Perfect Strangers (open)

[Damien Schwartz]

Recreation room, Xavier Institute, Saturday, noon.

Damien types these words up as a header for his next entry, but then saves the file and closes his laptop. It's still very early for him to start a day on Saturday, and nothing happened yet. He snaps his left hand fingers, and the remote for the TV appears in his right hand. He smiles to himself. If anyone was watching, that would have looked like pure showmanship...Not that it would matter...to them or to me. he thinks, turning on the TV, flicking through the channels in empty hopes of maybe finding one in German.

He settles for leaving the TV on the news channel, and looks around the room, then onto the table, where his coffee mug is, steam still rolling off the top of it. He sighs. Once again, he is completely surrounded with unknown people. Well, not exactly. There's Tarot, and that means more than the world to him. But still, he needs to make some more friends. She has her own group of people she hangs out with, right?

But to Damien, everything here is so new, so interesting. He never believed he could find that many mutants in one place. And so many different mutations! His seems to be an inferior one. Well, at least in his own eyes. Yes, great mutations, but no knowledge of the people behind them. he thinks, taking a sip of cup out of the mug. So far, he has miraculously managed to be around when no one else was in the same room as he was, which bugged him, as he wants to meet new people, and especially make new friends.

I guess that's what these people will always be to me- perfect strangers. he thinks, letting out a heavy sigh.

[nightcrawler]

Kurt moved about the busy hallways of the mansion, smiling and nodding politely, with a hint of nervousness in his eyes, to the youngsters he ran into. It was Saturday, which meant no classes and a free day for all the kids, something that sort of left Kurt out in the cold. Sure he had plenty of friends here at the Institute, but the others where taking this time that they didn't have to teach the kids as a chance to tend to some of their own personal matters and Kurt didn't want to be a bother, so he was just out and about. Bella wasn't anywhere to be found for the moment, so that really left him out there by himself, no problem, there was plenty to occupy him here at the manor.

He wore a pair of gold, almost bell bottom pants, and a white button up shirt with a gold vest over top of that. Sure it was very stand outish, but after growing up in a circus, Kurt had developed taste for tacky and gaudy things. He didn't wear any sort of shoes, never did, after all, you trying finding something that covers up such big feet and toes. His tail swished about, to and fro, as if it had a mind and life of its own and in a way it sort of did. Kurt never really thought about how his tail acted, it just did.

Heading toward the rec room to see if he could maybe join in some of the activities going on there. The kids here at the Institute had been nice to him since his arrival and he had grown accustomed to their company and found a bit of kinship he had been longing for. As he rounded the corner and stepped through the doorway, he saw one of the students he had met upon his homecoming, Damien. Of course, what had caught Kurt's eye was the way Damien teleported the remote to his hand without moving himself, a neat ability and one that soared past Kurt's ability to teleport. "Entschuldigen Sie," he said as he took a few steps toward Damien, putting forth on large outstretched hand to catch the boy's attention, "Vould you happen to be a teleporter as vell?," Kurt asked with a smile now, perhaps finding another kindred spirit to share something with.

[Damien Schwartz]

Damien is now once again looking at the open screen of his laptop, indecisive of whether he should write a letter to his parents or not. And once again, without having anything written down, he closes the machine and sets it on the table, right by the dark purple short sleeved shirt, which he has taken off because of the pleasant temperature in the room. He is wearing his usual black jeans, black tank top, and black combat boots. An interesting detail is the thin black scarf wrapped around his neck tightly, contradicting what is implied by the shirt on the table.

As he is addressed in German, his eyes light up slightly, and he looks immediately to the source of the words. It turns out to be the blue man from that one night, the one that goes BAMF. Damien scolds himself for actually thinking something as pathetic as that for a description of a person, but lets it go quickly.

He gives a friendly smile, extending his own hand to shake. "Yes, I am. You're...um...mister Nightcrawler, right?" he replies in perfect German, wanting to make sure that the man knows that they are more alike than what he might have thought. He remembers the nickname from that night, but there is little other detail he knows about him, except for that he speaks German.

This might, after all, be a good day, at least socially. he thinks to himself as he gets up to show respect. He has always been taught good manners, at least until his mutation surfaced.

