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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 13, 2007 0:30:18 GMT -5
Kurt walked slowly through the halls of the school, his shoulders slumped slightly. Ororo was away (with Forge, although Kurt did his best not to think about that fact), and while she was gone, she had left him in charge. So although he really had no inclination to keep up with the goings on in the school, he dutifully turned his head to glance in through open doorways, yellow eyes falling on students and ensuring their good behavior so long as the acting headmaster was in view.
When he was out of view, though, Kurt's eyes stayed forward in a hazy, heavily lidded gaze, because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to get the image of Forge and Ororo together out of his head. He was happy that she had found someone to make her happy, but such good-natured enthusiasm for her choice ended there - even God couldn't expect too much. After all, he knew the limitations of his creations.
Nodding with a small smile as a pair of younger students slowed to a quick walk in order to pass him without incident, Kurt stuck his hand in his coat pockets and turned another corner to wander aimlessly.
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 13, 2007 21:43:45 GMT -5
"Spin me round again
And rub my eyes,
This can't be happening"
Music played from an open door of the auditorium. It was odd, because nothing was scheduled to be in there, and students weren't to be in there unsupervised. It sounded like a small group of women singing, but the voices sounded distinctly digitized. It was in fact simply the way the song had been made.
Alison Blaire sat at the edge of the stage, leaning against a tall speaker, with a CD player sitting beside her, plugged into the wall behind. Her legs were curled in toward her body, her arms resting on them as she listened. It wasn't her music; she didn't listen to her own music unless for work purposes, to decipher what she thought needed editing and what was good enough to keep.
"When busy streets a mess with people
Would stop to hold their heads heavy"
Her voice stood out among those playing through the speakers, because hers was not computerized as the song's were. The music wasn't haunting, per se, but melancholy. The way the notes slid up the scale was reminiscent of one on the verge of tears.
"Hide and seek
Trains and sewing machines
Blood and tears
They were here first"
Her voice travelled to amazing heights with the voices on the track, all of them together barely audible. Alison's eyes closed, her chin lifting as her clear note held out.
The music continued without her, diminishing the comforting feeling that singing with all of those voices had given her. Her eyes opened, and focused on an empty seat in the front row. She had listened to this sad music, knowing that it would only make her spirits lower. But perhaps that was what she had wanted. Hiding all of her pain even from herself had done nothing for her; maybe her subconscious had known that what she needed was to purge herself of the pain.
Whatever the reason, music was her life. The music had given her her job, her money, and - she had thought - her happiness. Now that that was taken away, and all she had was the music...all she had was the power of emotion that it could direct.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 14, 2007 21:06:10 GMT -5
Kurt's ears twitched at the sound of music as he rounded the corner towards the auditorium, and one eyebrow quirked into a sharp angle of curiosity. Thick fingers teasing the edge of his coat, he contemplated simply teleporting into the large hall in some out-of-the-way corner where he'd been easily hidden, melding with the shadows, but instead he straightened his back (as much as he ever did; walking around in a crouched position takes its toll after a while) and pulled open one of the doors.
He was woefully unprepared for the loud blast of sound that felt like it should have rocketed him back through the wall on the other side of the hallway. Grimacing at suddenly being unable to hear himself in his own head, Kurt focused on the clear image of the stage stored in his head and was gone, appearing next to the huge speaker, his tail snaking out and wrapping around the cord leading from the player to the jack in the wall and seperating the connection in a swift, simple twitch.
Taking a deep breath in the sudden quiet calm, he looked down at the woman sitting next to the huge wall speaker and gave what he hoped was a disarming smile. "Ah... guten Tag."
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 14, 2007 22:30:10 GMT -5
Alison's head whipped around as she heard a noise she couldn't quite explain. A scent suddenly reached her nostrils - also something she couldn't quite place. And smoke - was something on fire?!
Then she saw the man - the demon-looking thing that stepped out of the smoke. Her scream overlapped his greeting as she twisted around and covered her mouth.
The scream ended in a sniff, and she ducked her head. She'd realized after her initial fear had passed that he was just a mutant - and that her reaction had been a terrible one.
"I am...so sorry," she apologized profusely as her hands slid up to cover her eyes as well as her mouth for a few moments, her eyes on the stage. There was no way to pass the scream off as simply being startled at his sudden appearance. She wiped her eyes, where tears had begun to fall. "That was extremely rude of me, I'm...I'm sorry."
