Practice makes...crispy?

[Laurie Collins]

[[Either a one shot or an open thread whatever strikes your fancy. I just like to document a character's power growth however unecessary a whole post about it might be. Which I think translates to 'I was bored' haha]]

“So, I have to open you. Opening you is step one, and it will happen, it will, really.”

The door remains impassive in the face of Laurie mission statement, solid and brown and generally door-ish. She wonders briefly what she would have done if she had gotten a reaction and giggles nervously to herself. Though really at this point I think even the door might be tempted to tell me to just do it or go back downstairs already. I’ve only been standing here for what, half an hour? I shouldn’t be this scared, what’s so scary out there anyway?

BOOM the attic practically shakes as thunder crashes and lightning forks down in a jagged thrust towards the earth almost in unison with the thunder, as if in answer to Laurie’s silent question.

“That,” she informs the sky through a small window, “was rhetorical.”

But really it’s now or never, no one comes up to this part of the attic much but Miss. Munroe’s rooms are somewhere on this level and curfew is creeping up fast. She could go back downstairs and put the pillow over her head or play her music loudly with drawn curtains like she usually does when there’s a storm, she could ask to schedule a danger room session… But if I’m in the Danger Room I’ll know in the back of my mind that everything’s under control so the fear won’t be as real, and they’ll wonder, won’t they, why I’m asking for a session when I usually go out of my way to avoid even thinking about that place. No, this is something I have to do on my own. She decides, trying to push out of her mind the idea that maybe this, like so many other things in her life, has something to do with atonement, for what she is, for what she comes from, and if her fears are confirmed for the riot in Times Square and everything else that’s been happening since the new masked leader of the Brotherhood has taken over. But that’s only fear, it’s only natural I’d expect the worst, and I can’t ask mom for his name to confirm or deny it, I can’t even suggest to her that he’s within a thousand miles. She shouldn’t have to be scared anymore.

It’s that thought that finally drives her out through the door, onto the narrow, rail-less balcony, more of a ledge really, perhaps used for a launching pad at some point by one of the past winged residents of the Institute. Out here the storm, one of the worst of the summer, is almost enough to sweep her right off the edge and she spends a moment flattened against the wall with her eyes squeezed shut, shaking and getting soaked before she can make herself concentrate on what she’s come out here to do.

She’s been getting better and better at controlling her pheromones in the area of not emitting when she doesn’t want to. Once that would have been enough, but in for a penny in for a dollar, and besides with all this worry about…him… and the breakouts, well it’s seeming like a good idea to control as much of her mutation as she can. What’s occurred to her recently is that when she tries to emit a certain kind of pheromone she starts by trying to feel what she wants to emit, assuming pheromones have to come from what she’s actually feeling, but really that doesn’t make sense or how could what was done to her mother have happened? He would have had to make himself genuinely feel obedient and all that which didn’t sound really maintainable or enjoyable over a multi-year period, and if he had been behind the riot then he couldn’t have been wildly angry and still control things the way he had. So it followed that he could release pheromones contrary to what he was actually feeling, and, theoretically, so could she.

And so she’s out here in a storm when she’s terrified of storms, soaked and shaking and undoubtedly scared and trying her hardest to project calm when there’s no way she can actually feel calm. Think about how it feels, slow heartbeats, deep breaths, relaxed muscles, loose and easy and fluid… She’s emitting something, she can feel that, but she has no idea what and it’s just now occurring to her that she has no way to tell if she’s done it or not and feeling tremendously stupid when suddenly, from a chink in the brick of the wall behind her a mouse emerges looking completely unconcerned by the human, noise, and flashes of bright light. For a moment shock drives everything else from her mind and the mouse squeals in sudden terror, sending her mentally scrambling to recreate the calm she’d transmitted, managing it just in time to hold the mouse for a second before nudging it back inside. I actually did it! She’s briefly exulted by triumph, but then there’s a particularly close flash of lightning and a tree branch falls to the ground not a foot away sending her screeching and reeling back through the door to collapse laughing and shaking in a somewhat maniacal, completely soggy looking pile of teenage mutant.

[Warren Worthington III]

(( figured what the heck… Laurie and Warren haven’t really had a chance to chat. And yay, IC power-growth!))

When Warren first arrived at the Institute and learned about Storm’s abilities, he was surprised that the place ever suffered unpleasant weather. He explained it to himself initially as her wanting to avoid calling more attention to this particular neighborhood in Westchester than entirely necessary. It wasn’t until months later that he realized that she enjoys this sort of weather.

