tushanshu | Video | EA-2TRIBBLES

[The Ororo that sits in her chair as the console comes online is not happy. She is soaking wet and wrapped in a towel that says she's fresh from the shower. The air about her has dropped numerous degrees by the way her breath frosts and the fact that the wet mop of hair half plastered over her face is starting to frost at the tips.]

They were cute. Cuddly. I could like the cuddly Furby angle. But this?

[She thrusts out her hand, in which she has fisted a lot of wet tribble fur.]

No. That's too far. They clogged my shower. This means war.

[With an irritated noise, she throws the sopping wet handful of tribble fur on the console surface, then points at the screen.]

This is officially crisis-level important. What're we doing about it? Because I'm about to make it look like Christmas out there and I could use a hand.

[With a disgusted noise aimed at the fur, she turns off the console. Replies'll come as she gets ready.]

[ooc; there's an action thread inside if you want to give Ororo a hand with her temper tantrum against the tribbles.]

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[Charles politely had his eyes averted, though he was obviously fighting the urge to chuckle as he responded.]

A clogged shower is cause for a declaration of war now?

[Ororo stops and OH MAN, THE PROFESSOR maybe she should behave. It's part instinct still to defer to him, though she's clear on the pouting.]

It's gross, Professor.

[Petulant whine is juuuust barely there.]

I get fur. I do. I mean, look at my ex -- he's big and blue and furry! But this is way too much.

[Okay, that caught his attention and distracted him from gross, wet tribbles in the shower; for the moment at least.]

Do you mean, Hank?

[His tone is more amused than anything, perhaps a hint of scandal because he knows his sister had been interested in the brilliant young scientist, before her eye had turned to Erik.

Though ...]

How old is he in the time you come from?

[Beast, were you robbing cradles??]

I mean Henry, yeah. [She still uses that name a lot when she talks about him. Well, no. That's a lie. She rarely talks about him and the melancholy shadow that takes to her tone suggests why -- the break-up.]

We're about the same age, I guess. He sure acts like a stupid teenager sometimes. [This with a bit of huff to her voice.]

[Reaching up, Charles rubbed at the back of his neck for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around this (not the teenager part, he can see that) but then he could only shake his head.]

Another instance of extreme differences in our dimensions I believe. When I met Hank he was already in his early twenties and this was in the nineteen sixties. I know he said that Raven's cells meant she would always look half her age but I do not recall him mentioning the same for his own mutation.

Raven? Never heard of her. She got a cheesy codename to fall back on?

[Half the time, Ororo's not even sure their codenames aren't their real names, to be fair.]

That's too out of whack to work with my Henry. He's way too stupid-young to get away with being forty. Guess worlds don't much take the whole timeline thing too seriously.

[Cheesy codename? Oh good, he wasn't the only one who felt that way, though he chuckled softly and nodded.]

She actually came up with them, named me Professor X and Erik Magneto. She insisted we call her Mystique.

[There is obvious fraternal love and fondness as well as a delicate thread of sadness in his tone when he speaks of his sister.]

What a curious thing indeed, these timelines. Do you know, Ororo that I believe I met you, in a manner, the first time I used Cerebro?

[Funny thing is? Her cheesy codename come from you. Well, the other you. But, yes, SHE FEELS YA ON THAT ONE.]

You mean a cat named you?

[Give her a second, Charles. See, Mystique is the name of Professor X's cat in 1610, so she's just... looking at you a bit weirdly.]

Weirder things have happened, I guess...

[Whoa, her mind drifts at that list bit.]

You mean, like, met-talked to me? Or just did that weird brain creeping thing that you do?

[Gawd, Ororo, have some manners.]

A cat? [Cue the confusion.] No, Mystique is the codename my sister gave herself. I believe it's because she could be mysterious as a shapeshifter.

[As for her question ... urk.

Charles reached up to rub at the nape of his neck.]

Err, well, it was the first time I'd ever used Cerebro. I wasn't exactly able to converse across it, just ... [the pause as he struggles for better wording is pretty telling. Yep, brain creeping thing.]

[Shapeshifter? Weird. She's just... a cat back home. Right?]

Chalk one up to interdimensional differences.

[A murmur to the Mystique contradictions, because that's got to be the weirdest difference yet. She's talking even weirder than the Logan that didn't know her and even weirder than an Xavier with hair.]

You brain-creeped. [She confirms that for him with a nod. It's okay, Professor, she's cool with your braincreeping. Then, because curiosity's getting the better of her...] What you saw... What did you think?

[Going to have to set aside the cat and interdimensional differences for now and focus on the part of the conversation that, well, made sense.

He has the grace to look a little bit like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar because he had totally been brain creeping but the expression smooths out to one of wonder at the memory. Not her's specifically (he's not that creepy) but the memory of touching all those minds, learning that his suspicions were correct; they were not alone.]

I honestly did not see much, Ororo. It was the first time I ever used Cerebro and at that time there was only Erik, Raven, Hank, the mutants I saw with Shaw and myself. When I used Cerebro to look for others ... and I found so many thousands...

[His voice took on a dreamy quality and Charles smiled, that proud smile of his (not pride in his ability but in their entire species).]

It was amazing, Ororo.

But to address your question, for yourself, well we were looking specifically for others who could aid in standing against Shaw and you were young, too young but I recall you were writing in a journal about a dream you'd had.

I didn't catch the details, to be honest it was a bit of a handful, trying to manage thousands of minds, hopes and dreams when up to that point I'd only ever had to field a couple hundred.

[Ororo is quiet for a very long time at this information. She doesn't quite understand the wonder of a thousand minds (though it may be akin to the exhilaration of learning to fly upon the air currents), but this.... It's...

Everyone tells her about an Ororo Munroe that is amazing. She's a graceful queen that is worshipped as a goddess and her powers are nigh unparalleled. That? It doesn't feel like her. It feels like some sort of impossible fantasy that she'll never attain.

This... Writing? She does that -- poetry. Dreams, yeah; who doesn't have those? But, it's more her than every other description she's met with since arriving.]

Ah. That's pretty... cool, Professor. [Said with a slow nod.]

Everyone talks about a goddess and a queen, so it's cool to hear about something realistic, y'know? [A beat, then an actual heartfelt statement of:] Thanks.