Post by Storm on Jan 2, 2007 2:54:57 GMT -5
Forge leaned against the banister on the second floor patio, looking out over the grass. The sun was fading, and it cast a brilliant golden hue fringed with an intense red across the sky. He observed it half-heartedly, thoughts as always on heavier matters. When did his life become so hectic?
He pulled a bit from a half empty bottle of chocolate milk, and let his mind wander. For a change, he didn't think about the backload of projects on his table, about the once-human entity Lorna Dane, about politics or about his sister... he just watched the sky turn into night.
Man... I really need a vacation.
Storm paced the second-floor halls of the mansion fretfully. There was so much landing on her shoulders nowadays; she could feel her soul compressing somewhere south of her ribs, and the mansion slipping out of her grasp nonetheless. She furrowed her brow and raised her slender fingers to her forehead as she reached the doors of the patio. Oh Xavier…
As if in response, a gentle breeze met her face. She inhaled deeply and looked up, and with the view before her, all regretful, fretful, reprimanding thoughts faded into the fresh air.
She stepped out, not bothering to close the french doors behind her, and moved quietly to the banister.
Forge looked to his right, spotting Storm exit the double doors and take to the banister like he was. She must have had the same idea, coming out for a spot of fresh air. He hadn't thought about how all the changes in the school would have affected her. There was so much chaos, so many things happening... the pace of things had definitely picked up in the last year or so.
He tossed his milk container in the refuse bin and walked over to her.
"Hey Ororo." He said, already the smile coming back to his face. She looked quite beautiful in the fading sunlight. "Catchin' a breather myself. Gorgeous. The sunset. It's gorgeous."
He returned to leaning on the banister now that he was only a couple of feet away.
“Hello Bandero.” The sound of his voice was actually a relief to Ororo. Sure his philosophies were different from hers, but right now she just wanted someone strong to share the burden.
She took a nice deep breath and nodded as he mentioned ‘catching a breather,’ but then something about his tone on the next words made her pause. What was he referring to? She looked up.
The sunset was gorgeous, sure, but what was really gorgeous about it was the glow it cast on the face of the man nex- oh honestly, there was that feeling again in the pit of her stomach. A grown woman -! She scoffed inwardly at herself and turned towards the sky.
“It’s beautiful… although I could have done better.”
Forge looked at her, trying to gauge whether or not she was serious. He looked back at the sunset, then back to her, and broke into a grin. "Yeah. I wouldn't doubt that at all, actually." He said honestly.
Looking out again, he nodded. His first thought was to ask about school matters, or even worse, discuss X-Men stuff. He wanted to talk about the new Blackbird, about Rayen and Lorna, about the emails they've been getting, Sombra, all sorts of tense, stressful stuff. But really, he'd had enough of that. He didn't need that right now. He needed to just have a normal conversation with someone.
"You know, we've not had much of a chance to talk… What does Ororo do to keep herself entertained these days?" He asked. "What do you do for fun? I'm guessing you're not a stamp collector."
Ororo hesitated for a moment, and then smiled back at Forge with her eyes slyly half-lidded.
“I could be a stamp collector. I could be very offended right now,” she said with a haughty twist of her head.
The front didn’t last for long, though, and she lowered her chin. It was strange to talk about something other than business with Forge; it almost made her uncomfortable. But, she realized, she wanted to talk about something other than business with him.
She relaxed her shoulders. “No… Well, I have had little time lately for entertainment. But when I do, I like to come outdoors. She turned and looked fondly out at the grounds. “I care for the gardens; that patch in particular – with the white roses –“ she nodded towards a large section of the garden which was lush and green, speckled with summer colors and rimmed with rows of wild white blossoms – “is mine.”
Forge followed her gaze out into the garden, and narrowed his vision to the patch of roses. Through the lenses of the goggles he had on his forehead (which he leaned his head forward to have them facing) he sent his will, and used the technology to zoom in on the garden, examining her work.
“You've got some serious eye for detail, yet seem to really have a true love for the chaos of the wild. I don't think I've ever seen so beautiful a combination. Of flowers." He raised his head again, and gave her a warm smile.
Of course, the schism between the two couldn't be more obvious: She, a Sidhe of nature, fae and lordly over the elements raw. He a techno-punk, a force of industry, unnatural invention, and man-made marvels. Could there have ever been more opposed forces?
"And I guess you don't need a whole lot of hobbies when you can freakin' fly. That's got to be entertaining."
Ororo threw her head back and laughed at his casual assessment of her powers. “Yes, I suppose it is entertaining. I don’t fly recreationally often anymore, though.” She looked out over the grounds, thinking that over a little wistfully, before she turned to Bandero and his goggles.
