever saying who she really was? How many actresses did that? She wasn't an actress though, she happened to be a musician and dancer, and for some reason, that made her more honest than an actress might be. Actors in general lived their lives as lies, because it's just acting, it's just a job. This is her life though, did she want to alienate one group for another? Did she want to be booed off stage though? Was it just about money, or was it more about who she really happened to be? Was she really hiding here, or was she trying to find a reason to break out from her own gilded cage? If she'd really wanted to hide she could have gone to some random remote village in some part of the world that didn't allow cameras or something. She had been lying to herself so that she could free herself, hadn't she? Wasn't that the real reason she'd decided to go to New York to hide? Out of all the places she could have gone, she'd gone to New York. Ororo's words to follow broke her from her own thoughts, an absent minded nod given as she moved to follow Ororo. Just as she exited the doors closed behind her as if they had been waiting patiently for her to move all along. "So, photons huh? I manipulate photons...so manipulate? I just make and move them, that's what manipulate means, right?" She decided to ask, though her voice was farther away now. Yes, this mattered to her too, but the thoughts were stuck buzzing in her head now. "What is this meeting thing that you're doing, by the way, I mean...what are we invited to?" As she started to look around she realized that it looked more like a military base of some sort than a place to have a party, or school-type meeting. "Whoa, what is this place?" Ali seemed to turn around as she started to look over one thing and another. There were so many buttons and blinking lights, screens and keyboards. The flat metal surface of one wall didn't get her attention, it was just a wall after all, instead the screens took up most of her concentration. There was the smallest smile on Ororo's face Alison waited in the elevator with her thoughts, at least she was thinking about what she had been told. Ororo was not above letting her personal thoughts on this subject sink into the younger minds, why would she tell them to hide who they were, that it would make them better people? It wasn't what she believed, and though she was meant to be a unbiased party, not everyone could be unbiased at all times. It just wasn't possible and many more therapist than people knew often inflicted their own personal beliefs on other people while saying it was by the book. At least in this particular subject, Ororo felt justified. If it had been anyone else, a human with a crooked nose, or some other physical genetic problem, Ororo would have told them to be who they are because who they are was beautiful and how God had made them. Or, whatever God they believed in anyway. Just that Alison was actually thinking the words over, really looking at herself maybe, made Ororo feel a little better. She continued to walk into the war room, letting her fingers move over a particular keyboard made up of larger blank squares that seemed to light up under her touch. She put in her codes and passwords to log into the system and by the time Alison made her way over, she'd already brought up a new application so she could put in the rules and set up of what she wanted in the danger room. "Yes ma'am, photons." She stated with a bit of amusement as her eyes stayed on the screen for a few seconds and then she looked to Alison as she came closer, "It can evolve into something else, but for now, yes. You manipulate photons, I'm sure it can be far more than just dots or bright lights...maybe even a laser one day. You could concentrate the energy you feel into a singular beam, like Scott Summers." Maybe she could get Scott to help Alison out with lasers. Made sense to her since she herself only knew the theories behind lasers, as where he could shoot them out of his eyes. It wouldn't hurt to see how far Alison could get with her photons. "As for this place, this is the war room." Ororo stated humbly while straitening up and looking over the codes she'd placed in for the danger room. "This s brain of the danger room, it is where what you want to happen in there takes place through intricate codes and samples. That is also what I've asked you all here for today." She finally turned to Alison, "I've invited you here as a potential Jr. X-Men, I want to see what you all have, strengths and weaknesses. You'll all be participating in a danger room exercise today, of course, only f you want. I wouldn't pressure you into something like this." Ororo made sure that Alison understood that before she pointed to an open chair, it looked like an office chair but far more squishy and didn't roll. "Now, we have twenty minutes to wait for the rest of the group. Make yourself comfortable. ---As they waited they would, of course, talk more. |