2013.05.09 - Dreary Spring Day

It's a bit of an interesting day. It hasn't exactly been raining out. At best there's been some scattered sprinkling with some heavy drops mixed in, but otherwise it's just overcast out with the clouds doing not much more than threatening rain, potentially heavy rain, but not following through on that threat.

On the other hand, there have been some students and teachers outside today. Not as a group. But more os less scattered here and there outside the Xavier Institute. Some may have reasons, like 'homework' for being out here, but others....

Well others like one Laura Kinney, why /appears/ to be lounging against a tree, despite the weather may very well have their own reasons.

How long has it been since Domino's last been at the Institute? Weeks, months..? She's lost all track of time, it felt like most of it had been spent sleeping on planes while hopping across the globe. Would have been nice if she had something more to show for it beyond killer jetlag.

Somehow the Xavier grounds still don't seem like 'home' to her but she's still willing to give it benefit of the doubt. Parked out front is the rain-speckled silver 911. Walking around back is the slightly disheveled albino woman, her heavy trench worn to ward off any possible rain rather than against any chill in the air today.

''Awfully quiet around the place... I didn't somehow miss Summer break, did I?''

Josie should, of course, likely be doing homework. She can't resist what, to her, seems like great weather, however, to practice before her next gymnastics lesson with Professor Wagner. So, she comes into view at a run, which turns into a series of flips which ends in a roll, and still has enough momentum to bring her back to her feet before she stops. She grins, glancing back at the ground she just passed, "Not as out of practice as I thought." She looks up then and spotting the others nearby, she waves.

It may be... It may very well be. Or it may be finals week. Or right before finals.

Dang, this player needs to check the calendar from the old wiki to see what's up, even if it might not be in effect on the new port....


 * COUGH*

Anyways...

Anyways, as she lounges there, Laura sniffs the air, as if catching the traces of a familiar scent on the breeze. All though as she glances around, trying to find the owner of that scent, someone she hasn't seen for a long while now, her gaze locks onto Josie for a moment... And she blinks, watching part of what the other girl is doing.

There's -some- life, at least. Of course it has to be someone that Domino doesn't yet know but there's plenty of people like that around the place. New faces roll in all the time, it's probably not possible to keep up with it all. Josie is given a casual salute in return, her shift in attention leading Dom's attention to ward Laura a moment later.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one that appreciates this weather."

Laura is one student that Dom does happen to know, somewhat. Heck, she signed the girl's papers that made her a student around the place. And she's still here! What are the odds. "How's life been treating ya, kiddo?"

Josie, though the comment about the weather may not have been aimed at her, answers anyway with a grin, "I love it. Not hot enough to be too hot, and not too cold either, and just a bit wet. Perfect day." She grins, but when the conversation more obviously moves to Laura she goes back to her practice. It's slower now, as she goes over individual elements of the quick routine she did a moment ago.

And as Josie chimes in like that Laura opens her mouth. Then closes it. Then glances at the other girl. That is before finally she shakes her head slightly and glances back at Domino.

"Slow." is said, in an almost cryptic tone. There's no indication if she's been finding things slow. Or if things actually have been slow. Or if it's even a good thing or bad thing in her mind.

Then though there is a glance at the young gymnast, who Laura may or may not have actually met directly before, but based on what she has been told....

Well, she jerks a thumb at her.

"That's Josie. New. Kind of like Nightcrawler and his...." Pause. How best to describe the woman? Maybe just her name?

"Amanda."

Some people may have difficulty translating LauraSpeak. Fortunately, Domino isn't one of them. While the merc might be a whole lot more verbose than Laura, she also understands the more abbreviated format for conversation. Kurt she knows. Amanda she knows. Mash these two elements together, get a Josie. Fair enough. The youngest of the three is watched for a time as well, as if trying to figure out what to make of her.

"She seems normal enough." Normal in that 'not covered in spines and/or gills' sort of way. Not even emotionally warped. Happy, healthy, normal kid. It tends to beat any alternatives. Case in point: Laura.

"You haven't changed much, Laura. That tells me one of two things. Either you're never going to connect with the rest of society or you aren't finding what you're looking for in life." She stops here for a moment, turning enough to look down at the other lab-bred mutant. "So what do you want from life?"

Josie is silent now. Either she's entirely focused on her routine, or, more likely, she's eavesdropping while she practices. In any case, she goes through each flip, sometimes adding extra movements. They sometimes work, and sometimes she ends up in the grass on her butt. Her activity slows, though, as she goes, likely winding down her practice to stop soon.

And that is a loaded question. And considering that classes are over... Or at least will be over soon...

"Don't know." is all Laura can say regarding that.

"If... He has no problem with it, may leave here soon. For the summer anyways.... I... Dunno." is said as Laura finally starts to stand up, while keeping half an eye on Josie.

"But what about you? Staying? Going?" Or, there's almost a faint partial smile, as if she noticed the albino womans lack of being around as of late. "Returning?"

Yeah, that whole 'don't ask a question that you aren't prepared to answer yourself' thing? Domino forgot about that. "Your guess is as good as mine," she says with a faint sigh. "This is the problem during times of peace. The warriors have nothing to do."

