Meantimes

[oracle]

Oracle stepped in from the rose garden, flushed and smiling. Her hair hung long down her back, pulled up still by the butterfly pin at her crown. The lavender dress she wore floated around her ankles as she stepped through the foyer towards the stairway.

As she stepped to go up, she saw Poseidon at the top of the stairs. In a wonderful mood, she met him with a brilliant smile.

"Privet!" She said, catching herself. "Hello, good morning."

[sy]

The mansion oftentimes got too stuffy for someone not used to buildings, despite its large size that Sy could literally get lost in. Today, however, he managed to not get lost on his way to the door, and was more than glad when a familiar face met him coming in.

"Goodmorning to you, Oracle." He gave her a smile, somewhat disappointed despite himself that she was coming in and not going out. He thought she might be pleasant to walk with in the chill, early morning air.

As always, Sy wore long sleeves so he wouldn't accidentally brush up against someone who may be allergic to his sting. Most people could actually touch him without going into anaphylactic shock, but he'd rather not take the chance. His dark grey shirt was paired over khaki pants and his face and head were freshly shaven.

"Are you just going in? Or would you like to walk with me?"

[oracle]

She looked about a bit, thinking. "You know... I am meeting my guide, but I have time. I'll make it." She waiting for him to meet her then stepped with him back down to the lobby.

"Do you sleep well here? I found myself listening to noises all night."

Oracle watched him with keen interest, observing his movements. He carried himself beautifully, with a confidence she truly admired. It made him seem powerful. Also quite attractive.

[Admin]

Sy turned a pleasant smile on her, "I can sleep just about anywhere. Strange noises do not bother me." Indeed, this place was almost too quiet for his comfort, compared to the cacaphony of the jungle at all hours of the day and night.

He walked along rather aimlessly, just happy to be out in the fresh air and with someone who did not tell him repeatedly to stop thinking the way he did. "So they gave you a guide then? I can imagine that would be helpful for such a large place," he looked back over his shoulder at the mansion, which did indeed take up most of his vision it was so large. "Who is your guide?"

[oracle]

"Piotr Rasputin. Pee-ter," she repeated in English, hating the simple sound of it. "They call him Colossus. I believe they are afraid my troubles in the public school in Texas will follow me here." She folded her hands behind her back, taking another deep breath of air.

It took her a moment to find the right way to phrase the question that had been burning in her mind since they met the day before. "Poseidon... do you believe you will always stay here, as Piotr as done? He wishes to become a teacher."

[sy]

Nodding to himself absently, Sy did remember the man they called Colossus, both from the discussion in the war room and the battle in Baltimore. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders... a good, thick, metal head if Sid remembered correctly. In fact, he bet that metal wasn't suseptible to his acid.... it would be good to keep that in mind.

"Stay here?" Sy laughed at the absurdity of the question. "No, Oracle, I do not believe I shall stay here long. I would like to go someplace a little more..." he couldn't put his tongue on the word he was looking for, so he switched his sentance around, "a little less techologic, I should say."

"A little more wild, perhaps. A little more free." He shrugged, still not able to put his finger on exactally what he was looking for. While ruling over tribes was all well and good, he did like this chance to find others like himself, who he could talk to without watching the fear behind their eyes at what he might do if they answered wrong. If only these gods did not hold themselves so low in their own opinions.

[oracle]

"Like a jungle," she threw out. "I have dreams... waiting for me when the time is right. A great island where we gods wander undisturbed by eyes and minds that do not understand us." She passed a hand beneath her long hair, sighing and looking up at the sky.

"Something brought me here, now." Oracle shook her head a bit. She thought of all the days that had led her to the doorstep of the school. She'd seen it before, so little of Xavier's had been a surprise. Little of worth was surprise to an Oracle.

Sibyl paused beneath a tree and regarded Poseidon again. "If you do not wish to stay... is having nowhere to go the only thing stopping you from leaving?"

[sy]

"Having no place to go should never be a deterant," Sy said and stopped walking, turning to face her and take in what she had said. An Island where gods lived together, without those who would call them something less? That sounded like a nice place indeed, and Poseidon was not so naive to think that they were merely dreams. A place like that existed - she, of anyone, would know where.

