Meetings

[forge]

It took some extra time for Forge to hobble up to the second floor, but now that he was getting the trick of the leg down, it seemed he was at a steady limping gait. Almost like he had a bum hip.

Soon enough, He, Blurt, and Domino were stepping through the open door to Storm's office.

He smiled at the two of them, and nodded down to Topher.

"Hey guys. This is Topher, known as Blurt." He said in introduction. "His mother just dropped him off at the gate."

[Blurt]

"Hiya!" said Topher cheerfully as he rounded the corner. But then he stopped short, nearly dropping his duffel bag on the ground and having to grab at it with both hands.

"...WHOA."

[Storm]

Ororo turned to the doorway when Forge appeared. Her smile brightened from soft to radiant and she lifted herself from the couch. Her braid fell down her back and little white wisps floated around her face as she stepped forward.

"Forge." She put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him carefully, as if to make sure he was healthy and alive. "How is your leg doing?"

Then her blue eyes shifted down to the little boy who had come in behind Forge and was currently standing with a stunned look on his face. "Hello, Topher." She put out a slender hand for him to shake. "Welcome, come in. My name is Ororo Munroe, or Storm; this is Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler. You can call him Mr. Kurt, though, I suppose," she laughed, glancing at Kurt and remembering little Hannah. "Are you here to stay?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt hopped up from the couch, grabbing his coat and pulling it on over his shoulder. His eyes followed Ororo as she moved, watching her loose braid sweep against her back, before he tore his gaze to Forge, nodding in a silent greeting, and let it fall on Topher as he walked through the door.

Offering a small smile, Kurt crouched down, bringing himself closer to Topher's eye level. "Guten Tag, Topher. It's good to meet you."

[Blurt]

Topher had seen the pictures in Forge's mind, but he was still taken aback by the strangeness of the two people in the room. Particularly...

He stared at Kurt, intimidated but strangely fascinated, like when he had seen a tarantula at Robby's place last month. So THAT'S what a Night-crawler looked like.

He opened his mouth, but nothing came out at first.

That only lasted for a second, though. Then Kurt's last thought registered with him, and the tall lady offered her hand. His gaze shifted to the glowing vision of her. He put his hand out and let loose.

"Whoa, the blue man's right, you ARE beautiful. Is your hair really white? Can I call you Storm? Do you make storms? My name's Christopher Lung, but most people call me Topher, although Forge said I could have a superhero name too, so I guess that's Blurt. My teacher used to call me that. Yeah, I'm here to stay, my mom left me here, she doesn't want me anymore. You like him, huh?" He looked up at Forge with admiration. "He's really cool, he found me outside the gate, he has helicopters."

Topher paused in his tirade to snap his attention to Kurt, who was crouching down to his level. He backed off just slightly and adjusted his beanie nervously. "Hi Mr. Kurt, it's um, good to meet you too. Are you..." he got up his courage to ask a few of the things that were burning in the front of his mind. "Are you from somewhere? Is everyone blue where you're from? Are you sick, your eyes are yellow - my mom says it means you're sick. Oh my GOD -"

He had just caught a glimpse of Kurt's tail twitching from behind his coat. He stared at it, awe spreading over his face, as if that was the absolute coolest thing he had ever seen in his life.

[Domino]

Neena came into the office last of the three, aware that she should probably hang at the back until a hole came up as might be convenient to introduce herself or explain her presence, if such a hole came up at all. If nothing else, she'd wanted to make sure Forge didn't fall off the side of the stairwell and die or something, since she was pretty sure Topher wouldn't be able to do much about it, or that Topher wasn't somehow swept up on the way by enemy forces and Forge wasn't able to do anything about it.

Paranoid? Nah. Paranoia was causeless; caution was natural and just. Neena had every reason to be cautious.

Ororo Munroe, radiantly beautiful, glowed and smiled and exuded happiness almost to an unreasonable degree. Though Neena didn't doubt her sincerity, it boggled her mind how someone could be that happy under what looked like pretty normal circumstances. It had to be a useful trait when running a school, though; she wondered what it would take to faze the headmistress. She looked pleasant and spoke simply, though not without good sense and intelligence behind her words.