“Thank you for the compliments. I do care a great deal about my garden. I suppose it is a metaphor for taming the wilderness inside oneself as well – allowing good qualities to grow carefully, and weeding out the bad. A practice run of controlled development, if you will.” She glanced back down at the flowers below, as she made the connection in her head. Well, she thought, hobbies do say a lot about the person.
“Speaking of which, I would imagine you spend much of your time fiddling with your toys?” She looked almost coy as she spoke the condescending words.
Forge couldn't help but crack a grin. He really liked how she described her hobby – there were few who'd give it so much thought. He even found her jibe about his technology funny, but did his best to put on a mock-offended face right afterward: "Toys you say?"
He tried to look so taken aback that he couldn't speak, but couldn't hold it for more than a moment before breaking into a laugh. "Yeah, pretty much. I spend a lot of time online, actually, since I can access the internet basically in my brain. I guess I'm always online, but that doesn't mean I'm always doing stuff there. I do indeed have the hobby of hobbies, building things. I suppose what I do is also like controlled development. One could make the metaphor that building a machine is like building on your character, you have to have an idea of what you want to have in the end, build toward that, and often get it completely wrong the entire time… You just need to keep on trying until you get it right."
He laughed at that, and shook his head. "I guess I'm probably better at getting technology right. I'm still working on me." Then, possibly to change the subject, possibly because it was all he had to say on the matter, he asked: "Hey, you ever go scuba diving?"
Ororo smiled and summed their hobbies up in a sentence. “So you build on your character, and I work to control mine. I wonder, is that the difference between us?”
“Then again, if we’re both still works in progress, that makes us equals.” She would liked to have thought she was all done with her own character development, but deep down she knew that was not the case. It would probably always be a constant struggle. Was that particular to mutanthood, or was it just being a person?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the most random question she had heard in a long time. She froze for a moment, eyeing Forge, before she let out an amused whiff of laughter through her nostrils.
“Scuba diving?” she repeated.
Forge nodded with a smile at her first question, liking the train of thought she was on. When he caught her off-guard look at his second, and her followed laughter, it took him a moment to understand. Then he laughed.
"Yeah, that seemed a bit out of nowhere, didn't it?" He asked, "I keep forgetting to actually segue the randomness that spews from my mouth."
He leaned against the banister on his elbow, and considered how to approach what he wanted to say. Finally it seemed he had it.
"See, I was thinking: I'd like to spend a little bit more time with this woman here, and I'd also like to do something exciting. With her, of course. Well, what does she like? Gardening, yeah. And flying – not just with her power, she's an accomplished pilot. Soo, we could do that... but she's done that so much already, I'm sure. Okay, well what about outdoors stuff? Seems like climbing, hiking, etcetera would be a good idea – but I've read her file, and know her history. That stuff was a way of life for her, so I don't know how fun that would be. Then the idea hit me. Scuba diving. Snorkeling. It's something that's both natural and scientific, both outside and something she doesn't have an innate control over. Why don't I ask her if she's done that, and maybe then try to follow it up with the question if maybe she'd like to do that with me at some point. And so I just asked that. And now it's pretty awkward."
He nodded as if he were simply discussing the most ordinary thing, and then leaned back into the banister and watched the sun as it was now nearly all the way beneath the horizon.
Ororo looked slightly taken aback from the moment the first sentence left his mouth, and she could suddenly feel her heartbeat. He had clearly thought this through... he had really thought it through! She hadn't dared to think it through. She cocked her head sharply at him and opened her blue eyes wide as he finished.
Was he asking her on a date? There was no mistaking that language, even if it had been a... very... long time since she had heard it. Unquestionably, the answer was yes.
Unquestionably, her answer was also yes.
"Yes," she said.
She looked out at the sun as the last sliver of gold disappeared over the horizon. After a moment, she remembered to inhale.
"That wasn't too awkward, was it?" She flicked a stray piece of white hair behind her shoulder and turned back to him, regaining her usual composure. The corners of her mouth went up again. "Besides, you must have known what I would say... you seem to know quite a bit about me."
Forge chuckled a bit, immediately relieved of a great deal of anxiety. He wasn't exactly shy, but he was still a nerd. He knew he was better looking than most nerds, but at his heart, he was was still just a nerd. The thought of snorkeling with Storm made a few butterflies flutter through his stomach... not only would it be immensely entertaining (he'd never done it before,) it'd also be nice to have a vacation of sorts.
"No. No I guess it wasn't that awkward... I mean, you said yes. If you'd said no, I suppose it would have upped the awkwardness level a few notches." He cracked a grin, trying not to look too sheepish or dopey, and looked back to her. "And I've read your file. I'm pretty sure there are a few things about you that weren't put in there... that you'd agree to go snorkeling with me definitely wasn't.
