2012-07-09 Communion

A good portion of the day's been spent in St. Patrick's, away from the faces of the tourist-trade. Tours line up and through, looking at the magnificent architecture, the stained glass windows, and the icons that form the different stations. There are more than a few faithful, however, that treat the church as their 'home church', and Kurt Wagner is one of them.
It's just past dinner, however, and he's sent his intercessionary prayers out, lit candles and made his offerings into the box for alms. Now, he exits the church, his fedora set back onto his head, and looking up at the sky, gauges perhaps the time. Or, with the lingering glance, perhaps he's looking for an answer to his prayers?
Even near St. Patrick's there's still the constant glare of passing headlights from cars and street signs, and each and every bit of light blurs in with the next to mix around the edges of the Cathedral. Perhaps it's the swell of the crowd or the lighting coming off of the nighttime blur of the traffic lights, but as one grizzled elderly man in a newsie cap turns around the corner, a figure with the same blue shade as Nightcrawler peeks through the crowd. All he's gifted with is a slender, blue chin hidden beneath a mane of raven-black hair. About to cross the street in the direction of the Cathedral, a similar three-fingered hand reaches to a backpack hanging from the girl's shoulder.
A mere heartbeat later she disappears as a large, overweight man in a public works uniform steps in front of her, taking her away from Kurt's view.
Lights, low light, doesn't much matter to the yellow-eyed, blue-furred mutant. Kurt's not //that// set into his own thoughts (after searching the heavens) that he doesn't catch sight of something out of the ordinary. Blue.. blue is out of the ordinary, in the cosmic scheme of things. He begins to move across the street, resisting the urge to teleport (nothing like upsetting the masses even more!); though it doesn't stop him from leaping upon the backs of cars and vaulting across to see if he can't catch what's.. caught his eye.
And catch he does. Hes greeted by the sight of a young girl, no older than twenty years old. She has long black hair and similar pounted ears and yellow eyes. She looks exactly like Kurt himself, save for her skin is smooth, the only fur coming from the top of her head. The backpack over her shoulder is an old, beat up number with patches from the Boys Town Institute in Nebraska, an old Catholic outreach program.
Be it the iPod clipped to her waist or the typical New Yorker mind-your-own-business attitude, she passes near Kurt, almost close enough to touch. Kurt, however, could still reach out and touch the blue, pointed tail that sways behind her just...like...his.
It's like.. well, feeling like the first time he'd ever seen Mystique. That //feeling// in his gut that there's some cosmic explanation out there and he's decidedly left out of the discussion. Kurt doesn't reach out, no.. what he does is land and come in first behind her, then beside her, setting his pace to match. "Good evening.." comes first in his heavily German accented English, and he simply can't resist the urge any longer, "Have we met before? You look somewhat familiar.."
The look that Talia gives Kurt is like a freight train smashing her directly in the forehead. She stops suddenly, forcing the people behind her to make a wide berth, which many are happy to do to avoid the 'freaks'. Her eyes go wide and her mouth goes agape, immediately looking to Kurt's face and strangely his left eye. She stammers, at a complete loss for words as she rips the earbuds from her ears. Then the words finally come...
"DAD?" She blurts outs, throwing herself against Kurt and wrapping her arms around him in a limp, exhausted death grip. "Oh my god..." She follows, trying to keep her feet beneath her.
Okay.. perhaps there are many things Kurt expects from the encounter, most unconscious and only known to him after the fact as an 'of course'. However, //DAD!// simply isn't one of them. As a result, he's really not prepared for the hug that is thrust upon him. Still.. it's an unconscious gesture that the hug is.. confusedly returned, though now, not without a great deal of.. confusion. --"I'm sorry.."-- (said in German) is begun, and realizing that his jumbled thoughts are coming out, he switches back to English.. "I.. think you are mistaken.." Of course, the moment the words come out, how could he even think to utter them? Blue. Tail. Yellow eyes. Three fingers.. though she's escaped the fur. Blessing or curse, depending upon the day and who one asks!
Something in Talia tenses up when Kurt tells her that she is mistaken. Leaning heavily against him, she uses his shoulders to push herself free. Swallowing hard, she brushes the fresh tears from her eyes and inspects his face. She frowns and reaches out to brush her two forefingers over where his left eye is, but then quickly takes it back with a shake of her head. --"I'm...Sorry that was...I should have known"-- She replies in perfect German, wiping away some of the dark mascara from her eyes that has begun to run. Snuffling, she moves out of the crowd towards the iron fence that lines the Cathedral. --"Gods I should have known, I'm sorry, you look so young and you've still got your eye and..."-- she rambles, trying to explain to him. --"I did it again."--
Something in Talia tenses up when Kurt tells her that she is mistaken. Leaning heavily against him, she uses his shoulders to push herself free. Swallowing hard, she brushes the fresh tears from her eyes and inspects his face. She frowns and reaches out to brush her two forefingers over where his left eye is, but then quickly takes it back with a shake of her head. --"I'm...Sorry that was...I should have known"-- She replies in perfect German, wiping away some of the dark mascara from her eyes that has begun to run. Snuffling, she moves out of the crowd towards the iron fence that lines the Cathedral. --"Gods I should have known, I'm sorry, you look so young and you've still got your eye and..."-- she rambles, trying to explain to him. --"I did it again."--
"--Did it again.. did what again?--" Kurt's surprised, on the onset, that Talia speaks German, and it's enough for him to settle into the language which makes a great deal more sense to him. And perhaps the .. younger girl before him. "--What are you talking about?--" Beat.. and he pauses in his step, stepping away with her towards the iron fence so they're out of the way of traffic. "--My eye?--" He's playing catch-up, and seems to be behind on everything.. ever since he came 'home'. "Slowly," and now he's back to English. "You called me 'dad'," he prompts, his brows rising. "Is there something I should know?"
