Windrose Mingle - November

[passingthrough]

Who: Windrose crew and the people who stalk them
Broadcast: Probably not!
Action: Windrose
When: November

[It's been a month of loss for the Windrose. We've lost Ordis, Tenno, and now our captain The Vision. We could probably use some visitors and ship togetherness.]

Comments

Re: [ closed to kurt ]

[ecclesiophobic]

[Nothing good has come from Kurt answering his door recently, and for a second when he hears someone knocking, he's tempted to teleport away. Only knowing that it would just delay the suffering spurs him to get up and answer.

Of all the people he expected to see on the other side, Charles is not one of them. He blinks dumbly at the man for a moment before his eyes narrow.] I swear to God, if you've come here to tell me someone else has vanished..

[axiomed]

[ He blinks, surprised by that non sequitur before shaking his head. ]

I have something I'd like to share, that's all. I can leave if you want.

[ecclesiophobic]

[The set of his shoulders relaxes as Kurt sighs, softly, in relief.]

Nein, nein. I'm.. I apologize, Xavier. It's a been a hell of a month. [Hell of a past few months, but Kurt has neither the energy nor the desire to explain.] I was going to check on the garden, if you'd like to come with me.

[axiomed]

[ Charles eyes him before nodding. ]

Certainly. I'd like that.

[ecclesiophobic]

Good. You can watch me accidentally kill everything Vision worked so hard on. [Says the man who successfully grew a walkway of sunflowers for his then-fiancée.

Kurt stays on the ground for once as he starts toward the cargo bay. After a moment's pause, he chuckles at a thought--and proceeds to share.] You know, baldness looks better on you than I'd have wagered. You bastard. [There's absolutely no venom in his tone, just amusement.]

[axiomed]

[ Charles touches the back of his neck, self-conscious. He hasn't been much for looks, not anymore but he had always been vain about his hair. Now touching fifty and lacking very few conventional physical attributes that mark him as "attractive", he's not sure how he feels about it. ]

I'll have to take your word for it. Though I hear it's a common look on me.

[ecclesiophobic]

[And again Kurt says entirely the wrong thing without meaning to. Hell.] I'd be insulted if you didn't; you should at least know me well enough by now to know I don't flatter. [He very nearly says 'flattery isn't my strong point,' but it would be too close to a lie. He's not good at flattering men; women he does just fine because most of the time he's flirting with them.

Kurt inclines his head sharply, turning enough to glance back at Xavier.] In my world, you were bald and Erik was white-haired by the time both of you hit twenty. Yours is the only world I know of where that wasn't so. [He pauses, then adds:] Honestly, it's a little bit of a relief.

[axiomed]

[ That quickly? That's surprising to hear. ]

Because we're so different?

[ecclesiophobic]

I wouldn't know how different you are from the Xavier that my Erik knew. [The reminder is matter-of-fact, as is the confession that follows.] Without your hair, the resemblance to my nephew isn't as striking.

[Oh look, the cargo bay. The minute he walks through the doorway Kurt's gone up the wall, skittering over to the soil beds.] So, what is it you wanted to tell me, Xavier?

[axiomed]

It's not so much as "telling".

[ Charles opens up the book on his lap. Kurt would see pictures of his mother through the ages and even a couple of himself. Rogue. Irene. ]

Your - ah, Mystique left this for me.

[ecclesiophobic]

[Kurt freezes in the middle of checking the soil moisture, his eyes glowing out of the shadows.] Left for you.

[Seeing Rogue's face hurts more than he'd expected.] Are you certain she'd want you showing that to me?

[axiomed]

[ He nods. There aren't many words for the strange friendship and trust they forged in the Fleet. Charles could never fully untangle his own complicated feelings for his sister in Mystique and he likes to think she benefited from that - from knowing there was one person who wouldn't turn her away. ]

Since it came to me, it's my decision.

And I don't believe she'd disagree with it.

[ecclesiophobic]

We Darkholmes do love our secrets.