At first he’d thought it was some weird side-effect of her powers, where stormy weather acts on her system like some sort of amphetamine, but eventually she’d talked him into going flying with her. That’s when he got it: it’s just so much fun! Of course, being able to sense the winds is a big part of it… just enough warning to prepare, to dodge the worst of the downdrafts, but not quite enough to take them for granted. It’s a little bit like those demolition-derby attractions at theme parks, where you know you’re not really going to get hurt but there’s still that air of unpredictability – except it’s better, because it’s all real.

Of course, there’s only so much of that sort of thing Warren can tolerate at one time, which is why he’s currently perched on the roof, very much appreciating how his telekinetic aura keeps the worst of the wind and rain away from his skin, even in a downpour like this one.

He’s vaguely aware of a female voice talking to itself in the attic below him. He recognizes the Collins girl’s voice, but over the lightning and the rain even his enhanced hearing isn’t enough to make out what she’s saying, especially since he’s not really paying attention… which is all to the good as far as Warren is concerned; eavesdropping on the rest of the Institute gets pretty old after a while.

She does get his attention when she runs out onto the railing, though. For a second he thinks perhaps she’s another fan of stormy weather, but the pounding of her heart and the way she’s panting for breath and shaking makes that fairly unlikely. What’s she doing out here? he wonders idly.

A few minutes later, a bolt of lightning nearby sends her screeching back inside, and he can hear her laughing – more from fear and excitement than humor, he suspects. Curiosity gets the better of him, then, and he drops lightly onto the railing behind her. Another bolt of lightning flashes behind him, throwing his winged shadow against the far attic wall just as the associated thunderclap seems to shake the foundations of the house.

Warren winces briefly at the unintended, and utterly hokey, B-movie horror special effect as he steps into the attic and closes the doors behind him. “Evening, Miss Collins… enjoying the weather?”

[Laurie Collins]

The shakes are starting to work their way out of her system and she’s uncurled herself to a seated position. That wasn’t so bad…and it worked! She’s smiling again and starting to think about getting back down to her dorm room and drying off-

…and then the giant shadow of a winged man flashes before on the wall just as the practically shakes in a roar of thunder.

“Gah!” Laurie screams and reacts to the perceived threat by…slipping and flopping onto her back, pulling her legs up towards her, and covering her hands with her eyes like a hedgehog who has picked up the child’s if-I-can’t-see-you-you-can’t-see-me belief. She does manage to hold back her pheromones though and even amidst her panic is a little proud, grabbing control of them when she’s startled is getting to be instinctive.

“Evening, Miss Collins… enjoying the weather?”

When the voice sounds in the silence after the thunder-crack she’s so relieved that it isn’t an escaped mutant criminal or some more classically inspired and much less benign winged, angel-thing that her shyness filters disappear for the moment-possibly confirming her mother’s assertion that she’s usually only herself when someone startles her into it- and she mutters,

“No, practicing my combat tactics.” in a wryly self-depreciating voice, before remembering who she’s talking to, gasping in horror at her disrespect, and scrambling to her feet.

“Sorry Mr. Worthington I was just...um...I...sorry.” she stammers out, giving him the please-don’t-disembowel-me-and-gnaw-on-my-organs look she gets when he starts looking for volunteers for an opinion question in civics.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " No, practicing my combat tactics."

In some ways, it’s unfortunate that the attic is too dark for Laurie to truly appreciate the puzzled expression on Warren’s face at that, though enough light diffuses from the grounds to get across the general idea. Combat tactics? Curling up into a ball on the floor? Some kind of meditative power-control thing, maybe… though mostly she seemed panicked. I wonder – oh. She was joking. Right. The puzzled expression becomes a chagrined one; he’s so unused to Collins joking that he doesn’t even recognize when she’s doing it.

Come to that, that was more words in unbroken sequence than I usually get out of her in class… well, in English, anyway. Sadly, the brief moment of clarity is gone almost immediately, replaced by her usual air of barely controlled terror.

> " Sorry Mr. Worthington I was just...um...I...sorry."

Warren is accustomed to that intimidated reaction outside the Institute -- usually triggered by the wings, sometimes by his celebrity status – but it took him by surprise when he started getting it from the other residents just because he was a teacher now. It makes him feel old, mostly. On the other hand, when he first arrived at the Institute, he thought of Ororo as old… and he’s almost as much older than Laurie as Ororo is older than him, which is a somewhat sobering thought.