Talia turns back to him, her face extending as she tries to stretch the sore muscles near her eyes from the sudden fit of crying. She's walking it off. She'll be fine in a moment. When she turns back to him, the broom-length wrap of fabric lashed to her backpack is more visible to him, as it's some sort of secondary package that she's carrying on her back.
"I, really don't know what you should and shouldn't know, but I guess it isn't going to hurt. This isn't the first time this has happened." She sighs, brushing a hand through her hair to keep it away from her face. "My name is Talia Josephine Wagner. In another place, or another time, or something I'm your daughter. It's been well over a year since I've seen my parents and..." She puts a palm to her forehead, feeling suddenly ashamed. "...this is going to be hard to swallow."
She takes a deep breath, righting herself. "I'm LOST, Kurt Wagner. You're not my biological father but somewhere else, you ARE my father."
Kurt watches the young woman's movements, and there's a surge of.. something that swells. Pride in the fact that somewhere else, he's got a daughter that was obviously happy to see him when she though he was.. him? or.. something. He lifts a hand to scratch at the top of his head, the red dye fading (finally!) into a duller red. "Over a year?" His voice lowers, his expression pained to hear her plight. Of //course// he's dying to know who her mother is, and for that brief moment, that threatens to trump all others. It's tamped down, however, by that guilt and recrimination- lost soul crying out for help. "Then I can't turn you out again, now that we've met. Perhaps," and he looks around to the church first, then to the heavens, "this was some answer to my prayers. They say that God answers not in the way you want but in the way you need."
"I was actually just about to head inside..." Talia half-laughs, half-cries, as if something terribly sad has been interrupted by a good joke. "...I missed the last few Sundays and you would have //killed// me if I didn't get confession once a month, either. Well, not killed, you aren't that bad." She adds, pausing for a deep, stabilizing breath. "I don't take up a lot of space, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't to the bottom of my cash flow. I'm kind of stuck here in this dimension and honestly, I don't know if I'll ever make it back home, but I swear I'm not some thief and I'll earn my keep if you have a couch or something? After what happened at the Stark building I've been getting bad looks at the shelters."
"I would be disappointed, yes.." Kurt agrees. "//Killed// is a bit strong, ja.. but I understand." Here, he offers a smile, and turning about, he gestures towards the church. "I spent most of the day here praying over the loss of a friend. Candles are lit.. but now, perhaps I should join you and offer the Blessed Mother some thanks. I just didn't expect that she'd do something so quickly." He offers his arm, and his voice lowers, "Of course you can stay with me. There is room. I am at the Xavier Institute. I bet Katzchen would love to meet you.. and the others." He looks towards the church, "And on the way home, you can tell me all about it. I am all ears."
"Katzchen???" Talia blinks, eyes suddenly alight with joy. She practically bounces. "Kitty's here too? I tried the Xavier Mansion when I was on the road but the number was different. I knew something was different here, so I came here to look around, but I didn't have enough cash to take a bus out to Westchester, and you know how Salem Center is about mutant customers sometimes." She takes his arm, turning towards the church. Again, she takes in a deep breath to calm herself. "I...well let's just say there's a lot to talk about. I'm sure you want to know everything about //there// and I want to know everything about //here//."
"Seems that not only will you be offering up confession but you'll be with me thanking Mary?" Kurt can't help but chuckle; things are looking up, and while there's sadness, there's that spark of something else to offset. "Yes, she's here. And I will bring you there.. after." The last word is given pointedly as he escorts her up the steps. "There is a great deal to talk about." Beat. "You don't have any brothers or sisters, do you?"
"No." Talia says with a shake of her head. "At least none that I'm aware of. You and mom..." She stops herself, cringing. "My mom and dad were a happy couple. You were with the X-men and she was with the Avengers, and we had all these friends. We'd do winter in the alps and summer in Wundagore. You were a pretty happy guy, but the two of you decided to keep it at me since you were both heroes."
She turns, letting the backpack fall off of her shoulder enough to get into a small pocket. Out comes a series of beads that ends in a crucifix. It's an old, battered rosary, something necessary for certain prayer rituals. By the time that she gets to the stairs, she looks back to him. "And yes, Kurt, I will definitely be offering up confession and thanking mother Mary. And before we leave...can we light a few candles for some of the people I left behind?"
So there's somewhere where he's happily married, settle down (after a fashion) and has a family? Kurt exhales in something of a contented sigh and nods. Peace for him somewhere, anyway. As they stand at the door to the nave, he chuckles, "Avengers?" He's getting a few more clues, but nothing concrete. "We were happy all together.." He chuckles and nods, the thought.. calming.
He's taken from that reverie, however, at the request to light candles with her, and Kurt looks at her with understanding if not more than a little sympathy. "Ja.. I will with you, liebchen. Gladly."
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