[Despite the warning tone in his voice, Kurt's next movement is to simply let go and plummet, teleporting halfway down to reappear, upright, within arms-reach.]

..How the hell did she get photographs of Wagner? I was under the impression she gave him up. [It's very hard to keep bitterness out of his voice, the pain of what he'd viewed at the time as abandonment fresh in his mind since the glitch.]

[axiomed]

Most likely she kept tabs on him throughout the years.

[ With her powers, it was manageable. It makes Charles wonder whether Raven had done the same. ]

[ecclesiophobic]

That would be entirely like the one I was raised by. [He thinks briefly of Graydon, the brother he'd grown to adulthood never knowing and who wanted nothing of him when they discovered their familial ties. Kurt can't honestly blame him; he's the one their mother kept instead of tossing to the side for lack of an X-gene.

Sometimes, Raven Darkholme made it very hard to love her.

His lips thin just before he extends a hand in silent request for the album.]

[axiomed]

[ Carefully, he hands it over. Charles has no blood ties. He probably never will. His found family is all he has and he knows what a tenuous bond it can be, whether he hopes for the best or not. ]

[ecclesiophobic]

[Kurt holds the book as carefully as he had his infant nephew the first time he'd been placed in Kurt's arms, and with as much trepidation on his face. For a moment he stares at the book like it's going to bite him, and then, suddenly, crouches to put himself and the album in Charles' line of sight.

He turns the pages carefully, pausing at a picture of Wagner with his adopted parents.] That.. is not who I expected to see.

[axiomed]

What's so surprising about it?

[ecclesiophobic]

The Kurt Wagner I knew of had been raised by circus performers. [And the people in this picture look rather boring in comparison, normal. Just like the kind of people who tried to kill him when he was a teenager.

Kurt scowls deeply at the sudden dark twist to his thoughts and turns the pages, ignoring further pictures of Wagner completely. The photographs of Rogue make his nose sting, but his expression softens with affection. The next picture he pauses at is one with Rogue and a brunette woman wearing sunglasses. After simply staring for the better part of a minute, he says, softly:] ...She was a brunette.

[axiomed]

Irene?

[ Charles had surmised as much from the photographs. ]

Did you know her?

[ecclesiophobic]

I'm surprised you do. Although, all things considered, I suppose she'd have felt safe telling you.

[By all things considered, he means Erik and the relationship he isn't touching with a ten-foot pole. Erik why you gotta date his family in every world? Why this.]

[axiomed]

[ If he picks up on it, he doesn't ask. ]

I enjoyed our talks together.

[ecclesiophobic]

I'm sure she did as well. [Or she was playing Charles, but hell with it. She's gone and her manipulations are moot, pretty lies won't hurt anyone now. If they even are lies.

Kurt's lips press together as he continues staring at the too-young Irene.] In my world, Irene was an old woman, the oldest I'd ever seen living. She welcomed refugees to a place we called Avalon, because it was the last place on Earth that Apocalypse hadn't ruined. The air was still sweet to breathe, and you could drink from a river or eat fruit from a tree without worrying about radiation.

[And for a dizzying moment, he wants to tell Charles about how Irene had held his mother's hand like a fragile thing and asked if she were ready to come home. Of anyone, he thinks his uncle would understand. But in the world he lived in this was a secret that even his Erik couldn't be trusted with, and instead he chooses a lesser confession.] You know that I consider you family, ja?

[axiomed]

[ Charles stares. This was always the confession he was weakest to, the one that always went straight to the heart. He swallows tightly, trying to push the emotions down. ]

No. I - I didn't know that.

[ecclesiophobic]

[Charles' reaction prompts an inexplicable swell of guilt in Kurt; this feels like manipulation for the purpose of cruelty, despite Kurt's only intention being honesty. Perhaps that's why it feels like lead.

He honestly didn't think Charles would care that much.] Didn't think so, once I realized you were serious about staying out of people's minds. Which I think is ridiculous, by the way.