Kurt Wagner was almost more comforting than Ms. Munroe had been; for one thing, he didn't seem to generate sunshine, even if he was definitely one of the strangest-looking people she'd ever seen. Guiltily, Neena appreciated it; for once in her life, she wasn't the sore thumb in the room. Her spot couldn't even begin to compete with a tail.

At least Blurt appeared little affected by the transition. Neena thought that maybe he hadn't fully realized what had happened yet - and then remembered his power, and that he'd probably be listening in to her scrutiny of his age and condition.

So she scrutinized in French. Sure, it took a little more effort to speak in English or understand what was going on around her, but she likely wouldn't be needed anyway.

[forge]

Wow, Blurt really could spill it out a nonstop stream of words... they weren't random though, or incoherent, he just seemed to think really, really fast. It was remarkable. Moreover, the kid really seemed to take a liking to him – which was weird, since normally he didn't bond well with kids. Not that he'd spent a lot of time with kids, save for the late night chats with Jones. He was pushing 14 or so now, though.

Huh. So Nightcrawler took the active thought that Storm was beautiful. Makes sense. And what did he mean 'So you like him?' to Storm? He hoped that she liked him, since they were – oh crap. Did he mean like like? Forge seriously doubted someone who looked like Storm could have much more than a professional interest in a geek-boy with a gimp leg. He filed that one away under 'must have misheard'.

The thought of Blurt brought him back to Hannah, though. And Sombra. And how they desperately needed to get on that now that there was a freakin' pause in stuff to do, and authorities to talk too.

No rest for the weary.

He'd bring it up as soon as the Blurtroductions were over. He passed a glance back at Domino, hoping she wasn't feeling awkward.

When Blurt was busy talking to Kurt, he looked back to Storm. “Good to see you too, Ororo.” he said with a grin. “The leg's doing great... kind of random, but working out pretty well. I accidentally threw myself way over the gate with it though.”

As if summoned by the thought, he winced at the hot pain down his back and shoulder.

[Storm]

Ororo was initially taken aback by the rush of words coming from the small person in front of her. But she shook his hand and learned very quickly to listen carefully - because there seemed to be more than just babbling in Topher's speech.

First of all, the blue man - had Kurt said anything? Oh yes, it snapped back to her in an instant, he's a telepath. A telepath - that means Kurt was thinking -

She barely had time to glance wide-eyed at Kurt before she was hit with a barrage of questions. She gave a little laugh of amazement and held up her hand as if to slow the onslaught.

"Yes, you can call me Storm, or Ms. Munroe. Yes my hair is really white, and I do control the weather, that is a perfect guess."

Blurt is a good name for this little guy. She could understand the frustration of a parent faced with raising this child... Of course, that was absolutely no excuse for the atrocity of abandonment. But it seemed Topher was really going to make life interesting at the mansion.

This was particularly evident in the next thing that came out of his mouth.

You like him, huh? He's really cool.

Ororo didn't manage to respond to this one at all, it threw her so much. Had she been thinking that? Did she like Forge? Did she LIKE Forge? Is that what he meant? She must have been thinking - maybe - oh dear.

She stared, dazed, at Domino as she entered, not even hearing Blurt rambling at Nightcrawler. Then Forge's voice cut through the fog.

She looked at him and her heart collided with her stomach. Oh no. That was an unmistakable feeling.

"... Good. I'm glad. I hope... it gets easier to use."

[forge]

Forge realized a bit too late that most people were probably uncomfortable with disabilities, even ones replaced by cybernetic limbs. Maybe especially by those. He could see the odd look of distraction on Ororo's face, and did his best to cover it up, making sure not to let his smile slip.

“Yep, yep. It's going easier, though I can't seem to get the pattern of thought and no thought down to get it moving. Blurt's mom left his duffel bag out there and gave us quite a scare with all the things going on lately... we were ready to diffuse it, were it a bomb. Oh, hey, speaking of, have you met Domino?”

He half turned toward her and nodded. Storm likely would've heard about the new teacher, even read her file, but he didn't know if they'd officially met. Besides, it'd take the edge off of the discomfort of the situation.

