Flight

[Rogue]

_{(Title sucks, I know, but I spent a good fifteen minutes or so staring at this, trying to come up with something to call it..Didn't work. Heh. >.>;;; )}

There were only a few powers that Rogue ever absorbed that she was loath to give up. Only two or so, that she could recall missing when they wore off. Now there was a third added to the list – flight.

It was amazing. She didn't even have to do more than think, and she was airborne. It didn't involve anything complex whatsoever, and the freedom from it was just...unreal.

But it’s different, with these powers. This…it’s not going away. Template’s not going away – or, at least, she hasn’t yet, and it’s been long enough for her to have at least faded to the normal ghostly state the rest of the psykes stayed in.

She’s not sure what time it is, but it’s late. She’s been out here since just after dinner, and it’s definitely dark out now – has been for some time. She’s kept high enough that she won’t be seen if she passes people overhead, and stays pretty clear of the more well-lit side of town.

It’s nice, though. Being able to get away whenever she wants. It’s peaceful. And lately, since the mission that gave her these powers, she and the psykes had reached a tentative understanding – they didn’t really want to bother her, they just wanted attention. That was all it was, for the most part – though some of the more temperamental ones still seemed to enjoy agitating her. Still, up here, it was just…relaxing.

But it’s tiring, at the same time. Especially flying for hours. There’s a park below, and Rogue lets herself drop slowly, carefully, eyeing the dark ground below for people. She doesn’t see anyone – but, then, it’s dark. Hopefully that means no one will see her, either, if they are there.

She lands quietly on the ground. There’s a bench not far away, and she walks over to it, and takes a seat, leaning back and just enjoying the peace, enjoying how quiet it is.

Wait…are those footsteps? Sounds like it...

She’s edgy, despite the fact that she’s learned the hard way that, at least until the flight powers wore off, and the strength wore off, she’s invulnerable. How, she wasn’t sure, but nothing hurt her – no random crazy in the park could do anything to her. So she doesn’t move, minds her own business, staring at closed eyelids, and presuming they’ll pass her by, ignore the girl sitting there.

[Warren Worthington III]

Most people, Warren has noticed over the last few months, simply don’t look up very much. Sure, they’ll look up at the moon from time to time, or the stars if it’s a cloudless night, or look around if they hear an airplane or something, but in general they live in two dimensions.

Warren doesn’t. Even before he fully accepted his wings, he’d never been comfortable with the idea of being squashed onto a flat surface. Part of that comes from his windsense, he thinks, the fact that he’s always vaguely aware of what’s going on around him in all directions. But since he’s started allowing himself to fly, it’s become far more true… he lives, thinks, moves, perceives the world in three dimensions. To restrict himself to the surface of the planet is as alien as walking back and forth in a straight line through a city would be.

Of course, it also helps that Josh keeps trying to surprise him in the air. Not that he necessarily avoids being “surprised”, of course, but he’s found that being surprised is more fun when he has a moment to prepare for it.

All of which may help to explain why he notices the figure flying around the city when nobody else seems to. It’s too far away for him to make out details, even with his eyesight, especially once the sun sets. And it doesn’t seem to be hostile or anything, so he doesn’t make an issue of it. After the tenth or fifteenth time he spots it, though, curiosity grows on him.

So when it starts to lose altitude, heading for the park, he decides to join it. He can sense its landing when he gets close enough, though he can’t actually see it in the dark, through the trees, until he actually walks into the clearing.

At first he’s surprised to spot Rogue there. Odd coincidence, that they should both arrive at wherever the unidentified flier landed. Then he realizes he’s being stupid; clearly she’s who he’s been following. Which means she’s picked up flight from someone recently… and his throat goes dry as he realizes there aren’t very many wingless fliers at the Institute to begin with.

"So… who’d you leave grounded?" He tries to keep his voice casual… even if it is Josh, he’s sure it was both an accident and temporary. Well, mostly sure, anyway.

[Rogue]

"So… who’d you leave grounded?"

She recognizes the voice after a moment of puzzling over who it could be, and how they'd know to say something so fitting, and turns her head to reguard Warren for a moment. There was something in his tone, something...underneath the casualness of his words, but she decides to ignore it, as puzzling it out is simply not going to work.

"Some gal.... Took 'er out on th'mission we wen' on th'other day." she responds, tossing a wry half-smile his way.

"Wha'cha doin' all th'way out here?" she adds, almost as an afterthought. While it's more common for her to wander about aimlessly, and for people to brush it off as brooding, he doesn't really seem the type for that, really.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Some gal.... Took 'er out on th'mission we wen' on th'other day. "

Warren nods, relieved, then looks puzzled. Josh had described the Capitol Building mission (he was so excited about his promotion!) but Warren hadn’t realized Rogue was capable of retaining powers for this long… he’d thought it was a matter of minutes, not hours or days. " You’ve been working on extending your power-duration, then? Makes sense."

> " Wha'cha doin' all th'way out here? "

"Well, I suppose you could say I was following you. More precisely, I was following an unidentified flying… um, object," he grins sheepishly, "…and it turned out to be you. Enjoying it?"

[Rogue]

"You’ve been working on extending your power-duration, then? Makes sense."

She glances over, and smiles. "Uh, not really acctually. Jus'...she jus' ain' fadin' like th'rest d', f'some reason." she responds, "Still got all 'er powers after this long...I can' help but think tha's a bad sign."

Though maybe it's a good sign? Maybe her powers are advancing somehow? Though she can't see how it'd be a good thing for her to perminently put people out like Template seems to be. Especally without control. That could be bad - really bad. She absently reajusts the gloves on her hands, almost like reassuring herself she's wearing them.

"Well, I suppose you could say I was following you. More precisely, I was following an unidentified flying… um, object…and it turned out to be you. Enjoying it?"[/color]

"Well, y'd make a good stalk'r - didn' even notice ya." She grins, then nods slghtly, grin turning into a slightly wistful smile as she glances up a little. It's cheesy, but automatic, and hopefully it won't look like she's totally odd. "An' yeah, I really love it. It soun's bad, but I almos' hope I don' ev'r lose these powers."

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Still got all 'er powers after this long...I can' help but think tha's a bad sign. "

Warren considers that for a while. He’s never entirely understood how Rogue’s powers work, aside from the obvious mechanics of them, but he knows there’s a psychological as well as a mutant-power element to them, and that’s a little disturbing. Permanently taking someone else’s power is one thing; that could be awfully useful. But permanently taking on their other attributes… well, that would get fairly unpleasant fairly quickly, he suspects.

> " Well, y'd make a good stalk'r - didn' even notice ya. "

He returns the grin, nodding. "Not being noticed while I’m flying is a habit I’ve picked up over time… goes along with noticing other things in the air. " He grows more serious at her wistfulness. "Yeah… I do know what you mean. It’s an amazing experience, flying under your own power. There’s nothing quite like it. Though I suppose you have a lot of experience with different powers, right? Do you have favorites?"

[Bobby Drake]

(( OOC: I think this thread is dead... archive? ))