2013.03.12 - Long Night?

The day's only getting started for most of the world of Xavier's. For a much more select number of individuals, it's just that point during another very long run where the sun decides to make an appearance. Light cuts through the overcast morning in a warm but pale orange glow, a thin mist hovering over the still surface of the lake. It seems quiet and alone, which is exactly what brings Domino out this way. She's got her hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her trench, dark suglasses perched atop her head for the time which they'd be of better use.
Other X-Men just might have noticed that the Blackbird was missing from its hangar for several hours yesterday. It's probably a good thing that supersonic aircraft don't come fitted with odometers.
Jocelyn fell into the second category, and she's out on her early morning run. She's dressed in her typical yoga pants, tank top, and sneakers, with her jacket tied around her waist. She's just finishing the run portion of her morning workout, actually, when she spots Domino strolling along the lake. Well, rather, she at first sees that there's another person out that way, based on the amount of thermal energy being put off, and then she sees that it's Domino.
Jocelyn wasn't aware of the Blackbird being gone, but she didn't really spend a lot of time down at the hangar. She couldn't fly the plane, and really didn't have a lot of need to deal with it at present time. However, she hadn't had many conversations with the woman, and she found that mornings were good times to meet people. So, she decides to add a bit more distance to her run and ends up slowing her run down near Domino.
"Morning Domino," Jocelyn says to the woman as she approaches. She may or may not notice if the woman has that vibe of wanting to be alone. If she does, she's disregarding it, in any case!
It can be difficult to sneak up on someone like Domino. Difficult, but not impossible. She's tired and in what's starting to feel like familiar territory, which results in a lowering of her guard. Sloppy. At least she doesn't jump with a start and spin around when she's greeted, though there is a slight twitch in the back of her shoulders.
The voice is familiar. Even more familiar is the other woman's height. Here stands someone she can always look up to, even at the risk of that joke being far worn out. "Morning, kiddo. What brings you out this way? Erm..." she trails off, subconsciously glancing downward at your feet. Are you wearing heels out here..? She knew you were tall, but...
Eh, if she really wanted to be -alone- she wouldn't have stuck around the Institute.
Running in heels would be a really terrible plan! Doing her practice in heels would be even worse! Never mention that to certain people, or they would make her do it. It does help that Jocelyn could pick up on Domino perhaps a bit further away than others. Jocelyn does pick up on that twitch, however. She'd seen that type of twitch enough in her life to know what it means. "Morning workout," Jocelyn explains to Domino. "You look like you've had a bit of a long night," Jocelyn points out. That wasn't hard to tell. The woman was dragging and dressed in a trench coat with sunglasses on her head. Nobody wears sunglasses in the morning like this.
Jocelyn does notice Domino glance at her feet, and slightly raises her eyebrow. "Something wrong down there?" she asks, curiously looking downard as well. "I didn't step in something and wreck my sneakers, did I?"
"Just momentarily blinded by the brilliance of your aura," Domino dryly intercepts with her usual lack of tact. "Long night, things not working out as they should, pretty much the norm."
One objective out of three met. Crew fell apart. Nearly a total write-off. At least the 'Bird managed to come back in one piece. Plus no one's yelled at her yet, sooo...
Of course, herein lies a new problem. Sure the students around here are generally made up of other mutants, but trying to relate to any of them? Not..so easy. "Things been working out alright for you?" You were still fairly new to this place, right?
"Now, that doesn't work. I'm the one with energy sight," Jocelyn responds casually to Domino's dry interception attempt. The girl tilts her head a little bit at Domino's statement about the night. "That blows. Anything salvagable?" she asks. That kind of statement could mean anything from a rotten date to a raid on some super villain's hideout with the people at this mansion, so there was a lot of room for Jocelyn to interpret things. However, she doesn't ask what it was. She's got enough life experience to know that's not really something she'll get a great answer to if she outright asks it.
"Yeah, things are working out mostly okay. Got a few things kicking around that are being problematic. Trying some creative uses of my power which have resulted in a few falls and headaches. Pretty normal around here though, really". She shrugs.
