Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

[un_gloved]

After enough time on the island, it wasn't unusual to wake up and notice things were different. Weather changed and the atmosphere smelled different, the bed you were sleeping in wasn't quite right, the skin you were sleeping in wasn't yours.

Which was just creepy.

This time, though, as Rogue stretched into the sheets and turned her face against the pillow, instead of the nag of unfamiliarity and the typical roll of dread in the pit of her stomach, she felt a deep flood of comfort. She breathed in deep and opened her eyes, slowly, letting the creme colored paint and familiar furniture come into focus. The light from the window meant it was morning. Distantly she could hear sounds of movement, but it was far off, in some distant room of the mansion. The mansion.

She sat bolt upright, suddenly hyper aware of her surroundings. Her room looked exactly as she had left it. This was zero help. The island never pulled the same trick twice in a month. Hell, the island never pulled the same trick twice in a year. She started for the door, turned back and found some shorts so she wasn't running around in a thong and a t-shirt, and then headed out, bewildered and skeptical. She stomped barefooted down the hall for the stairs, her thoughts turning rapidly. If she was home, what did that mean? Shouldn't she have been on that barren plateau holding an unconscious Remy Lebeau in her arms? Or did the world reset itself after the M'kraan hit, and then unhit? It was possible, maybe, that the rift in the timeline Legion had created had done something similar to all the X-Men, sent them someplace else and brought them back. Siege Perilous had done similar. And if that were true, and she was about to be surrounded by a bunch of grumpy, agitated, confused mutants (she'd prefer Sentinels, good Lord) then after the dust settled and they'd been debriefed, maybe she could just give Gateway or Lila Cheney a li'l visit 'n see...

See if the island was even a real place? Home two minutes and you're lookin' for a way back? How is that right...?

The thought had stopped her and she looked up, seeing where she was for the first time since her room. Muscle memory, years of habit, knowing the place so intimately- she'd made straight for the kitchen. Beast stared at her from the beam he hung upside down on, coffee in one hand and newspaper in the other, and Iceman sat with a spoon poking out of his mouth and a bowl of rapidly disintegrating cereal in front of him.

"...What?" she said, startled.

"Good morning," Bobby said around the spoon before pulling it out.

"And I inquired as to how you were feeling on this particularly lovely day," Beast added. "But perhaps it's earlier for some of us than others. Coffee, Rogue?"

The young mutant known only as Rogue blinked, twice, and tried to get a grip on reality as she said, "Oh. No thanks, Hank."

Comments

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

All prepared to follow, Rahne stands, then remembers something pretty crucial. "Wait outside," she says, ushering him out the door. "I'll be out in two minutes." Once she's alone in her room, it doesn't take her long to find some of her old clothes; she wouldn't feel right in her uniform, after all this time. Emerging, she offers Jamie a crooked smile, still a little relieved the hallway's otherwise empty. "Alright, lead the way."

[howmanylives]

"You know, the last time I was here, it was because Emma made us forget we hated the Astonishing team long enough to convince us into coming," he said conversationally, all the while walking with unneeded haste. "And they wonder why we don't trust them."

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

"And would ye have expected anything else from Emma Frost?" Rahne asks, one eyebrow arching, having no problem with following along just as quickly. She'd enjoyed the time she spent with the X-Men, for the most part, but most of them do live up to their reputations, Emma especially. "All the more reason not to stick around now."

[howmanylives]

"Touché," he said with a wry smile, turning a corner. "But we need to figure out what year it is before we go waltzing out the door. For all we know, we're right after M-Day and there're still Sentinels outside keeping watch of the supposed '198'."

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

Rahne winces at the thought, but doesn't hesitate. Just knowing she has her powers back, even if it's temporary, even if it's a bad thing, is enough to bring her back a little to who she'd been before the Purifiers got a hold of her, before everything went to hell. If he's right, they'll get through it; they did once before, after all. "So we find out," she says with a shrug, like that should be easy enough. "We can find a way to ask without sounding completely mad."

[howmanylives]

"I'm pretty sure frequent accusations of insanity is part of our job description," he replied with a bark of laughter. "Keeps things interesting."

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

"This might be a bit too interesting," Rahne says wryly, well aware that this is hardly the strangest thing that has happened to either of them. That doesn't mean it isn't disorienting. "Maybe we won't be the only ones."

[howmanylives]

"When you're with me, we're never the only ones," he replied, distracted, now, that they hit the main entrance. There was still no one around. "...that's helpful."

[tearsthrulife.livejournal.com]

"Only ones besides yuir dupes," she clarifies with a noise between a scoff and a sigh, combing some hair away from her face. "Which... it looks like we are, at least here."