calmbeforethe | 00 . appointments

00 . appointments

If you would like to have your character(s) interact with Ororo without having to post a separate entry or log, feel free to comment here! This entry can be used for any threads that might not warrant the need for an entirely new journal post.

Action, voice, log or written threads all welcome! Please include what kind of thread it is in the subject header, as well as some kind of indication of date or time like so:

[Action, July 4th]
[Voice, before Storm leaves for the draft]
[Written, October 31st]

Thanks!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There is no indication in the house that anything might be amiss. It's quiet. Almost no one is home.

Mia's there though, in the living room, with her closed book in her lap and one hand fisted tight against her chest. How could that be true? Why couldn't they have done something?]

[The house has been so empty and quiet lately. It wasn't anything new, with everyone coming and going and trying to deal with what had happened earlier that month in their own ways. Ororo's starting to realize that perhaps that was not the best way to go about things.

She decides to check on Mia today. She knew her the shortest out of all the people in House 16, yet it was strangely easiest to talk to her. Perhaps it was because of their similarities in temperament.

In any case, she's peering into the living room and about to call her attention when she notes the tension in Mia's shoulders. She switches tactics immediately, concerned. ]

Mia? Sweetheart, are you alright?

[All Ororo gets for her trouble is a half-turn, and a look from pained eyes.]

They're gone.

[ She comes over to where Mia sits, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. ]

Who's gone?

Everyone in Vaskoth. [She has to choke it past a fast-closing throat.] Their enclosure was destroyed.

[Other people might question why she should care so much, after all the horrible things that happened there. The nightmares she still has, from time to time.]

[ Ororo blinks, not quite catching on immediately. Vaskoth was a place she associated with terrible things. Things she would like to forget, but knows better than to. ]

Destroyed? How - why? [ She takes the seat next to Mia, careful to stay close. ] Where did you hear about this?

[Instead of answering, she opens her journal again to the page where her conversation with the anonymous writer sits. More enclosures than Luceti were attacked; some did not survive. The only named one of that sort is Vaskoth.

Mia hated it there. The feelings she still has are mostly negative ones. But she and many others worked hard and long and into desperation to save them.

Now they're dead, or worse.

As soon as Ororo has the book in her hands and Mia's are free, she buries her face in them.]

[ Ororo is quiet herself for several moments, reading through the conversation quickly. Once, and then again as if to confirm it. Her own hands clench into fists, but when she lifts her gaze back up to Mia, they open up so she can draw the girl to her side. ]

Oh, Mia... We could not have known.

[It isn't like her to be so emotional, at least not where it could upset other people too. She can't even get angry; it would do no good for anyone, and the source of the attack is already dead.

The worst part, the part that hurts more than knowing that so many still-rebuilding lives are over now, is that there really isn't anything they could have done. Luceti fell under the enchantment of that other life just as easily. Mia wonders - the thought that finally breaks free as a quiet sob - if the people in Vaskoth believed they were somewhere else before it ended.]

[ For her part, Ororo isn't quite sure how to take the news. How close had they come to such a fate? What had become of all those people that had lived there, after falling into the hands of their enemies? She shudders to think of what could have happened to them, and that it had nearly happened to people they knew and loved.

Ororo does not cry. It wasn't her way. But as Mia lets herself sob for the people of Vaskoth, Ororo gathers her into a close embrace and holds onto the girl a bit tighter than necessary. It was as much for her own benefit as it was for Mia. ]

[Mia hates this. Her problems and cares shouldn't be so on display for people she still feels she needs to take care of, people who are her responsibility. What good is she to them if her worries begin to stand in front of her duties?

She just can't stop seeing the faces of desperate, dying people. Strangers, friends, even enemies. As a healer she faces death always, but it is down a long hallway full of the chance to elude that fate, and she defends only one or two people at a time; for that same reason, she knows that she cannot always win against it, and that eventually everyone goes down that corridor.

Not all at once. Not like this, senseless and deceptive and for no reason at all, after such a hard fight to win back some kind of normalcy. They were the only people she knew that had found some measure of peace in their life on a strange world, in tenuous captivity.

All she knows, all she can be sure of is that those people did not have to die. And they did.]

[ A little shaken by how intensely Mia was affected by this, Ororo holds her for as long as she needs it. It was strange how often she'd found herself in this position lately - but perhaps it was a good thing as she knew what to do. She stroked Mia's hair gently, rubbed soothing circles into her back as she waited for her to calm. Even hummed to her quietly, anything that might help. She had so many questions, and she had so many concerns about what this new development would mean for them, for everyone... But for right now, she would make sure her young friend was alright. ]

[Mia hasn't been comforted like this since she was a child, a little child at that - or so she thinks, until the memory surfaces of a similar afternoon, another one centered around memories of Vaskoth. Even thinking its name sends a chill through her heart.

All at once she's acutely aware of everything Ororo is doing for her now, and she forces her breathing and tears to slow to something manageable again.] I'm so sorry. [She says, when she has the breath.] Thank you, I-I'll be all right.

There's no need to apologize. [ Ororo smiles faintly. She draws back a little, but stays within close reach should Mia need a shoulder to rest her head on. ] I think I would be more worried if you were alright from the start. That kind of news is hardly easy to hear. Especially after what we'd gone through, in that place.

[What she needs is a tissue; she's wiping her face on her sleeve in a very undignified manner.]

It isn't right to burden any of you with my- weaknesses like this.

It isn't a weakness to be sad, Mia. Or to feel sad for the misfortune of others.

[ Ororo procures a handkerchief from somewhere on her person. She hands it to Mia kindly. ]

It only means you have a big heart and that, in my opinion, makes you strong in other ways.

It is a weakness to let my sadness interfere with my ability to do things. [To do them for others. The handkerchief is more than welcome and she whispers a thank-you.]

Don't be silly. We're all allowed a moment or two to give into our emotions. [ It's a pot, meet kettle moment, really. But Ororo doesn't think about that. ]

Giving in is different. I feel things the way everyone else does, but it isn't...it isn't proper or reassuring to fall apart like this, in front of anyone who might need my help.

[Is it no longer obvious that Mia feels responsible for everyone else in the house? For making sure they stay safe and healthy? Because she does.]

Like this? [ Ororo looks around the living room. They're alone. In fact, no one else is even in the house at the moment. ] Mia, there is no one else here. And I am hardly in need of any help right at this moment. [ She gives her a tiny, teasing grin. ]

I know it doesn't feel that way, but falling apart in front of a friend is perfectly alright. It means you trust them to help you put yourself back together.

Well that's a problem, too, isn't it? [She's sort of smiling, though, as she wipes her eyes again.] If I can't put my own self back together, how can I do it for anyone else?

We can't always do it alone, Mia. In fact, more often than not, we need others to help us. [ Ororo sort of smiles back. ] If others need your help, then does it not follow that sometimes you will need their help as well?

Of course it does. I learned things like that long ago. [Much of it came in the form of learned intimations, feelings and senses she got from her parents about being a healer, a good healer, and what it stood for among other people. There were also lectures, though.] And when I need it I should recognize it and be able to ask for it. Then, and only then. [One hand rubs her forehead between her eyes.] Not- this, becoming an unintelligible mess.

This unintelligible mess, [ Ororo says, taking Mia's hand down gently so she can peer down at her eyes, ] is a perfectly human response to hearing terrible news.

And sometimes, well, even we ourselves become too stubborn to realize when we might need help. And that is when friends stage well-meaning things like interventions.

Are you calling me stubborn and in need of intervening?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

00 . appointments

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]

[Action, August 23]