“Turns out she's somewhat famous in some of the circles I mill about in.” He decided not to mention that the circles were military arms and industrial weaponry. Not that he minded if Storm knew about those things – hell, she'd seen his laser cannon in Baltimore – but better to not bring it up again.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt's eyes widened in shock as the words tumbled from Blurt's mouth. Gott in Himmel, not something to be said out loud! He could feel her eyes on him for a moment before Topher had moved on to other things.

And then he felt his stomach drop.

"You like him, huh? He's really cool."

Kurt's face didn't move at all, but his eyes couldn't see anything for a moment. Topher wasn't talking about him. Yellow eyes focused on the Native American man for a split second; there it was. He looked human.

I never should have left the circus.

Kurt slipped a small smile onto his face, looking at Topher as questions poured from the young boy's mouth. "Ja, I'm from Germany. No, I'm the only one who looks like this." Kurt felt a pang of sadness tear through his chest as he remembered it. "No, I am not sick; my eyes have always been yellow."

Kurt's brow furrowed in confusion, but then he glanced over his shoulder to find his tail in view, so he weaved it back and forth, watching as the boy's eyes followed it.

[Blurt]

[OOC: Bwahahaha! Havoc!!]

Storm seemed pretty cool. Nice, even if the weather thing did make her seem like some sort of weird Greek goddess. Topher decided she might be all right. Anyhow Storm was a good superhero name. It made him think of pirate ships.

He caught a glimpse of something behind him and turned to Domino with amusement. "Hey, you speak French! I can't understand that."

Topher, luckily, soon disregarded all of the other thoughts that were flying about his head, once his attention was hooked by Nightcrawler and his waving pointed tail.

"You were in the CIRCUS? That's perfect! I bet you kicked butt on the uh, the flying trapeze." His eyes were glued to Nightcrawler's tail as he spoke. He took a hesitant step forward, hands twitching like he wanted to pounce on it. "Is... Do you... Wow. Wow. That's so cool. I've never met anyone with a tail. I didn't even know people could have tails. It's... it's yours, right?"

"I've never seen anybody with blue skin either. I saw a lizard once with a blue tongue, though. Is your tongue blue too?" He managed to tear his gaze away and look at Mr. Kurt's face. "What are the drawings? Are those like tattoos? I want to to get a tattoo but my mom wouldn't let me."

[Storm]

Suddenly the world seemed very complicated. There is a reason that people keep thoughts to themselves, Ororo thought, thrown by the remarks that Topher had made offhand but that carried a surprising amount of meaning. She felt like she had been buried under a wave at the beach.

Luckily Topher's attention was now on Kurt. Or perhaps not so luckily. Ororo's heart went out to him; but at the same time she hoped that his thoughts had not been any deeper than what Blurt had let show. She knew him well - it must have been friendly. She decided it must have been. She couldn't deal with going any further than that.

Ororo gathered herself as quickly as she could, and faced Forge with more courage. She met his eye, composure back one hundred percent. "A bomb scare? Thank you for noticing and dealing with it without alerting the whole school. That would be a last resort, sure, but with your knowledge and abilities I wouldn't think it necessary."

She turned to Domino as Forge introduced her. "Yes, it's good to meet you. I've heard a lot about your skills." She had indeed read the young woman's file, and approved her to come to the mansion. "How did she do with the duffel bag?" 'Ro asked Bandero with a little smile.

[forge]

The tension in the room was getting thick. Poor Kurt, he didn’t much look comfortable for some reason, which was odd, because likely he was the best person Forge had ever seen with kids. Must have been that whole ‘you think she’s beautiful’ bit. He could see how that was a bit awkward – though really, who didn’t think that? Storm was easily the most beautiful woman Forge had ever seen, all told. She was the perfect skin tone, awesome hair, beautiful eyes, etc etc, yadda yadda yadda. Personally, he’d always thought it’d be a hindrance to maneuver in society looking so good.

He chuckled, and responded to Storm quickly so as Domino could get the introductions over. Storm was essentially her boss, and he didn’t want to butt in and be a wedge between the two at all.

“Yeah, much better than I did, that was for sure. I nearly broke my da… uhh, darn arm leaping that gate. Domino’s probably one of the best bomb experts in the field, actually, if it were a bomb I’d pick no one else out there to try and disarm it.”