So they find their own battles to fight. She'd love to help Laura out, track down these Weapon X facilities and wipe them off the face of the planet, but it's never easy asking a teenager to run off and attack lots of well-armed people. Dom still has options. Laura..is a difficult case.

And it would appear that they may have an eavesdropper. Her pale blue eyes are also on Josie throughout the conversation.

"Listen..if things ever take a nosedive for you, I mean serious downhill velocity, maybe I can help you out." When one gets down to it, Laura would make a fantastic merc. Much like where Dom had been over ten years ago, what other options are there? For her conscience, offering to help lead her down a dark and dangerous path is better than doing nothing at all. Everyone needs purpose.

At least Josie's happy with the life she's found at Xavier's.

Sleeping in is a wonderous thing. Sleeping in to early afternoon? It's something that should be cherished.

It so is!

Now, the halls of Xavier's are darkened (and scented) with the form and figure of a certain blue teleporter doing his *bamf* thing, landing outside, in the back, on the patio. No sooner does he land on the tiles than he's off again, to land further away, at the bank of the lake. There's a pause, however.. a three count before he disappears from view there, only to return in that cloud of nether aether back to the group of women, his expression set in a picture of theatric surprise with a touch of comic wariness.

"Lie-- welkommen back," is given to Domino, and it sounds genuine enough. It's then that Kurt looks at the gathered, and his brows rise, his tones now echoing his good humour. "Should I be concerned about this particular gathering?"

Josie is near the others while they talk, doing some gymnastics practice in the grass. She's just winding down, though, just doing some cooling off stretches as Kurt arrives. She waves to him and says, "Hi." She makes no comment about what she's been hearing Laura and Domino talk about.

If things ever do, Laura sure as heck will call Domino. Strangely enough, the older woman flat out is at the top of her list of who she'd call in that case. Hence why at that offers, there's just a slight nod.

All though as Kurt arrives, she pauses and blinks at him, her gaze being fully pulled away from Josie as she... Shrugs and simply says, "Summer plans."

Domino's response to the teleporter's out of the blue (hah) question is slightly less innocent. "Probably," she quietly mutters while ducking her head forward to rub at the back of her neck. "So ..yeah. I'm back. Again." Let's please not talk about the royal flippin' -mess- that Madripoor has become once again.

Also, she's had enough of this 'I'm listening but not listening' vibe from the youngest woman. "Yo, Josie! Quit fakin' it and come join the rest of us."

"Guten Tag, Josie.. you are working out, ja? Did you do anymore of those 'bridges'?" Kurt has every intention of working the little self-described acrobat.. putting her through her paces.

Yellow eyes come around to Laura, and for a moment, they flicker between Laura and Domino and back again.. "'Summer plans'.. und 'probably'.." he murmurs before he speaks up again, though he doesn't raise his voice any louder. "I will expect to be asked along," he finishes before, "I am glad to see you again.. welcome home." A step is taken forward to give the albino merc a brief hug.. and lets her go just as quickly.

At the merc's words, however, Kurt turns about to look at Josie again and nods, "Ja.. join.. neither of them will bite." One shoots and one stabs. No biting!

Josie grins as she's caught out, but steps forward and says, "Well, you were sounding like it was kind of personal." Since it's obvious now she was leaving, she does ask, "What is it people do for summer here? Do we go home or is it all year?" Then she nods quickly to Kurt and says, "I did. And I've been practicing other stuff too."

"Invited?" Laura repeats, sounding more than a bit confused as she glances at Kurt, before she shakes her head. Yeah. She doesn't ask what he means by that.

"He... Logan told me to stay here. And I have been."

Then though the clone girl blinks at Josie... And shrugs?

"I... Don't know. Don't have a 'Home'."

Then though there is a /hard/ glance at Domino, as if she picks up on something that isn't being said, but she doesn't ask about it.

The Blue Guy's remark is met with a surprised look. "But there's nothing--" Errrgh... "Thanks," she lamely follows up to the welcoming back bit, biting her tongue on adding in 'you're not the boss of me!' somewhere in there. Instead she releases another slow breath, subtly nodding once back to the Elf.

"Didn't stop ya before," Domino offhandedly remarks to Josie. Sure the conversation -had- been private, though it had also been overheard. They're probably done with it now, anyway. Kurt's here, of course she's not going to say anything more about it!

And now Laura's giving her quite the look. An innocent 'what' expression is given right back. Dom can't win around here, though that's nothing new.

"Couldn't tell ya, completely missed the last big break around here." Not that there's a theme of her not being around in time for events or anything.

"You go home if it is safe to do so, or you stay here. Some of the older students stay simply because we are close to the City, und they like to go. We do have summer classes, trips und the like." Kurt has this speech memorized, and has given it many times in the several years he's been here.

As for Laura and 'home', however, Kurt's tail lowers a little, and his voice drops, "How ever long you choose to stay here, fraulein, here is your home. Und I'm glad you're listening to Logan. He can be difficult to talk with if he discovers that one has disobeyed his wishes." Including himself, but, well.. he's not about to say anything about that!