A thin smirk quickly results from the comment about energy sight. There isn't a graceful way which Dom could ask the question behind it all. Did you suddenly grow more? Last she saw you were already a little shy about the height issue. As for salvaging things, she glances off to the side and nods slightly. "Wasn't a complete waste." Everything happens for a reason, and all that.
Ah, here we are. Power-related discussion. She looks back up (way up) to you, directly inquiring "How does it work? I barely know what it is that you do and what all can be done with it."
Like anything, it depends on how a topic is brought up. "Well, at least you got something out of it then. Something you'll get another shot at?" Jocelyn questions. "Or was it a one and done?" she questions, slipping into a little bit of slang. Not much though, as the phrase had become common enough for a few different things.
"Well, it's all based on energy. I can see pretty much any type of energy. You move your hand, and I can see the kinetic energy. There's a constant stream of gravimetric energy pushing down on the earth, and magnetic energy too. Thermal energy, psyhic, even magic, they all have some sort of energy tied to them. That's what I see," Jocelyn explains.
She shrugs a little. "And I can do things with it. I can absorb any type of that energy and use it to sort of power my abilities, I suppose. I can become tougher or stronger or lighter on my feet. I can release blasts and bursts of whatever energy type I take in. I've been experimenting with flight, but that's mostly resulted in me hovering for a bit and falling down again. But I think that's normal".
"Maybe," Domino cryptically replies. Honestly, she isn't sure. She doesn't have all of the variables on that situation yet. It's more of a 'probably' than a 'maybe,' but she's not too keen on dwelling upon the matter.
"That's..a lot of energy," she hesitantly observes. "No wonder headaches are involved, that sounds like it can lead to complete visual overload." Like staring into a kalidoscope while on acid. Still, hearing about everything that you can achieve with it earns a low whistle from the smaller, paler woman. "Pretty impressive skill set you've got there, Joce. People like you sometimes make me feel this side of normal."
The light grin which follows would suggest it's said in a joking manner.
"Yeah. Mr. Summers found me wandering the slums of Detroit for a couple days when it first manifested. It was a really bad one, worst I've had. Worse than anything I ever tried when I was younger. My brain has learned to parse it though, most of the time. I just have to be careful not to focus on every little detail. Kind of like driving, I suppose". Jocelyn pauses. "Looking at his eyes...that wasn't easy at the time. Still not what I'd call the best idea I can have, but I can tolerate it now. Your power is psionic in nature, so I see that around you, for another example," Jocelyn explains.
The girl laughs a little. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm all that powerfui. Rogue spent a good bit of time amused with my attempts at flying and racing her, and my blasts aren't nearly as powerfui as some people's. Still, they've come in handy". The girl shrugs a little bit at that. "It's the brain that counts more, and how you use it, or that's what I've found.
"Let me know if there's anything I can help you with, by the way. I know stuff tends to be secretive around here, but feel free to ask". Not that Joce has any clue what it is...but it wasn't like she was completely naive to the world either.
"No one likes looking into his eye," Domino says with a marginally soured tone. Her last conversation with that guy could have turned out a whole lot better, and she hasn't yet buried that particular axe. Plenty of grinding left to be done on that edge. Though as much as she might get ticked off at their leader, he does still do some good things. Like bringing new faces to this place, giving them something better to work with. "Detroit isn't the friendliest of cities, either." As if she needs to tell you that.
Wait. Wait. -Her- power--? Dom quickly holds up a hand in protest, flatly saying "I don't want to know."
It's one of those things... She doesn't know how it works. She barely understands what it does. But, it -works.- With this one detail in her life she actually prefers not being in full control. It might stop working, or ..-something.- It's happy as it is, she's content to leave it at that.
"We've got some specialists, sure. There's nothing wrong with being a Jill of all trades. We tend to be more universally useful."
Last night she had to fly the Blackbird home, and she did! Not too shabby for a gunslinger.
Then there's the offer. Dom's initial reaction is to file it away then forget about it. You're a -student- here. She already came awfully close to yelling in Scott's face over the matter of her helping to endanger a bunch of kids.
However...