"And I'm probably not supposed to be in here, either," she continued, shifting her legs under her so that she could stand. There was another sniff as she started to reach for her CD player, still not lifting her head - thought his ears could have told him that she was teary.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 16, 2007 16:12:23 GMT -5
It would have been better handled if such a reaction was a new development, passed off as surprise and shock; encountered time and time again, it became a staple of his appearance, a constant comment about his difference. Sighing slightly, Kurt let his shoulders drop slightly and smiled ruefully. "Do not worry about it, Frau. I am aware that my appearance is... disturbing."
Kneeling down next to her, Kurt picked up the cable and coiled it loosely, holding it out to her. "I would not worry too much about being in here, but this is a school; perhaps the volume can be kept to a lower level." He looked at her with his yellow yes and gave a close-lipped smile. "Some of our classes require extreme focus."
Rising back to his feet, Kurt glanced around to make sure that no one else was in the room; screams such as the young woman's tended to reflect badly on mutants with a less than appealing visage, and could prove embarrassing for all involved. Looking back down at the woman, he offered his hand down to help her stand. "Guten Tag. I am Kurt Wagner. I'm the acting headmaster while Frau Munroe is away on..." He couldn't help but let some of the frustration out through his voice as he spoke of the situation that played his mind viciously. "... her vacation."
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 16, 2007 19:35:32 GMT -5
Luckily, he took it well. Well, he was probably sort of used to it. Though...he didn't sound like he was from around there.
When she looked up at him, managing a small smile despite her tears (which she had been shaken from, anyway), she saw that he wasn't really that frightening. Sure, his teeth were sharp, but when he smiled with his mouth closed, he looked friendly. Just not human.
She took the cable, then his hand and stood with his help. She wore clunky black boots that echoed softly in the cavernous theatre as she planted them on the wood floor. Besides that, it was just a purple t-shirt and jeans - nothing fancy. She'd spent the last week cooped up in the school; she didn't see a reason to be going out anytime soon.
Guten Tag. So he was German. Somehow it fit; he was unnerving enough without a Bostonian accent. Frau Munroe? Wasn't...wasn't her name Ororo, though? The nice, slim woman who ran the school. Yeah. Ororo. "This place is a vacation. It's like paradise," she said honestly. "If I had to hide from the world anywhere, this is the best place I could have hoped to hide in."
She wondered then if he knew who she was. Not that she cared if he was a fan - not in the least - but it was often annoying to not know if someone was on the same page with you. It made things kind of awkward sometimes. Somehow she couldn't picture him caring much about pop culture, so she ventured to say that he didn't know of her. "My name is Alison. Alison Blaire. Warren brought me here not long ago; I'm..." She paused, lifting a hand to scratch an itch above her eyebrow. "Sorting out some...job...issues..." Eh. Close enough.
Before her hand lowered, she used it to wipe her eyes. He hadn't said anything about her tears; maybe he hadn't noticed. At least things weren't nearly as awkward as they could be.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 19, 2007 22:49:49 GMT -5
Kurt nodded slowly. He'd heard that the star had been brought to the mansion recently; he hadn't had the opportunity to meet her yet, and he could certainly think of better situations in which he had hoped to make her aquaintance, but the current one would have to do. "Ah, Frau Blaire. I am glad you are finding our institute a welcome retreat. I would imagine that the relative peacefulness is a nice change from your normal experience."
Slipping his hands into his pockets, he leaned back against the wall casually. He didn't want to appear to threatening, or seem as though he disapproved of her actions too greatly; if she found it so relaxing here, he wanted her to continue to find it so. "Do you plan on staying with us for a while? There is certainly enough room, and we always welcome a friendly face."
Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, he offered it to her with a smile. "Now dry your tears, Frau Blaire. Surely there is less to cry about than you think."
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 20, 2007 15:24:28 GMT -5
Alison accepted the handkeychief with a grateful and sheepish smile to the blue-skinned mutant. The smile faded quickly, however, as she began to speak. "I'm just frustrated. You know, after how long I've known some of the people I know, I thought they'd be a little more supportive than this in a bad time. The second things start looking bad, they get themselves and their reputations as far away from me as they can."
She dabbed at her eyes again with the handkerchief. There was something so gentle about his tone that it made her feel like she could talk to him about it. Though she was just blabbing on, she hadn't had anyone to talk to about it except Warren, and Warren had been busy doing meetings with the X-Men about some mission they were going on, and worrying about Paige - apparently, she'd left.