[nightcrawler]

Kurt finds the language he hears pleasant to his ears and what stranger in a foreign place wouldn't love to here their own language spoken once again. Of course, that thought was quickly brushed aside as Kurt silently reminded himself, that this place wasn't just some strange alien sanctuary, it was home, his home now. Professor Xavier had sent for him to be brought here and that he was and instead of the horrible things which Kurt was so sure awaited him, he found friends, real friends who wished to help to him.

"You may call me Kurt if you vish," he said in a muddled English/German accent, "I'm afraid I'm not quite important to be "mister"," he added with a laugh, his sharp white teeth showing a bit too prominently as he cautiously took Damien's hand and greeted him formally. "If I may ask....how do you teleport something that is not......you?," he asked fumbling for the correct English, trying to learn the language so he could better fit in with those around him, a way to make them a bit more comfortable around him.

[Damien Schwartz]

Damien instantly understands that the man want to perfect his English, so he decides to help out. German is most certainly nice to hear after a while without speaking it, but it won't help in buying groceries in Walmart. The blue skin won't either...that's just stupid, forget you ever said anything like it. he thinks to himself as he instinctively closes his eyes to hide their change from dark green to purple.

After a few seconds, they are back to green, and he opens them, smiling again. He doesn't know how to exactly answer that last question. "Well...I just think about the item and its location, and then I think of the place I want it to be at. Then, I need to make a sudden move, like snapping my fingers, or blinking. And after that, it just happens. Um...sorry if it's confusing, but it's sort of like instinct..." he says, trailing off, thinking whether Kurt understood, or not.

"Um...I'm not sure I said my name earlier...it's Damien." he adds, and then his eyes fix on Kurt's tail, obviously interested in the man's peculiar physical mutation. Will he turn out like that later in life? But he doesn't do the puffs of smoke, so probably not, right? After a while, he realizes that he is staring, rather rudely at that. He looks away quickly, adding "Sorry" rather shyly. Damien has never been all that good in communicating with the people around him, even though he always wanted to make friends.

[nightcrawler]

Kurt let his eyes dart back toward his blue tail which was flicking about in a steady rhythm, the smile on his face broadening as he realized Damien was staring at the unusual appendage. Kurt let his eyes slip back to Damien and chuckled, "Not all mutations are fancy tricks and abilities," he said as his tail continued to flip about, "It doesn't bother you does it?," he asked as his smile softened and he tilted his head to the side awaiting Damien's answer.

Kurt wasn't too worried about Damien's answer, most of the students here were pretty used to seeing strange things, but so far Kurt seemed to take the cake, he and Hank of course. Blue fur and skin seemed to be the theme of those around Kurt, perhaps finally a common link between those with mutations. So far, beside the fact of being a mutant, there was not defining link between mutants, except maybe for those of mutant families, those such as Kurt's, but that was and is a story for another time.....maybe.

[Damien Schwartz]

At Mr. Night...Kurt's comment, Damien seems to become even more shy, if that is possible. "No, no, it's just...I think it's really cool..." he says in response, struggling not to stare at it. "I find most mutations fascinating, really." he adds after a few moments, and then sits back onto the couch, part of his mind thinking of the places Kurt has been to, which are still in there, with his own memories. He can see some of the places that other students were talking about, but he knows better than to go off teleporting to some. One of the facts he has always had to remember about his harvesting is that he will see the place as it was at the time the memory was made, and that this same place could just as easily be a ruin, or redecorated, or who knows what.

The rest of his train of thought, however, is trying to figure out what to say or ask next, and is critically failing at the attempt. After a while, however, a few things manage to miraculously click into their right place in his mind, and he realizes that he has one very big thing in common with this man, and that he is not making use of it. He chuckles a bit, partly because of his own stupidity, and partly because of the mutation they have in common.

"So...um...how do you teleport? I mean, do you just think of the place you want to be, or something else?" he asks, hoping that Kurt will sit down soon. The fact that he's standing doesn't make Damien nervous, but sort of uncomfortable, as if he was forbidding the man from sitting, which is an unreasonable statement at best.