Of course, it’s not comparable even on those terms: Warren has always been accustomed to thinking of teachers as people hired for a job, whatever their age, where students with more traditional educations are used to treating them as authority figures. It’s no surprise, but it’s strange being on the other side of that.

"Nothing to apologize for," he replies matter-of-factly, pointing to his own wet clothes and hair. "I’m hardly in a position to chastise you for being out in the rain, am I? But I am curious about what you’re doing up here, seeing as how you don’t seem to be enjoying it. Is there some kind of problem?"

(( OOC: And hey, just cleared the 400 mark! yay Warren! ))

[Laurie Collins]

"Nothing to apologize for, I’m hardly in a position to chastise you for being out in the rain, am I? "

Laurie looks immensely relieved at not being…well she doesn’t quite know what the punishment would be for standing in the rain would be. Standing in the sauna maybe? She almost giggles at that while suddenly reflecting that maybe one of the reasons she’s so scared to get into trouble is that she never has before and so imagines the worst.

"But I am curious about what you’re doing up here, seeing as how you don’t seem to be enjoying it. Is there some kind of problem?"

Is there some kind of problem? Well, that’s the question isn’t it? Laurie muses, but shakes her head quickly in response, then, mentally hearing her mother informing her that a head-jerk is not an acceptable response in a formal situation (and since Warren’s a teacher this is a formal situation) pipes up with,

“Well, no, not as such I just…” she feels ridiculous now and sort of shuffles around in place for a moment, “I wanted to see if I could emit pheromones contrary to what I was feeling at the time instead of trying to change my mood and then just keep emitting along with it and I’m scared of thunderstorms and sort of scared of heights so that was…scary…but I do think I managed to pull off calm since the mouse didn’t seem too upset.” she rushes out all in one breath and then takes several moments to blink and gather herself again. Truth be told she’s a little more intimidated by Warren than most of her other teachers, he’s all charismatic, poised, celebrity, with wings to boot, strolling around the classroom and urging them to have all these opinions and speak up and all that. Speaking up is not Laurie’s thing and she has no idea what her opinions on politics, especially mutant politics are, but she’d sort of reluctantly supported the idea of registration at the time and she’d taken the cure which the spokesperson for mutant-kind probably wouldn’t condone and…so therein lay the fear. But at the same time he actually does seem like a nice person and she’s still all jumpy and uncontained and weird and soggy and so she elaborates a little more, “I just felt like I should be practicing." she finishes lamely and shrugs.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Well, no, not as such I just… I wanted to see if I could emit pheromones contrary to what I was feeling at the time [..] I do think I managed to pull off calm since the mouse didn’t seem too upset. "

To his own astonishment, Warren was mostly following that until the end. "Mouse?" he echoes, puzzled, then cocks his head to one side and listens, then nods. "Ah. Mouse. I see."

> " I just felt like I should be practicing. "

"Sensible. You’ve already made a lot of progress with controlling your abilities in terms of not emoting when you don’t want to; this seems like a logical next step." He pauses a moment before continuing, not sure if he’ll end up making her more anxious; finally he decides to hedge his bets by re-establishing his air-trapping telekinetic aura, giving him a few minutes of self-contained air supply.

"You do realize that providing guidance and assistance with power control is a large part of the faculty’s job here, right? That’s why Ororo and Josh teach a Power Use class in the first place." He shrugs. "Not that there’s anything wrong with working on your own, as well – in fact, I’d encourage it. But don’t feel like you have to go it alone."

[Laurie Collins]

"Mouse? Ah. Mouse. I see."

Laurie cracks a smile both because of his unphased reaction to her ramblings where most people just give up and decide the little blonde is off her rocker and because with a more dismissive tone and a few curses that was pretty much the extent of her few interactions with another Institute resident.

“John seems to think my name is Mouse.” she mutters, mostly to herself and rather apropos of nothing and guiltily remembers the copy of American Gods she’s still too afraid to give back to him.

"Sensible. You’ve already made a lot of progress with controlling your abilities in terms of not emoting when you don’t want to; this seems like a logical next step."

Well, that’s certainly mild enough and for a moment she thinks maybe he’ll just leave it at that and she won’t have to squirm any more. Not that he’s ever really harsh or mean or anything like that, but still, the aforementioned discomfort in his presence.