"Eric confessed. So I know my name has been cleared. But--" Alison stopped herself, realizing that Kurt very likely didn't know what she was talking about. "Uh...See..." She sighed and shifted her weight, then summarized it as best she could. "I'm a singer, and an actress. And I was doing this movie, playing a mutant character. But...I'd never told anyone I was a mutant. Just because..." She nearly winced visibly - 'because it would have been bad for publicity' was probably not the best thing to say. "I just didn't want to parade it around." Much better.
"So somehow, the director of that movie - Eric, Eric Beale - found out. And he tried to blackmail me at the premiere, saying he'd tell everyone. So - I didn't have a choice! I had to tell everyone. And then I was so nervous, I went haywire, and light started exploding everywhere--And Eric acted like I was somehow hurting him, even though there's no way I could--" She had quite a pained expression as she trailed off, pressing her fingertips to her forehead.
"So anyway, to make a long story short, my career has bombed, and even though he confessed, I'm still close to being dropped by my label, and..." She sighed, looking finally to Kurt. "I know it probably seems stupid, but singing is all I've ever done. I love it. So not only do I have zero other marketable skills, but I could never be happy doing anything else." She looked down at the handkerchief as she folded it over in her hands.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 23, 2007 1:45:29 GMT -5
Kurt stood listening quietly. Mutants had every right to feel safe in whatever they were doing, but there were such bigots in the world that it made even mutants who looked normal unsafe in their own environments. It was a terrible situation that Alison had gone through, and the terrible actions of her friends and colleagues didn't make it any better.
Even with his appearance, it was something Kurt had never had to deal with in his professional career. All of the people he had worked with at the circus had known exactly what he was - even if the patrons hadn't. He was fairly sure that he wouldn't have gotten half the fanmail (or offers - Gott in Himmel, the offers) that he had been accustomed to receiving if the paying customers had known that it wasn't actually a costume, but his real fur and skin. Still, his companions at the circus had been mostly friendly with him, and those that weren't didn't ever pretend to be.
Not being able to do what one loved, though... Kurt knew about that. When Jardine had purchased the rights to the small circus, Kurt had been taken from acrobatics - his great skill and personal glory - and been forced to sit in a cage, drugged to keep him from escaping. Not being able to move, to jump and swing, had nearly destroyed him.
"We are intrepid," he said kindly, giving her a small smile. "Even if the world outside won't accept you for what you are, there will always be a welcome smile here for you."
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 25, 2007 20:10:20 GMT -5
Alison gave him a truly grateful smile in response to his words. "Thanks," she said softly, and heartfelt.
There was something tugging at her curiousity, and she tried to ask it politely. "Um...If you don't mind my asking..." She planned to finish by saying 'what is your mutation?', but what came out was instead, "did you really just, like...appear out of nowhere?"
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Post by Nightcrawler on Feb 27, 2007 15:44:35 GMT -5
Kurt breathed in relief as she finished her question. It was the better of all possible conclusions, something about which he knew enough about and felt comfortable to speak. "I am a teleporter," he said quietly, his tail lazily swaying behind him. "I can be anywhere I want instantly. It comes in handy when something needs to be done quickly, but I am afraid I sometimes forget that it can be surprising as well." He gave a shy smile, certain she'd remember just how surprising it could be.
"And what do you bring to our school? Since there are no humans here that I know of yet."
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Post by Alison Blaire on Feb 27, 2007 17:34:40 GMT -5
Alison was impressed by Kurt's mutation, many questions springing to mind, but he beat her to it with a question about her own powers. "Well, I've never researched it or trained or anything," she began, remembering both Warren and Bobby explaining their powers to her at some point. They'd done a lot of both training and researching to grow more powerful.
"But it's pretty straight-forward. I take sound and I turn it into light. Flashes, glowing, orbs, colors...And I can make these little light explosion things. Like mini-bombs, I guess. I haven't worked on it a lot - no reason to in show biz."
"Apparently I temporarily blinded some people at the premiere," she added, wincing as she glanced down to the stage.
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Post by Nightcrawler on Mar 5, 2007 23:07:40 GMT -5
Kurt winced along with her. Mutant abilities had a habit of getting out of hand when emotion came into the picture. Laying a hand comfortingly on her shoulder, he smiled in an attempt to cheer her up. "It sounds like quite an impressive power, Frau Blaire. If you want, we can make a complete analysis here at the mansion, and you can even hone your abilities. It occupies the time of many of our occupants.
"Of course, we will have to wait until Forge returns from his vacation. He should be back soon." I hope, Kurt thought with a bitter twist. The sooner they return, the better.
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