"But what's life without the occasional gamble?"
He pulled a bit from a half empty bottle of chocolate milk, and let his mind wander. For a change, he didn't think about the backload of projects on his table, about the once-human entity Lorna Dane, about politics or about his sister... he just watched the sky turn into night.
Man... I really need a vacation.
Storm paced the second-floor halls of the mansion fretfully. There was so much landing on her shoulders nowadays; she could feel her soul compressing somewhere south of her ribs, and the mansion slipping out of her grasp nonetheless. She furrowed her brow and raised her slender fingers to her forehead as she reached the doors of the patio. Oh Xavier…
As if in response, a gentle breeze met her face. She inhaled deeply and looked up, and with the view before her, all regretful, fretful, reprimanding thoughts faded into the fresh air.
She stepped out, not bothering to close the french doors behind her, and moved quietly to the banister.
Forge looked to his right, spotting Storm exit the double doors and take to the banister like he was. She must have had the same idea, coming out for a spot of fresh air. He hadn't thought about how all the changes in the school would have affected her. There was so much chaos, so many things happening... the pace of things had definitely picked up in the last year or so.
He tossed his milk container in the refuse bin and walked over to her.
"Hey Ororo." He said, already the smile coming back to his face. She looked quite beautiful in the fading sunlight. "Catchin' a breather myself. Gorgeous. The sunset. It's gorgeous."
He returned to leaning on the banister now that he was only a couple of feet away.
“Hello Bandero.” The sound of his voice was actually a relief to Ororo. Sure his philosophies were different from hers, but right now she just wanted someone strong to share the burden.
She took a nice deep breath and nodded as he mentioned ‘catching a breather,’ but then something about his tone on the next words made her pause. What was he referring to? She looked up.
The sunset was gorgeous, sure, but what was really gorgeous about it was the glow it cast on the face of the man nex- oh honestly, there was that feeling again in the pit of her stomach. A grown woman -! She scoffed inwardly at herself and turned towards the sky.
“It’s beautiful… although I could have done better.”
Forge looked at her, trying to gauge whether or not she was serious. He looked back at the sunset, then back to her, and broke into a grin. "Yeah. I wouldn't doubt that at all, actually." He said honestly.
Looking out again, he nodded. His first thought was to ask about school matters, or even worse, discuss X-Men stuff. He wanted to talk about the new Blackbird, about Rayen and Lorna, about the emails they've been getting, Sombra, all sorts of tense, stressful stuff. But really, he'd had enough of that. He didn't need that right now. He needed to just have a normal conversation with someone.
"You know, we've not had much of a chance to talk… What does Ororo do to keep herself entertained these days?" He asked. "What do you do for fun? I'm guessing you're not a stamp collector."
Ororo hesitated for a moment, and then smiled back at Forge with her eyes slyly half-lidded.
“I could be a stamp collector. I could be very offended right now,” she said with a haughty twist of her head.
The front didn’t last for long, though, and she lowered her chin. It was strange to talk about something other than business with Forge; it almost made her uncomfortable. But, she realized, she wanted to talk about something other than business with him.
She relaxed her shoulders. “No… Well, I have had little time lately for entertainment. But when I do, I like to come outdoors. She turned and looked fondly out at the grounds. “I care for the gardens; that patch in particular – with the white roses –“ she nodded towards a large section of the garden which was lush and green, speckled with summer colors and rimmed with rows of wild white blossoms – “is mine.”
Forge followed her gaze out into the garden, and narrowed his vision to the patch of roses. Through the lenses of the goggles he had on his forehead (which he leaned his head forward to have them facing) he sent his will, and used the technology to zoom in on the garden, examining her work.
“You've got some serious eye for detail, yet seem to really have a true love for the chaos of the wild. I don't think I've ever seen so beautiful a combination. Of flowers." He raised his head again, and gave her a warm smile.
Of course, the schism between the two couldn't be more obvious: She, a Sidhe of nature, fae and lordly over the elements raw. He a techno-punk, a force of industry, unnatural invention, and man-made marvels. Could there have ever been more opposed forces?
"And I guess you don't need a whole lot of hobbies when you can freakin' fly. That's got to be entertaining."
Ororo threw her head back and laughed at his casual assessment of her powers. “Yes, I suppose it is entertaining. I don’t fly recreationally often anymore, though.” She looked out over the grounds, thinking that over a little wistfully, before she turned to Bandero and his goggles.