"Do your dreams tell you how to find this island, Oracle? I should like to see that place someday." There was no rush, afterall. Sy liked the mansion well enough, and welcomed the chance to reacquaint himself with his cousin. Nothing was pressing him to leave just yet, but when it did he thought he would rather enjoy visiting that island of gods.

[oracle]

Oracle stepped closer to him, looking down. Her hands grasped one another as if she were nervous, and her voice was very quiet between them.

"I have spoken with them," she confessed. "I wanted to see this place for myself before I made my decision. It's nothing my father knows about. He and I... well. He cannot understand. He's only human." She looked up at him slowly.

"Poseidon they were considered enemies of the people here." Her voice dropped to an outright whisper. "You saw them in Baltimore." There was an expression on her face that said it was almost a relief to tell him these things, as if it made it not quite a crime to have had a conversation with the "bad" side of the mutant conflict. But in her manner was also a great deal of sympathy for these others, as if the X-Men's opinion of them was itself as well a crime.

"You cannot tell anyone Poseidon. They would not understand."

[sy]

It took only a moment for him to catch her meaning as she confessed to speaking to "them", and he looked down at her with understanding as she spoke. He could understand her reservations at pledging herself to either side so quickly, without knowing firsthand of the other, and he respected her decision to make up her own mind without letting her father rule her life.

"Ahh, Baltimore. So these gods of which you speak, the ones on the island, they are the ones we fought yesterday..." it wasn't a question so much, as a statement aloud to himself. He hadn't heard much about the Brotherhood, except that they were the Enemy, and therefore to be feared and hated. And he hadn't fought them because he feared or hated them, but just for the thrill of the fight. They had obviously won, they obviously knew what they were, and were not afraid to use their gifts.

Looking back down at her, Poseidon smiled gently and laid a hand on her shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze in support. "Do not worry, Oracle. I will not tell anyone."

[oracle]

She smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I wouldn't keep it from you, if you ever wished to speak with them. I think we all should have a choice. They do things differently... difference doesn't always make us the enemy."

Turning, she continued to walk with him, sighing again as a great weight lifted off of her. "There is a great deal of love and words of family here. And it seems to me it *is* more like a family... particularly as they have children here. What I have seen... would not be suited for children. Not yet."

"I dream of a whole place for us. Maybe the whole world one day. What is it like, where you are from Poseidon?"

[sy]

Difference doesn't always make us the enemy.[/i]

From the sounds of it, she had already made her choice, and it was the other group of gods. And he couldn't really blame her for it if she'd chosen them over the X-men, as his thoughts had wandered in that dirrection many times himself. A place for gods... for gods who knew themselves for what they were and embraced it. It sounded like a good place.

"I think I would like to speak to them soon," he admited, before answering her question. "I am from the jungles myself, in Central America. My parents were missionaries - you can see where we had our differences. They treated me like one possessed by the devil; the tribespeople treated me like a god." He smiled, "it was not a hard choice for me between the two."

"It was lonely though," he said and looked down at her out of the corner of his eye as he began walking again, slowly ambling along between trees and gardens.

[oracle]

Oracle hooked her arm into his, careful not to brush their skin together.

"I do not believe in destiny. Which I know is strange from someone who sees the future, but... it is almost as if we were meant to meet, dah?" She smiled. "We both had similar lives. My family..." She sighed. "Well, I hope they are well now. I haven't seen them in many, many years."

"If you wish to speak with them, I can get you in touch. Email from this place is not safe, but a cell phone may be. Do you wish for them to contact you?"

[sy]

"I don't believe in destiny either," Sy smiled, "it was a very lucky coincidence that we have run into each other." He was glad that he'd worn the long sleeves, so he couldn't hurt her inadvertantly. The cloth was thick so the nematocytes could not sting through it.

Do you wish for them to contact you?

Sy thought about it for a long moment, before finally nodding. "I do." If he had any sense of belonging to this place he would have felt remorse for his straightforward answer, but so far the X-men had not managed to impress him.

[oracle]

[end scene]