Birthday Party for Laura/X-23

[noteful]

It's a pretty low-key party, all things considered, and not significantly different than the one Parker or Meg would have thrown in a dorm room for a friend at home, not-exactly-traditional menu not withstanding.

There's music, low enough to talk over (and maybe with a little more folk in the mix than one expects to find a party). Balloons and streamers in purple and blue and red. A place to leave presents. People to meet or catch up with.

And, most importantly, a chance to wish X-23 (or Laura) a very happy birthday.

Comments

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"Oh. I do not know Anthy. Or Alex."

Beat.

"You were playing poker?"

Sometimes it takes X a while to clue in to the obvious. Or what would probably be obvious to other people.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"Bullshit," Alanna replies.

She bites her bottom lip again.

"Oh. That's the name of the game. Apparently."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

X doesn't quite flinch, just looks a little startled.

"I do not know what that is."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"You have to lie, trick people convincingly so they don't call your bluff," Alanna explains.

Thinking back to the game in question, she wrinkles her nose.

"No, I wasn't actually any good at it. Maybe I was simply wearing more clothes."

It's one defensive strategy, anyway.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers this. Carefully.

"People have tells."

Beat.

"Scent is difficult to mask. And heart rate."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"True." She smiles. "You'd play well."

Should the opportunity arise.

"Are you enjoying the Security work?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"I like being useful."

Beat.

"And I am good at it."

She's not hesitant at all about either of those.

"The paperwork is okay, too. It is relevant?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

Alanna snorts.

"So they keep telling me. I avoid it whenever possible." Which hasn't been often, lately. "Stormwings attacked the palace."

There's a logical chain of thought in her head, honest.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

X goes still, nostrils flaring very slightly.

"You drove them back?"

It's an obvious question, but maybe Alanna retreated here. To buy time. For ideas.

X has done that before.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

A quick nod.

"We fought back and killed many, but the queen-commander escaped."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

X frowns, very slightly.

"You cannot track her?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"We've done our best," says Alanna, lifting her chin. "But we can't fly, and can't always follow where they go."

The last is just a suspicion.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"And you cannot keep them from leaving."

It seems logical.

"She will come back?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"I think so. She wants vengeance on young Daine and Onua. They took her eye."

Alanna sucks in a breath through her teeth.

"Mel was there. I think she had fun fighting them." It's said with a bemused smile.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"She is very good," X says, after a moment. "Mel."

Beat.

"They could not kill her? Daine and Onua."

She pronounces those names very carefully. They are new.

"Or they did not try?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"She is," Alanna confirms. Mel is someone she's long trusted in battle and it's evident in her voice. "Though explaining her rather unique talents has been interesting."

Where interesting means a pain in the ass.

"They tried. They killed several Stormwings that day, as well as at the palace. Daine can't be older than fourteen." Beat. "But she's better than me with a bow and arrow."

It's honest.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"I am not good with a sword," X offers, after a moment.

"It is okay."

Beat.

"You have a plan? For when the Stormwing queen comes back?"

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"We've stationed archers high in the towers." A nod up and a finger gesture indicates they are very high, indeed. "And Daine has some sense of when they are nearby. It's..." hard to explain. "She's working with Numair. He thinks she has wild magic."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"Oh."

X's expression goes blank at that last part. And remains that way.

"I do not know what that is."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"Neither did Daine."

Alanna at least had experience with Bazhir magics, but several of her friends wore expressions similar to X's when Numair explained.

"In it's simplest, most easy to explain form: She can talk to animals and sense things about them."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not look particularly enlightened.

Because--

"It is not a mutation?"

What? It could be!

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

"Not in the sense you mean, no." Beat. "I think.

"My brother was always more adept at magical theory," she confesses. "I wanted to ignore it as long as possible."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"Okay," X says.

She is still a little confused.

"It did not work. Ignoring it?"

That's how it sounds, anyway.

Re: Hang out with X-23

[the_lioness]

Alanna shakes her head.

"You can't ignore such a gift from the Gods. It will eventually eat you up from the inside out, or spill over and hurt innocents."

That might be a touch dramatic, but she's seen the side-effects of untrained Gifts. It's messy.

"But I had so much. I was afraid I'd do more harm than good. Circumstances changed my mind and I learned to control it."

Re: Hang out with X-23

[cutting_edgex23]

"Control is useful."

X is very matter-of-fact about that.

"Julian was working on it. Before. He is a telekinetic. At home."

This pause is longer.

"He could not pick up a pin. Without breaking the floor."

Beat.

"You do not do that."

Does she?