“Thank you for the compliments. I do care a great deal about my garden. I suppose it is a metaphor for taming the wilderness inside oneself as well – allowing good qualities to grow carefully, and weeding out the bad. A practice run of controlled development, if you will.” She glanced back down at the flowers below, as she made the connection in her head. Well, she thought, hobbies do say a lot about the person.
“Speaking of which, I would imagine you spend much of your time fiddling with your toys?” She looked almost coy as she spoke the condescending words.
Forge couldn't help but crack a grin. He really liked how she described her hobby – there were few who'd give it so much thought. He even found her jibe about his technology funny, but did his best to put on a mock-offended face right afterward: "Toys you say?"
He tried to look so taken aback that he couldn't speak, but couldn't hold it for more than a moment before breaking into a laugh. "Yeah, pretty much. I spend a lot of time online, actually, since I can access the internet basically in my brain. I guess I'm always online, but that doesn't mean I'm always doing stuff there. I do indeed have the hobby of hobbies, building things. I suppose what I do is also like controlled development. One could make the metaphor that building a machine is like building on your character, you have to have an idea of what you want to have in the end, build toward that, and often get it completely wrong the entire time… You just need to keep on trying until you get it right."
He laughed at that, and shook his head. "I guess I'm probably better at getting technology right. I'm still working on me." Then, possibly to change the subject, possibly because it was all he had to say on the matter, he asked: "Hey, you ever go scuba diving?"
Ororo smiled and summed their hobbies up in a sentence. “So you build on your character, and I work to control mine. I wonder, is that the difference between us?”
“Then again, if we’re both still works in progress, that makes us equals.” She would liked to have thought she was all done with her own character development, but deep down she knew that was not the case. It would probably always be a constant struggle. Was that particular to mutanthood, or was it just being a person?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the most random question she had heard in a long time. She froze for a moment, eyeing Forge, before she let out an amused whiff of laughter through her nostrils.
“Scuba diving?” she repeated.
Forge nodded with a smile at her first question, liking the train of thought she was on. When he caught her off-guard look at his second, and her followed laughter, it took him a moment to understand. Then he laughed.
"Yeah, that seemed a bit out of nowhere, didn't it?" He asked, "I keep forgetting to actually segue the randomness that spews from my mouth."
He leaned against the banister on his elbow, and considered how to approach what he wanted to say. Finally it seemed he had it.
"See, I was thinking: I'd like to spend a little bit more time with this woman here, and I'd also like to do something exciting. With her, of course. Well, what does she like? Gardening, yeah. And flying – not just with her power, she's an accomplished pilot. Soo, we could do that... but she's done that so much already, I'm sure. Okay, well what about outdoors stuff? Seems like climbing, hiking, etcetera would be a good idea – but I've read her file, and know her history. That stuff was a way of life for her, so I don't know how fun that would be. Then the idea hit me. Scuba diving. Snorkeling. It's something that's both natural and scientific, both outside and something she doesn't have an innate control over. Why don't I ask her if she's done that, and maybe then try to follow it up with the question if maybe she'd like to do that with me at some point. And so I just asked that. And now it's pretty awkward."
He nodded as if he were simply discussing the most ordinary thing, and then leaned back into the banister and watched the sun as it was now nearly all the way beneath the horizon.
Ororo looked slightly taken aback from the moment the first sentence left his mouth, and she could suddenly feel her heartbeat. He had clearly thought this through... he had really thought it through! She hadn't dared to think it through. She cocked her head sharply at him and opened her blue eyes wide as he finished.
Was he asking her on a date? There was no mistaking that language, even if it had been a... very... long time since she had heard it. Unquestionably, the answer was yes.
Unquestionably, her answer was also yes.
"Yes," she said.
She looked out at the sun as the last sliver of gold disappeared over the horizon. After a moment, she remembered to inhale.
"That wasn't too awkward, was it?" She flicked a stray piece of white hair behind her shoulder and turned back to him, regaining her usual composure. The corners of her mouth went up again. "Besides, you must have known what I would say... you seem to know quite a bit about me."
Forge chuckled a bit, immediately relieved of a great deal of anxiety. He wasn't exactly shy, but he was still a nerd. He knew he was better looking than most nerds, but at his heart, he was was still just a nerd. The thought of snorkeling with Storm made a few butterflies flutter through his stomach... not only would it be immensely entertaining (he'd never done it before,) it'd also be nice to have a vacation of sorts.
"No. No I guess it wasn't that awkward... I mean, you said yes. If you'd said no, I suppose it would have upped the awkwardness level a few notches." He cracked a grin, trying not to look too sheepish or dopey, and looked back to her. "And I've read your file. I'm pretty sure there are a few things about you that weren't put in there... that you'd agree to go snorkeling with me definitely wasn't.
"But what's life without the occasional gamble?"