[Domino]

((aaaaaaaaaaah couldn't get on at school. *kicks Ms. Teows* SORRY))

Having tuned out a little when she started rambling in her own head en francais, Domino was jolted back to the conversation by her own name. From the tone she could basically guess that it was an introductory type dealio, so she smiled and held out her hand to Storm, giving the requisite it's nice to meet you and transitioning mentally back into English so she wouldn't have to spend a split second looking confused if anyone asked her a question. She smiled a greeting at Kurt as well, though he seemed preoccupied at being caught by Topher (and therefore the rest of him - maybe she should have a talk with him about the definition of tact).

“Turns out she's somewhat famous in some of the circles I mill about in.”

Her smile altered slightly and she glanced back at Forge. "By proxy," she corrected. She was damn good at what she did and she knew it, but was similarly aware that most of her acclaim - what of it that didn't come from 'oh my god it's a girl' - came reflected from her father.

She'd really been hoping they could steer clear the topic, too. It usually wasn't a good thing to know about someone who was going to have charge of a bunch of kids - fears were pretty evenly split between her going nuts and blowing everyone up or her going nuts and teaching the kids how to blow everyone up.

Even she wasn't quite that nuts yet. For the latter, anyway.

"Hey, you speak French! I can't understand that."

A quip was almost on her tongue before Topher turned away again, his attention focused completely on Kurt.

Definitely needed a conversation about tact. Or about keeping your mouth shut. Each equated to the other after a while, though.

"Yes, it's good to meet you. I've heard a lot about your skills."

"Thank you," Neena said politely. What, is there some sort of Domino Warning that goes out over the radio?

She tried very hard not to be slightly incensed that Forge and Storm were talking over her head, and since one was her boss and the other had been decent until just now, she was mostly successful. She tried to keep her mind completely clear, but it was difficult - until now, she'd never really thought about how much she... thought about.

She did have to smile at the compliment, though. Made her cold, black little heart go pitter-pat. Or at least made her ego swell.

"I'd pick someone else," she said honestly. "I doubt my dad'd take the job, though. And I'm hoping it won't be too much of a necessity to have a diffuser at a school, but I suppose you never know..."

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt pointedly ignored the gazes from the others in the room, focusing entirely on Topher. He didn't want to know what anyone else was thinking, the absurdity they were most likely reflecting on. His eyes winced slightly, the only outward sign as he kept his smile firmly planted on his face.

"Ja, Topher, I was an acrobat in the circus. Life on the trapeze was interesting." He kept his tail waving back and forth before snaking it forward to poke him in the stomach. "And it is most definitely my tail. I have never met anyone else with one."

The edge of Kurt's mouth twitched uncomfortably, almost as if his smile was about to crack, as Blurt continued on with the teleporter's physical differences. Normally he was perfectly fine with it, but at the moment, it really wasn't something he wanted to think about. Not so different from the outside world after all. In response to the question about his tongue, he simply stuck it out at the younger boy, showing it's pink hue. "They are scars, Topher. Not quite as cool as tattoos, I'm afraid."

[forge]

Forge, whose attention was ever divided, made a special note of a certain set of circumstances. Surveillance cameras he’d discretely placed in the mansion since the invasion of Mystique had displayed to him peculiar actions on the part of the Wolverine. Apparently the man had gone to both his office, and Storm’s, and placed in them an envelope. Then he got a small amount of his things, and left across the lawn, hopping the gate and into the wood. From there he went beyond Forge’s viewing range – which was a substantial distance.

Forge furrowed his brow, assuming the worst (and the truth, as it was.)

He looked back at Domino, giving her a wink. "You know, your old man may be an awesome disabler, but I doubt he's got all your gifts."

Man her power was cool. Shrugging the thought off, he looked back to Storm.

“Hey Storm… I think the X-Men should probably have that meeting we need to have sooner rather than later. I’m going to call in all the trainees and X-Men, and we’ll meet in the meeting room in, say, three hours?”

His face read that it was probably not the time to discuss the intricacies of the situation, and it held a certain gravity seldom seen there.

“Domino, Kurt, you guys should be there. All of us should. This’ll give you three hours to see Topher to where he needs to be.”

He gave the kid a genuine smile. His thoughts were that the meeting was important, of course, and that he wanted to make sure the guy got some good living situation handling. It’d be good for Topher to be here. It was a great place to be.