"You do realize that providing guidance and assistance with power control is a large part of the faculty’s job here, right? That’s why Ororo and Josh teach a Power Use class in the first place. Not that there’s anything wrong with working on your own, as well – in fact, I’d encourage it. But don’t feel like you have to go it alone."

“Yes, sir.” she says quietly, nodding slowly and obviously taking this as a bit of a rebuke despite his intentions. That’s about all she wants to say about that, her reasons for practicing so diligently are old fears that she’s only aired to Matthew so far and he’d promised not to tell. But still there’s something bothering her, something maybe related to why she’s out here tonight and so she takes a deep breath, looks down at her shoes, and plows forward.

“Um, but if I can ask and kind of, well, definitely non-sequiter here did you, the staff that is, ever find out what was going on at the riot in Times Square? Why everyone got so angry so fast?” she pauses to collect her nerves a little before adding, “I just…I mean for a little while some people were saying they thought I had something to do with it since wind made it go away and all but I guess there’s another explanation since I’m not, you know, expelled or…whatever we do to people who incite mass hysteria and violence… and I really don’t think it was me, I promise, so I just wondered, I mean if I’m allowed to ask…what was it?” She finishes and looks up again, unable to hide her hope that he’ll have some explanation other than pheromones, that he’ll say they’ve taken care of it and she can never think about any of this again.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " John seems to think my name is Mouse. "

You should see what he calls me when he thinks I can’t hear him, Warren thinks, but doesn’t say out loud – the last thing Collins needs is for him to suggest that Allerdyce’s rudeness is acceptable, after all. Nor does he say his next thought, that the guy would probably sing a different tune if she panicked him, just once, just a little… I’m sure that encouraging students to assault each other with their powers is on some list somewhere of things I shouldn’t do.

In fact, before he can decide on a response that doesn’t violate the Ethical Mutant Teachers Handbook, she’s gone on.

> " did you, the staff that is, ever find out what was going on at the riot in Times Square [..] "

Warren shakes his head. "No, we never did, actually. Something was messing with their emotions, that much seems clear… and it was airborne, like your pheromones are. But beyond that, I don’t know. You don’t happen to have a twin brother with the same powers or something, do you?"

[Laurie Collins]

"No, we never did, actually. Something was messing with their emotions, that much seems clear… and it was airborne, like your pheromones are. But beyond that, I don’t know. You don’t happen to have a twin brother with the same powers or something, do you?"

Laurie tries to laugh that off but chokes on her attempt and coughs for a couple of minutes before running a shaky hand through her wet hair, or attempts it anyway, but her hair is soaked and tangled and her fingers get caught so there’s a little comedic sequence of extrication before she answers.

“Uhh, yeah, you caught me. I have a crazy twin brother that I’ve been hiding up here. I snuck up to feed him. I’m thinking about having him start cross dressing and going downstairs, move the situation from Victorian Gothic to Twelfth Night you know?” She natters out nervously and maybe for the first time in her life is really grateful that everyone thinks she’s a complete spaz because maybe Mr. Worthington will just take that moment as Collins-as-usual instead of a sign that he’s come pretty close to the truth. “Well he’s probably gone now anyway…uhm he being…whoever it was… because there haven’t been any more riots or anything right? Just a weird one time thing.” she adds, because as long as she can convince herself that it might not be him she doesn’t have to tell any of them about any of it.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Uhh, yeah, you caught me. I have a crazy twin brother that I’ve been hiding up here."

Warren doesn’t miss Laurie’s nervous reaction to the “twin brother” thing, but it’s difficult for him to distinguish topical nervousness from free-floating anxiety, and eventually he decides to let the topic drop. Instead he nods seriously and says "Ah, I see. That explains the mouse, then," completely deadpan.

> " Well he’s probably gone now anyway…uhm he being…whoever it was… because there haven’t been any more riots or anything right? Just a weird one time thing. "

Warren shrugs, skeptically. "Maybe. Or maybe we scared him, or her, into hiding for the moment… or maybe he, or she, was just using the riot as a test, and is now moving on to the real plan, whatever that is." He sighs and turns to the attic stairs, no longer all that interested in flying in the rain. "Well, maybe we’ll be lucky and it’ll just be one-time thing, like you say. Too many secretive unknown players out there already; last thing we need is another one."