You can see energy signatures. Something like that could potentially be very useful down the road. Scouting and surveillance. Out of harm's way. She's not..getting..the students shot. That's Dom's business. No one else's. Certainly not that of people too young to legally drink.
"Fair enough. If you ever need to know what lottery numbers to pick, feel free to give me a call."
"Fair enough," Jocelyn says. She can't actually see how it works, just if it's active. But, she knows what it's made of. Which begs the question, could she interfer with it by absorbing it while it was active? Jocelyn...doesn't want to think too hard about that question. She'd rather just not be put in a position to try and absorb some of Domino's power while she's using it. That might cause a whole lot of really weird luck to occur. "And no, it's not especially friendly. Grew up in the system, so there was all that mess. But, I figure it made me better able to deal with all the craziness that my life has brought me in the last month or so. I suppose there was some reason for it". Not that Jocelyn liked it all that much.
"Yeah, means I can do a few different things with it, I suppose. Though mostly I'm just trying to get better with it right now and control it properly. There's always the possiblity of me overloading and causing a small explosion with me as ground zero. That hasn't happened since the first manifestation though". And Jocelyn fully intends to keep it that way as long as she can.
Jocelyn smiles a little. "Well, I got a few ways, I suppose, of earning money, that I can avoid participating in that particular scam, though I'm not exactly rich," Jocelyn says with a smirk. "Besides, how much of a cut would you take for winning lottery numbers?" she adds with a smile.
"You do seem to be pretty on-the-level. Better than some of the kids that come through these doors." Maybe that's why their fearless leader has justified already placing you in danger. Dom isn't sure, but it's still not her call to make.
Ah..hmm. 'Ground zero.' Dom's talking to a bomb. There's never a dull moment at Xavier's! Even on quiet mornings like this one, the potential for disaster is always just around the corner. Or looking down at her, as the case may be. "So don't feed you after midnight, gotcha."
Fudge. She's also just guided the conversation right down a path where she gets to further explain her own powers. So much for avoiding -that- topic. "It was more of a joke," she rather lamely admits while rubbing the back of her neck. "It doesn't work like that. If I'm not part of the moment, nothing happens. Don't know why. Guess it's kinda like saying Logan could take a bullet for you but he couldn't heal you if it passes through."
"Everyone has a past, you know? Some of these kids had, or still do even, have a life of luxury. Some are cast out, some are perfectly middle class". Jocelyn shrugs a little bit. "You get all types, really. Some are way more okay with things than I am, and some are way worse". Usually the ones who had really obvious mutations and had trouble blending in.
"Well, more like don't feed me too much energy at once. But as you're not likely to shoot me with energy bolts any time soon, well, I think we're safe there". And Jocelyn was perfectly okay with that. Unfortunately, she misses the Grelmins reference, having not seen the movie.
"Ahh. Okay. That makes perfect sense," Jocelyn says. That didn't seem that hard to grasp. Jocelyn had some ideas as to why, based on what she could see, but Domino said she didn't want to know, so Jocelyn doesn't go down that route. "That's way more versatile than what I've got," she points out. And everyone said Joce was able to do a lot of things.
Ain't that the truth... Laura immediately comes to Domino's mind. Things could always be worse, more screwed up, more difficult.
Right. She's not letting her mind wander down that path.
"Yeah, no issue there. I only shoot conventionally." Smirk. Safe from one hazard, directly in the crosshairs of another.
"It has its moments, but it's complicated. Luck is double-edged, it can cut both ways. Unlike most of the people here, I don't have any control over it. The eternal gamble. Even though you might explode if you digest too much, you know about that limitation. You have a baseline understanding, you can know what to expect."
"That's fine. Found out that bullets bounce off me," Jocelyn responds with the same smirk that Domino gives her. And given Laura was Jocelyn's roomie, she could understand that perfectly well. A nod is given. "That's tricky. You can't really control luck though, so that makes sense. You just learn to ride it, like a horse or maybe a bucking bronco, I suppose," the teen comments. There's a beeping sound from her phone, and the girl looks down. "Anyway, I need to get rolling. Sorry about that. I'll catch up with you later, Domino".
Category:Log