(When he grows tired of it, perhaps they'll be sleepy enough, or perhaps they take out walking, it's not like she's particularly worried about their safety in freaking Etraya. What she is, though, is genuinely concerned about him, which is... Eh, perhaps strange, or maybe not so much.)
( Itās a good but also somewhat complicated question? Given everything that comes with his existence and the so-called expectations surrounding it. The sound that leaves him is one thatās both amused yet lazy and he looks off ahead of them while he takes a second to mull that over. )
Well that depends which version you want. What Iāve been told, or what Iām trying to figure out.
( Slouching there, he glances over to her as he considers the way she phrases it now. Heās used to keeping a lot of his thoughts to himself when not having an emotional outburst unexpectedly. Everything thatās happened to him, everything he hopes and wishes for, everything thatās hurt him and left him feeling betrayed, he keeps so much of it to himself. There was a time he thought he could trust someoneā¦ still does? He doesnāt know with Thren anymore and sheād left him, again, before his coming here. Adding that to everything Sinister said and how she was meant to lure him in for the madmanā¦ itās probably better he say nothing to anyone anymore. Keep to himself lest he deal with that sort of betrayalā¦ that sort of heartbreak again.
Yet deep within him, he doesnāt want that. Deep within, he craves not just the bits and pieces of what it means to have as normal of a life one can get while being someone like them, he wants to feel part of something. Wants to find his place with others. Wants to feel like he has a home again. )
Iām someone everyone wants back home. Not likeā¦ ( At that, he blushes a bit and clears his throat. ) ā¦for their battles. Their wars, I mean.
( Picking at the ends of his jacket, he looks down. )
Sinister made me in a lab. I wasnāt born. Not likeā¦ normal people are. I was made to fight Apocalypse since no one else could. So he used the DNA of Scott and Jean and cooked me up as some weapon of war. The memories I have areā¦ confusing. Because I remember things that didnāt exist and it makes me wonder if anything I ever have is real or if itās just in my head.
( Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighs. )
Soā¦ still figuring it out. Who Nate Grey is supposed to be other than the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey, made by Sinister to defeat Apocalypse. Cool as that sounds and all, I donāt want that to be who I am. I donāt want that to be what I leave here with. But I donāt really know what I want either. Not to be anyoneās weapon, I guess. Help people. Try another drink that isnāt beer. ( Heh. ) Find some place to fit in.
(She opened this can of worms, so he's going to have her full attention, her own pair of blue eyes watching him as he thinks, as he shares. Some of it, she can relate. She's not as powerful on her own as Nate or Quentin, hell, she's probably a smidge when it comes to them, but the Thousand-in-One? āWeapon XIV". Not that it panned out any, they're free from all that. Sophie never minded the clone thing, the weapon thing, life is what you make of it. Esme, well. Different story. For all that they talk about being a single unit, no individuality but instead a single entity, they do have some differences that are horribly contrasting.)
If it makes you any better, I'm the same for like, some of this. You're not totally alone.
(Not that anyone wants the Cuckoos that bad, but the origins? Oof.)
You have time to figure it all out, Nate. You're here, that's an opportunity, isn't it? Don't be bummed out, just try to find out who Nate Grey, who is the son of Cyclops and Jean, also is.
( But he doesnāt have timeā¦ a few years, max. Then his own powers will destroy him from the outside-in. There are moments when heās seen it. His hair a bit longer, light pouring out from within him. Eyes and mouth on fire and him taking the world out with him when he just explodes.
He doesnāt say this. Doesnāt even look at her as he mulls it over and he tightly shuts those thoughts and fears of his away within his mind. He doesnāt think sheāll go prying, but. He also knows that sometimes, as a telepath, you just sort of pick up on things and feelings without even trying.
Instead, he forces a bit of a smile there on his lips and he looks over to her then, at the way she seems so comfortable and unafraid of lounging in a telekinetic bubble high within the sky. At the way sheās not afraid of him. )
Yeah. Guess thatās one plus in being trapped here, right?
(No, no, Nate. She would, she definitely would. She's not that great, you sweet Summers child. His luck is that he is talking to her, so she didn't really want to go prying, since she's trying to learn how to use her words and not her brain to engage in things. Apparently, that bugs people, who would have thunk.
He is correct, though. She's as comfortable here as she had been in her bed, or even more. The trust is there, and she's just enjoying it.)
... I guess.
(Maybe she can tell him a little bit. Maybe.)
My sisters and I are not... Very keen on the individuality thing. They've tried, but I was dead for that little deep dive. We had a fight before I got here, and we haven't spoken in a little while, but bible, I also have very little idea what I'm doing.