[Blurt]

[OOC: Hi everyone, sorry I was gone. I'd like to finish this thread though? *puppy eyes*]

Topher's attention was fixed on Nightcrawler now, which was probably lucky for everyone else in the room. Domino's presence may have accounted for that. Then again, it was probably unlucky for Kurt. So Domino's presence may have only applied to the people she was talking to.

Topher followed Kurt's tail with his eyes like a cat with a snake. "You really WERE on the flying trapeze? Wasn't that scary? Did you ever fall?"

Then the tail swept forward and gave him a prod in the stomach. Topher made a surprise-sound and hopped backward, eyes wide for a moment, before he opened his mouth and cracked up laughing.

"Haha, it is yours! That's SO cool! Can you, like, pick things up with it? That's so cool. I wish I had a tail," he said in awe.

"Scars? Did you hurt yourself? I scraped my elbow on a wall at school - " Topher ripped his attention away from Kurt's tail and contorted himself, trying to get a good look at his elbow while angling so that Kurt could see. "It really hurt and now it's kind of white or something, I think, and kind of wrinkly. Not like yours, yours are prettier."

He stopped. "Well YEAH you're different," he said, in response to the older mutant's thoughts. "But you're so cool. I mean you can see through my head but I don't have a tail. Hey, you want to see?" Mr. Kurt was cool enough to see his head, Topher decided. He reached up and pulled off his beanie, leaning forward a little so the pale translucency of his skull was visible, with the deep red of his brain pulsating beneath.

Of course, now he was looking down at the ground, and he caught a look at Kurt's feet. A new stream of words escaped him.

"Oh wow, you have feet like a bat or something, or a monkey. Can you hang on to stuff upside-down or anything? How do you find shoes that fit?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt took a deep breath as the words continued to stream from Topher's mouth. Running a hand through his hair wearily, he focused on the boy's words. "Ja, I fell quite a bit. It is dangerous being so far up in the air, but you have to block out the fear or you'll freeze up.

"I can pick up many things with my tail, and I can even hang by it. It comes in handy."

One of his thick fingers traced a scar on his fuzzy face and he watched as Topher spun around to show him his elbow. "That does look rather painful. Mine were too, but it was important at the time." He gave a small smile. "I did try to make them look nice, at least."

At the small boy's sudden outburst, Kurt's eyes widened in a chagrined sort of embarrassment, and his eyes flickered briefly to Ororo as she talked to Forge and Domino. Ja, Topher, you may think I'm cool, but being different isn't all happy. He looked back as the young boy pulled his hat, and Kurt leaned forward, looking at the physical evidence of Topher's mutation. "That is very cool, Topher."

He was going to say more, but the topic had already moved on to his feet. "I can hang upside down, ja. I don't usually wear shoes, though... they are rarely comfortable."

[Blurt]

Topher took a rare moment of silence to listen in rapt fascination to Kurt's explanations.

"Wow. Wow. I wish I had a tail." He got a sort of dreamy look in his eye, imagining swinging from monkey bars and lampposts and trapezes in front of a crowd of cheering people.

Kurt's talk of scars brought Topher back. He couldn't figure out for a moment why the older mutant said that he tried to make the scars look nice. Then he got a flash of memory - blue skin and red blood - and his eyes widened again. He didn't exactly feel bad for Nightcrawler, but he had never before encountered the idea of hurting yourself on purpose, and he was broadsided.

This mutant thing was complicated.

...

"... I wish I didn't have to wear shoes. Can I not wear shoes here?" Topher perked up a little, looking at Kurt hopefully.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt chuckled to himself as Topher let his mind wander over the possibilities of having a tail. He didn't need to be a telepath to understand that look.

And then suddenly Topher looked confused and disturbed. It wasn't a pleasant look on the face of a boy so young. Kurt's eyes glanced one way and the other in concern, wondering what had made Topher react so strongly.

"... I wish I didn't have to wear shoes. Can I not wear shoes here?"

Kurt blinked, confused for the briefest moment before he realized Topher had moved on yet again. The child has a mind faster than lightning. Giving the bald boy a small smile, Kurt poked his stomach with the point of his tail again. "So long as you are inside, yes."