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| What: Jocelyn asks Cessily to help her with some studying. The two end up talking a little bit about some other things. | |||||
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It's Sunday evening, and Jocelyn had one of those annoying tests coming up. She'd been ridiculously busy since she came back, but remembered that Cessily had offered to help mentor her in...stuff. Because she wasn't all that good at the schoolwork thing all the time. So, she'd dropped Cessily an e-mail through the school's e-mail system (and managed to not break the computer) asking if she'd swing by her room tonight to help her with some science stuff.
Currently, the teen is dressed in a blue tanktop and a pair of jeans. She's sitting on her bed, going over some notes from class. The door is open, and Laura is currently out doing Laura-type things. The room itself is still ridiculously empty of things, knick-knacks, or even pictures really. Between Laura and Jocelyn, they just didn't have a lot of extra stuff to decorate their room with.
Cessily's been busy with her own issues of late, although distinctly of the actual high school student variety. She pads barefoot down the hall, dressed in a pink tanktop top of her own matching boy shorts, rendering her rather notably silver. "Joce?" she asks, pausing at the door to knock and smiling faintly. "How's it going, kid?" Irony, of course, since Jocelyn's actually older than her.
"Hey Cess. Sorry I haven't had a chance to swing by. Been crazy busy, you know?" She smiles a little at the kid statement. She isn't aware that Cessily might actually know some of this information now. "Thanks for coming by". There's a pause. She's not sure if Cess was upset with her for the whole disappearing act thing. She'd gotten some mixed reactions. "You remember anything about chemistry? Not my best subject," the teenager tells her with an easy shrug. Whatever the case, she intended to at least finish out the year as a student.
"Some things," she says, "And I have a cheat sheet," she adds, holding up her old chem textbook, as if that's cheating. "It's not so bad, really," the silver girl says, coming in and taking a seat next to Jocelyn on her bed. "It's like music. You don't worry about playing the symphony, you just play one note at a time" Cessily puts the book on her lap but keeps it closed. "but first...." she looks Jocelyn in the eye.
Jocelyn looks Cessily back in the eye as she speaks. "I had to take care of some business," the teen says. "I didn't have to hurt anyone, and that misunderstanding has been fixed". She's not sure what exactly Cessily wants to know. "I never murdered anyone either," she adds. "Though I will admit I was responsible for their deaths, it wasn't an act of murder". She was expecting to hear a bit about this. She waits to see how the girl reacts to that bit of news, however.
Cessily creases her brow, setting off a series of reflections. "Oh," Cessily says with a certain finality to her tone. "You tried to help, yes?" she asks directly. "You could have asked for help."
"I've been alone for a long time, Cessily. I'm used to a life where if you become a problem, you get cut off, and that's a best case scenario. I think that instictive part of me that's kept me alive kicked in, and I bolted to go and try to fix it. I spent a long time cleaning things up and making things right in the past. I couldn't let that slide," Jocelyn tells Cessily. She doesn't answer the first question immediately, considering her words. "No. Those people died because that's when my mutant power first manifested. I exploded. That's what happens when I take in too much energy. I go off like a bomb. So yes, I am responsible for their deaths. But I didn't murder them either".
Cessily presses her lips together firmly, shifting them one way, then the other, before finally letting out a breath. "You're not the only one. I...I think I was one of the few who /didn't/ have some terrible manifestation. I turned into goop in the family bathroom, which was incredibly painful but nobody got hurt. Except me." Cessily reaches over and puts her hand on Jocelyn's. "You're not alone now. That's what the school is all about."
Perhaps surprisingly, Cessily does not get shocked for touching Jocelyn. She's figured out a bit of control now, which is fortunate. She smiles a little. "Yeah. I know that now. I just didn't want to involve anyone else. Wanted to clean up my own mess I suppose". The girl shrugs a little bit. "And I know it wasn't my fault. Doesn't mean it doesn't bother me, but I know I'm not to blame either. I'll be alright". She pauses. "Umm, also? I found out while I was there that I'm apparently nineteen. I've had basically three birthdays in the last two weeks". She didn't actually tell anyone about her supposed birthday previously.
"I'll have to talk to the Professor about what that means at some point, I suppose". She pauses and smiles. "I won't go off without letting someone know. As it was, I still got tracked down by a couple people anyway. Domino ended up tagging along, and we managed to run into an alien scouting part at Port Jarvis". These trips just can't go smoothly.
Cessily aaahs slowly and nods. "As long as you're bothered by it you're doing well," Cessily advises. "You're what?" she asks with a startlement. "You're older than me!? That is one heck of a mistake to make! How'd that happen?" she asks.
"I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't exactly forming memories back then". Pause. "Apparently some company invested in me at birth, whatever that means, and I'm guessing they're the ones who killed my parents, though I have no proof. I ended up orphaned, but with all the paperwork and...let me just say that everywhere in Detroit is pretty corrputable, so a system typo is pretty easy to get for the right amount of money. I put into the system 'wrong'. And there you are". Jocelyn frowns, chewing on her lip for a moment. "I don't have all the information yet. There are too many unknowns".
Cessily rubs her hands against her face. "Well crap. That's heavy," she tells Jocelyn. "You dealing with it okay? You seem....incredibly calm about it all."
"I came to terms with the idea that someone probably murdered my parents a long time ago, and I still don't have their identity," Jocelyn says with a sigh. "That's something I've carried around with me for a long time. It brings it back up, but I won't let it bring me down again. I spent enough time when I was younger doing some things I'm not especially proud of".
Another pause. "As for this company, well, apparently they considered me an asset or employee or something, not that I'd ever heard of them. Shift says they'd done a bunch of narcotics stuff and genetic experimenting. I don't know the connection, but still, I don't have any intention of acting until I know more".
Cessily nods a few times. "Right. Good," she says, humming. "See, life as a mutant sucks. I can't get the humans who want to be like us," Cessily says, shaking her head. "It's just a neverending cavalcade of woe. I'd trade places with them in a minute. But hey, you seem to have a really good handle on your stuff, Joce." She pauses. "I guess I can't call you a kid anymore, can I?"
"Eh. I don't know if I think it directly has anything to do with my being a mutant. Even if I wasn't, all of that would have still happened, with the exception of the explosion. I just might not have found out about it this way". Jocelyn shrugs. "I try to keep a good handle on this stuff. Some days are easier than others". She smiles a little at the last comment. "If anything, I think that means I get to call you kiddo now, right?" She winks at Cessily.
Cessily waves a finger at Jocelyn. "Don't you dare!" she warns. "I'm still helping /you/ in Chem, okay?" she says. "That's very very true," Cessily says, and glances down. "I still cry sometimes. Two years and....."
Jocelyn reaches over now and sets her hand on Cessily's shoulder. "The trick I've found? It's okay to feel that way. Let yourself feel it all the way through until you understand everything about it. The whys and the hows and having gone through the what-ifs. Then when it wells up again, you can still feel it, but you can understand it too. It makes it a little easier, at least for me". She reaches up and pulls out a small wooden box that she's got hidden under the top bunk. Opening it up, she pulls out a chocolate bar and offers it to Cessily. "And if you need to let it out, I'm here too. Like you said, we're not alone".
Cessily has to smile just a bit at that, taking some of the chocolate. "There's always chocolate," she points out. "Tends to make everything a little better. But.." she waves a silver finger, "It's not going to help you through chem, so....why don't you show me where you're having some trouble...."
"Alright, kiddo," Jocelyn says with a grin as she opens up her science book to get some useful science help so she can hopefully pass her test on Monday.