[nightcrawler]

Kurt smiled at Damien, figuring the boy would ask that question, after all, Kurt had asked him so why not return the favor. Hunkering down a bit, Kurt gave Damien a wink and *BAMF* he was gone in a cloud of blackish purple smoke, only to reappear in the same manner crouching on the arm of the couch behind Damien. His large hands rested between his evenly spaced apart feet and his tail rested across his shoulder, moving ever so slightly. "Vell, its hard to describe. I open a door to another dimension of sorts you could say and then from there, I open it again to the place I vant to be at," he said giving a sigh, trying not to confuse Damien, "I can teleport anywhere, but its safer if its somewhere where I can see directly, as teleporting blindly could prove to be fatal. Valls and vatnot," he said with a smile.

"Now, my turn," he said giving Damien another wink, "Vat else can you do, or is teleporting your only ability?," he asked tilting his head once again, studying Damien a bit more. Kurt was a curious creature by nature and so Damien just might have found himself engaged in a game of twenty questions.

[Damien Schwartz]

Damien sat and listened, his eyes gleaming with curiosity, interest, and awe. He understood perfectly what Kurt had said, and that was clearly visible on his face. He wants to ask more about this dimension, but from what Kurt said, it seems to him that he didn't really go off exploring through it, which might be a good thing, considering the uncertainty of anything out of this world.

As Kurt asks him the question, Damien pauses for a while, feeling bad for not telling him earlier, or at least for not avoiding physical contact until he found out. This way, suddenly, feels like he has stolen something, although Kurt didn't loose any of his own memories. "Well...um...whenever I have direct physical contact with someone, all of the places they have been to are copied into my mind, as if I myself was there. However, they are merely what the person saw at the time, and the place might as well be ruin or something by the time I acquire the memory. It doesn't allow me to absorb any of the emotional part of memories. Also, if the contact is longer, I absorb the academical knowledge they have, which basically means that I'm as intelligent and informed as that person, plus my own." he explains, sounding confusing to himself, but who knows, maybe Kurt will be able to understand.

After a few seconds, he chuckles and looks back at this strange, yet familiar, person. "My turn then...What about you? Same question."

[nightcrawler]

Kurt grew a bit concerned as he learned more about Damien's ability, but tried not to let his concern show across his face. He forced a smile and did his best to focus on what the young man was telling him, trying to keep track and keep up. Kurt wasn't a very secretive person, but like all others, he had a few skeletons he wished to keep buried in the back of the old proverbial closet. The ordeal with his foster brother and how he had accidentally killed him, plus the way he had been used and abused at the hands of William Stryker not too long back. The real concern of the moment however, was the new revelation he had recently uncovered while away on his journey to find himself and his mysterious past before the circus. The secrets he had found were still burning his mind and confusing him more than ever, especially the one concerning "her"

The concern over "her" lessened the more Damien spoke and conversed with Kurt. If Damien had gleamed anything of that woman or any of the other things of a more darker nature from his brief contact with the blue one, then Damien's facial expressions nor his tone and pitch of voice showed it. Perhaps he had not had a long enough connection with Kurt or perhaps Kurt's own feelings on those matters helped shield them from Damien's involuntary intrusion into his mind. Kurt wasn't upset with Damien, after all, he couldn't control that part of his ability, not too different from that of Rogue and her power.

"Vell, you could say I have other ability as vell, aside from the obvious physical ones," he said as he waved his tail back and forth with a smile, "I can see in the dark and I'm not really sure how, but for some reason I blend into shadows very vell" he said as he scratched his head with his tail, "Perhaps it is best to just show?," he asked as he gave Damien a questioning look before disappearing with a *BAMF* and in a cloud of purple black smoke before reappearing again, the same way in a corner of the room, clinging to the wall. He gave Damien a wink and then flipped off the smooth surface, landing in a crouched position, "I also am very athletic and can climb almost any surface," he said with a hint of pride as he stood back up, giving Damien a slight bow, a habit left over from his circus days.

[Damien Schwartz]

Damien sees the concern on Kurt's face. Damn it! I knew this would happen. I always have to go off blurting out that I steal people's memories, even if it's not true. "Look, I'm sorry if I worried you, but I can't possibly see any of your memories, except those of places. I just see the place you've been to, not the people who were there, or the events that happened, or the emotions you've felt. It's purely geographical. And in case of the longer contact, I copy down your knowledge, not your memories and emotions. For instance, what you've learned in school, or read in Encyclopedias and remembered. It's weird, I know, but I never absorbed any of the actual memories." he says, his tone of voice having tones and tons of the word "sorry" engraved in it.