( This isnāt a bed by any means and so it lacks the sort of comfort that comes from a mattress and sheets, but. The bubble isnāt so uncomfortable that sitting or laying within it is signing up for a serious case of sore muscles after. Plus, itās warm in a way that isnāt so intrusive because he makes it that way within his mind.
So he turns on his side then, facing Sophie, and tucks an arm under his head as a makeshift pillow, settling there against the warmth of the bubble while blue eyes search her face. Just her face, not her thoughts. )
(The hands resting on her stomach as she stares into nothingness raise, a gesture that tells him that she's taking a moment to think (breaking news) on how to put it easier, without making his brain work too hard.)
... We were up on some bullshit. The Five-in-One votes on every action we take, we're one entity, so... We decided on me being the one down making said bullshit happen, so my part was to be down moving some sticks and some people... Except, I ended up caring.
(Which, now looking back, maybe shit idea to send her. They hoped she wouldn't go superhero? Incorrect, when has Sophie ever not gone superhero?)
So, I couldn't go through it. I went no-contact, and cut off the hivemind, not too long ago. So, here we are, one fifth of a brain, with glitchy powers, because my brain really took a whammy, and they're not... Here.
( He listens ā lets her say what she needs or wants to regarding the fight and just lays there in the bubble next to her. Well. Thereās some distance between them and all, but. The point is he remains silent, cheek pressed to his arm and tries to imagine rather than dig into her mind how it must feel to be connected within a hivemind like that. Toā¦ be only a part of yourself, in a sense. Itās strange to think about and has him looking to her in a way that is both soft and sympathetic. )
Thereās nothing wrong with caring.
( He says then, blue eyes on her. )
But Iām sorry you have to feel the way you do now for caring.
(She gotta remind herself he has never met any of the Cuckoos, or her mum for that matter. It'd explain a lot why she is the way she is, and perhaps if he asks around, he'll learn at least the basics.
Self-indulging, self-centered, self-serving. Of course caring sucks big time for them.
See, sweet, sweet Nate, but she'll turn around to rest on her side again to look at him, too.)
Darling, caring kinda really, super sucks, but I guess this is where we are at. The shitty part is that even if I decide I don't, it's not like there is a hivemind here to go back to. That's the worst part.
His gaze drops and he pushes himself up then to sit instead, arms draped over his knees again as he looks ahead. )
I could even say itās probably easier to just be on your own, too. It probably is sometimes. But I think we need each other. People, mutants. Itās just how we are. Maybe some might think that a flaw in our design. But I think it just makes usā¦ I donāt know. Human.
( Even though theyāre different, but. Maybe she gets what heās saying. )
(Maybe they should walk soon, just to keep themselves occupied. Still, the first part of what he says is what gets a wrinkled nose and a little, tiny snort out of her.)
It's not. I have never been, Nate, aside from the very short, real recent period of me cutting them off, and the time here. It sucks big time.
(But the last part, he's not wrong. With how fucky everything in her brain is right now, she needs people, albeit she's not thinking in terms of human connections ā more on the not dying and eating shit again, because it sucks.)
... Yeah. I guess. I just never really thought about it until recently.
( He can't entirely relate because he can't entirely understand what it's like to be part of a hivemind as Sophie had been. He can liken it to losing some part of himself, sure. But unless he were to tap into her mind and telepathically feel what that sort of connection was like, he can only surmise what he thinks it might be like or close to.
Sigh leaving him, he pushes those white bangs of his back a bit before he gently looks over to her. )
... Yeah, I think I'm gonna go for a walk. You can come with me if you want, but if wanna sleep and you really are scared of nightmares and scrambling everyone's brains, feel free to kick Quire awake.
(Not her talking on behalf of Quentin, if he even is asleep in the first place. She's back to being bummed out, and perhaps if she can spend the feeling by finding something to do. She's reread the texts in her phone enough for today.)
(You know. If it were most people giving her this line, she'd dismiss them immediately and most likely be super mean to go with it, but with Nate, it kinda works. It's probably the fact that she finds him to be overly sweet, so there's nothing there she finds to be sus.
Which is exactly why she takes the hand with no second thoughts, coming closer to nest a little on his shoulder.)
( Like before, he pulls her in close against him ā arm gentle in the way it snakes around her waist as a means to hold her. With only a fleeting brush of a blue-eyed gaze over her face, he lets his eyes fall shut then and, slowly, the golden yellow bubble around them begins to spill away until it's completely gone and Nate is the one with the mix of gold and yellow around him.