Domino's expression is met with a grin, complete with fangs. Particularly when he seems to knock her a little off-balance, or at least that's the way it looks to him. "We'll be having a Memorial Day cookout, und hoping to have a game of Bobby's 'Mutant ball'.. und, if I was asked to describe it? It... would be difficult."

Josie shrugs to Domino and says, "I didn't interrupt or anything before, though. Couldn't help listening, you were outside, but didn't wanna interrupt." She looks back to Kurt then, nodding at what he says about the summer, "I'll have to ask my dad. He lives in the city anyway so it's close."

Despite how... Cheerful Kurt tries to be. That bit about Laura staying here doesn't exactly comfort her. Not that she lets it show. Externally her expression is strangely neutral. heck, it doesn't even alter at the mention of those festivities.

All though Josie does somehow cause the clawed girl to grin slightly as she mutters, "Wouldn't of been interrupting."

And Dom, well.... The older woman just gets another long hard stare from the clone.

Dom quietly snorts once when Kurt starts talking about Logan being difficult to talk to. Yeah... She really hadn't noticed. One little complication and a gal gets blacklisted from his drinking crew until the freaking end of days.

At least the cookout sounds agreeable.

And Laura's -still- giving her That Look. "Later," is all she has for Laura. It's not a discussion to be having out here, nor around other people. Except maybe Logan. It's been a while since she's had her neck stapled to the conference room desk.

Josie nods to Kurt with a smile, and waves as he says he's heading off, "See you, sir." She finds a spot to sit down in the grass, close enough still she can chat with Laura if she's sticking around.

Fine. She'll poke about it, what ever it is, /later/. But don't expect Laura to let this drop Dom!


 * Cough*

Anyways...

Anyways, as Kurt takes off, he does get a nod from the cloned girl. But no words of farewell. Not even as she moves to sit back down. All though as Josie moves over to sit as well, she does offer the other girl an odd quirked eyebrow.

Yeah, until then? Dom's going to keep some distance, try to acclimate herself to this environment again. It's such a change from her usual surroundings of late. Heck, it's been -hours- and she's not even heard a single gunshot! So, when the offer to do a quick lap around the lake is given she takes it as an opportunity to take her lack of social graces aside for a refresher course. Different attitudes out here. Different energy. And no doubt Kurt won't leave her be until they've had a chance to catch up, always fun trying to explain how alright everything is without getting into how horrible things have been.

"I'll catch up to you girls later."


 * bamf*

Josie waves to Domino too, when it's clear she's joining. Then once they're gone she looks back to Laura and says, "In the Danger Room that day, that was really cool. You really seemed to know what you were doing. I didn't have any idea. Before I went in I thought it was gonna be some kind of obstacle course. I'm good at those. But rescuing people and stuff... I even thought that dragon-guy was a good guy at first."

And as Domino takes off, Laura nods at her as well.

But to Josie, the older girl pauses... Then shrugs slightly.

"I did not know." is said in a flat, emotionless voice. "I guessed. Was trying to ignore training and experience."

Then though there's a quirked eyebrow at the whole 'obstacle course thing', which does kind of make sense regarding the powers the girl has shown, and her gymnastics ability.

"And he could of been."

Josie looks at Laura thoughtfully a moment at her answer, and says, "You must have had some bad training and experiences if you're trying to ignore it." Then she adds, "But it seems good here. Everybody's nice and it's fun and... I dunno, it's just cool here."

"It's too quiet. Makes you think we're safe. But we're not."

What exactly Laura means by that isn't exactly clear. But still...

Still she shrugs at the bit about her training.

"The training was bad." is said before she raises her hand, makes a fist, and there's a *SNIKT*.

"As was the other things they did."

Josie's eyes widen, "Wow, someone did that to you? Ow. I thought it was just your power. Thought my dad was being paranoid when he talked about people doing experiments on mutants. He was so scared that's what this place would be." Then she nods and says, "'Course we're not safe. They wouldn't be teaching us stuff like the Danger Room if we were safe. But at least here, we can all stick together."

And while Laura could explain the finer points of what was done to her, and what her powers really are, she doesn't. Instead, she slowly starts to stand back up.

"Together, we're a target. They want me back. They want him back. If they found out about here, they would come. They would take us... And you, and the others if they could."

"They would make you all weapons if they could."

Josie shrugs a little and says, "At home I am too. My whole school saw me change. There's Youtube videos of it. If people like that want me, wanna be surrounded by friends who can fight back than alone with my dad, who'd probably jump in front of a bullet for me even if a bullet can't hurt me anymore." She pauses and then says, "Sorry."

"Don't be." is said as Laura glances back at the other girl.

"But you may be safer here if they all did see you do that." is said as those claws retract.

Josie nods a bit and says, smiling a bit again, "Think so, yeah. And, my dad for sure is safer this way." Which, it sounds like, she cares more about.

The fact that Josie cares though is enough to prompt Laura to smile for the briefest of instants, before she nods once slightly.

"I see..." is even said out loud, before she takes a deep breath.

"Then you should be careful. And continue with your training."