Then, he decides to shut up, and his eyes keenly follow Kurt's moves. "Wow, that's so cool! I guess we actually have quite different mutation, just similar at one point. I don't know if I enter another dimension. It all happens very fast. But I do need some sort of quick move to start the whole thing. I've trained hard, and now I can use my eyes, simply blinking. But, as you saw, I can move other objects, even people." he says, and just for the sake of it, teleports the remote on a chair nearby, and then back, in both cases "blinking at it."

After a few seconds, he realizes that he is talking way too fast to be called just casual. "Um...sorry for blabbering like that." he says at a normal speed. I bet I sounded like a hyperactive toddler. he thinks, scolding himself.

[nightcrawler]

Kurt stood a bit straighter, raising his head to better see Damien's face once again, his shoulders slumping just a bit, the usual stance for the fuzzy blue elf. Nightcrawler was a bit timid and his stature as well as his stance around others showed this, but thanks to Bella, his confidence had increased drastically over the last few weeks and he was actually taking on the role of school councilor quite well. He was feeling more relaxed and at home around the students and other faculty members, especially that of Bella. Kurt and Bella had developed quite an interesting and much talked about relationship as of late, but he wasn't the sort of mutant to kiss and tell, so rumors soared through the Institute like wildfire.

Damien's little show of ability caused a new question to pop into Kurt's mind. With his teleportaion, he tended to leave others who weren't used to such things in a slight disoriented state, sometimes even rendering them unconscious and if pushed hard enough with multiple teleportations at once, he could kill them. Kurt himself used to suffer these side effects, but his body had developed a resistance to such things years and years ago. "Vhen you teleport others.....do you leave them feeling......odd?," he asked, struggling for the right words yet again as he curiously watched the remote Damien had just teleported back to its previous location.

[Damien Schwartz]

>>"Vhen you teleport others.....do you leave them feeling......odd?"

Damien pauses for a second to think about the question given. It's a hard one indeed, since he hasn't been teleporting others that much, and those whom he did never said anything specific. "Well...um...I don't know... I guess it leaves them disoriented. Some people told me they got headaches, but nothing else, really..." he replies, probing his mind to see if there has been anything else.

"Oh, wait...When I first started using my gift I felt dizzy after each time. Every time I changed my surrounds it was strange. It was as if my mind didn't know how to feel for a few seconds until my senses made sure where I was. The first time was..." he cuts off in mid-sentence, his right hand automatically gripping the thing black scarf around his neck and tightening it. A weird gesture at best. "It was really bad." he finishes with a short smile. "Why do you ask?"

[nightcrawler]

Kurt seemed satisfied by Damien's answer, suspecting as much anyway. Teleporting was as strange thing, even by mutant standards, after all, the body just wasn't meant to be torn apart and then reassembled somewhere else, that was just odd. Kurt had a close affiliation with odd, I mean just look at him, even the others here at the Institute looked at him weird...well...almost all.

"Something bothers you?," he asked Damien as he noticed the boy seemed to tense up a bit as he answered the question and then the way he quickly turned one back on Kurt, almost as if he suspected that the blue elf was poking and prodding a bit too much. A simple question, or so Kurt thought, and not one to provoke such a paranoid result, but then again, being persecuted day in and day out sort of left one lacking in the whole trust and friends department. "If I have troubled you vith my question, then I apologize," he said as he lowered his eyes for a minute and looked off to the side in that nervous sort of way that he had.

[Damien Schwartz]

"Oh...no, it's not that, really... It's just that...well, my first time teleporting left a big mark on me...both physically and mentally..." Damien replied hurriedly, hating to have caused an awkward situation such as this.

Not a big deal, really, but again, there's his shyness. He seems so similar to me...it's almost scary.

"I've met some healing mutants earlier, but they said that they either weren't powerful enough, or that the...mark...was too old. I didn't really want to remove it anyway...it's a reminder of how dangerous my power can really be...especially since I can teleport other people by themselves..." and with that, he starts slowly, and very insecurely unwrapping the scarf.

It takes a while, but he finally gets it down enough for the scars to be visible. They were of various sizes and located all around his neck. Some were big, quite disturbing, others small, almost mere scratches, but all together they portrayed a mosaic that sends a clear message of a very painful and terrifying experience. "I guess it's easier to just show you..." and then the scarf is put quickly back into place.