He gives himself a second before he starts the descent from the sky, making sure to keep it slow and gentle so as not to make her sick or catch her off guard any. His eyes remain closed as he does this, whether it be from his being tired and needing to rest some or his simply concentrating without distraction, who's to say. But he gets them down outside the mansion near her room there, gentle in the way he taps to the ground. )
(Much like this entire encounter, she's not going to worry. He's given her no reason to, so all she does right now is let him take care of it, knowing he does everything in his power to ensure her comfort. It's awfully nice, and she squeezes his arm a little bit with a /thanks/ echoed into his brain.
Feet touching the ground, her arms stretch overhead before she gives in to the still pleasant breeze, removing the cardigan and tying it around her waist before her knuckles rest on her hips. She has no idea where to go, considering the population is bots, so she's scanning, scanning, scanningā
Dreams, mostly, and she doesn't know the ways of the land yet. Well, walking aimlessly it is.)
You sure you don't want to sleep? You don't have to come if you do, I'm a big girl and I turn into diamond, I'll be fine.
( Well there's something you don't hear every day. The moment she goes and says that, he can't help but blink in surprise and tries to imagine it within his thoughts. A secondary mutation then? Like he has. Unable to help himself, of course he has to ask: )
(Oh. Yeah, actually? This is not news to anyone, considering whose DNA she shares, but of course Nate wouldn't know it. It doesn't take any time at all for her entire being, including clothes, to turn into diamond as she promised. Malleable, her movement is not stiff, and she shrugs.
Of course, there's that little bit that while he can sense her in this form, she's locked out, but so is he.)
Yep. No psychic stuff for me like this, but still.
( He has never seen anything like this before and he almost reaches out to touch her before he realizes that's very rude and so he drops his hand, staring in wonder and curiosity. )
(Yeah, so, about that? She doesn't care. The fun and equally horrifying thing about it is just that she loses a whole lot of feeling, and all her empathy. Touching her means touching a freezing, hard rock, but eh, since he wanted it, she'll offer her hand for him to take if he wants to.)
( Eyeing her hand there for a moment, he reaches out and takes hold of it and... cold. It's so cold. Without even thinking about it, he takes his own jacket off and drapes it around her shoulders, blue eyes gently concerned. )
(She'd be touched, and she'd try to get him to relax about it ā tell him how it works, stop him from being the one out in the cold, but no, she just blinks a few times.)
I don't feel anything like this.
(No hunger, no fatigue, nothing. It doesn't last too long, the glistening surface returning to normal, back to blond before she has an exceptionally lengthy delay in realizing he is now the one who might freeze. With a sigh, she's going to try and return the jacket.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Okay, let's start simple. Who's Nate Grey?
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Well that depends which version you want. What Iāve been told, or what Iām trying to figure out.
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How about we go with what you want to tell me?
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Yet deep within him, he doesnāt want that. Deep within, he craves not just the bits and pieces of what it means to have as normal of a life one can get while being someone like them, he wants to feel part of something. Wants to find his place with others. Wants to feel like he has a home again. )
Iām someone everyone wants back home. Not likeā¦ ( At that, he blushes a bit and clears his throat. ) ā¦for their battles. Their wars, I mean.
( Picking at the ends of his jacket, he looks down. )
Sinister made me in a lab. I wasnāt born. Not likeā¦ normal people are. I was made to fight Apocalypse since no one else could. So he used the DNA of Scott and Jean and cooked me up as some weapon of war. The memories I have areā¦ confusing. Because I remember things that didnāt exist and it makes me wonder if anything I ever have is real or if itās just in my head.
( Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighs. )
Soā¦ still figuring it out. Who Nate Grey is supposed to be other than the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey, made by Sinister to defeat Apocalypse. Cool as that sounds and all, I donāt want that to be who I am. I donāt want that to be what I leave here with. But I donāt really know what I want either. Not to be anyoneās weapon, I guess. Help people. Try another drink that isnāt beer. ( Heh. ) Find some place to fit in.
no subject
If it makes you any better, I'm the same for like, some of this. You're not totally alone.
(Not that anyone wants the Cuckoos that bad, but the origins? Oof.)
You have time to figure it all out, Nate. You're here, that's an opportunity, isn't it? Don't be bummed out, just try to find out who Nate Grey, who is the son of Cyclops and Jean, also is.
no subject
He doesnāt say this. Doesnāt even look at her as he mulls it over and he tightly shuts those thoughts and fears of his away within his mind. He doesnāt think sheāll go prying, but. He also knows that sometimes, as a telepath, you just sort of pick up on things and feelings without even trying.
Instead, he forces a bit of a smile there on his lips and he looks over to her then, at the way she seems so comfortable and unafraid of lounging in a telekinetic bubble high within the sky. At the way sheās not afraid of him. )
Yeah. Guess thatās one plus in being trapped here, right?
no subject
He is correct, though. She's as comfortable here as she had been in her bed, or even more. The trust is there, and she's just enjoying it.)
... I guess.
(Maybe she can tell him a little bit. Maybe.)
My sisters and I are not... Very keen on the individuality thing. They've tried, but I was dead for that little deep dive. We had a fight before I got here, and we haven't spoken in a little while, but bible, I also have very little idea what I'm doing.
no subject
So he turns on his side then, facing Sophie, and tucks an arm under his head as a makeshift pillow, settling there against the warmth of the bubble while blue eyes search her face. Just her face, not her thoughts. )
What did you fight about?
no subject
... We were up on some bullshit. The Five-in-One votes on every action we take, we're one entity, so... We decided on me being the one down making said bullshit happen, so my part was to be down moving some sticks and some people... Except, I ended up caring.
(Which, now looking back, maybe shit idea to send her. They hoped she wouldn't go superhero? Incorrect, when has Sophie ever not gone superhero?)
So, I couldn't go through it. I went no-contact, and cut off the hivemind, not too long ago. So, here we are, one fifth of a brain, with glitchy powers, because my brain really took a whammy, and they're not... Here.
no subject
Thereās nothing wrong with caring.
( He says then, blue eyes on her. )
But Iām sorry you have to feel the way you do now for caring.
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Self-indulging, self-centered, self-serving. Of course caring sucks big time for them.
See, sweet, sweet Nate, but she'll turn around to rest on her side again to look at him, too.)
Darling, caring kinda really, super sucks, but I guess this is where we are at. The shitty part is that even if I decide I don't, it's not like there is a hivemind here to go back to. That's the worst part.
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( Suck to care.
His gaze drops and he pushes himself up then to sit instead, arms draped over his knees again as he looks ahead. )
I could even say itās probably easier to just be on your own, too. It probably is sometimes. But I think we need each other. People, mutants. Itās just how we are. Maybe some might think that a flaw in our design. But I think it just makes usā¦ I donāt know. Human.
( Even though theyāre different, but. Maybe she gets what heās saying. )
no subject
It's not. I have never been, Nate, aside from the very short, real recent period of me cutting them off, and the time here. It sucks big time.
(But the last part, he's not wrong. With how fucky everything in her brain is right now, she needs people, albeit she's not thinking in terms of human connections ā more on the not dying and eating shit again, because it sucks.)
... Yeah. I guess. I just never really thought about it until recently.
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Sigh leaving him, he pushes those white bangs of his back a bit before he gently looks over to her. )
Do you want to head down?
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(Not her talking on behalf of Quentin, if he even is asleep in the first place. She's back to being bummed out, and perhaps if she can spend the feeling by finding something to do. She's reread the texts in her phone enough for today.)
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It's the prince's job to keep the princess safe, isn't it?
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Which is exactly why she takes the hand with no second thoughts, coming closer to nest a little on his shoulder.)
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He gives himself a second before he starts the descent from the sky, making sure to keep it slow and gentle so as not to make her sick or catch her off guard any. His eyes remain closed as he does this, whether it be from his being tired and needing to rest some or his simply concentrating without distraction, who's to say. But he gets them down outside the mansion near her room there, gentle in the way he taps to the ground. )
no subject
Feet touching the ground, her arms stretch overhead before she gives in to the still pleasant breeze, removing the cardigan and tying it around her waist before her knuckles rest on her hips. She has no idea where to go, considering the population is bots, so she's scanning, scanning, scanningā
Dreams, mostly, and she doesn't know the ways of the land yet. Well, walking aimlessly it is.)
You sure you don't want to sleep? You don't have to come if you do, I'm a big girl and I turn into diamond, I'll be fine.
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You turn to diamond?
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Of course, there's that little bit that while he can sense her in this form, she's locked out, but so is he.)
Yep. No psychic stuff for me like this, but still.
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How long can you stay like this?
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Long.
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You're so cold. Can you feel it?
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I don't feel anything like this.
(No hunger, no fatigue, nothing. It doesn't last too long, the glistening surface returning to normal, back to blond before she has an exceptionally lengthy delay in realizing he is now the one who might freeze. With a sigh, she's going to try and return the jacket.)
So, really, who's gonna want to stab diamond?
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