001 they send me away to find them a fortune

[ashandflame]

Who: Jean Grey
Broadcast: Fleet Wide
Action: N/A
When: 5 April

( Jean isn't a stranger to space. She isn't a stranger to time travel. She is, however, a stranger of being kidnapped to a space fleet, released, and kidnapped back. What's the deal? What's so special about her that the Atroma want to bring her back for another round? She's a telepath, sure, but there's other telepaths in the world. There's other mutants. She isn't any better than the rest of them. Still, there's a whisper in the back of her mind that she tamps down and locks shut - something she vacuum seals to keep it from contaminating the rest of her mind. You have the Phoenix Force. You're chosen. It's always you. Death and rebirth, cycling on. She turns on the camera and decides to just do it live. Stream of consciousness is still a thing in 2019, isn't it? )

Look, I was here before. The people were cool but the forced captivity was something I wasn't a fan of. I'm just a girl, ok? There's no reason why I need to be here over anyone else and I have shit I need to do back home. How do you get the Atroma to spring you permanently? Do you have to pay them off or something? Because I think I could swing something. I've got friends in high places.

( It's probably useless but Jean feels the need for agency. So much of her life depends on teamwork, on relying upon others to do the right thing and do their part and she's not someone who likes relinquishing control. It takes everything in her not to just take over; this is why group projects were never a good idea in school and should be permanently banned. The Atroma can stab themselves in the eye with a rusted spork for all she cares. She just wants to go home, finish her mission, grab a slice and do the same thing tomorrow. That's it. The normal desires of a twentysomething with the most dangerous job in the world, right? Right. )

Seriously, though. I'm not here for it. I just need to get back home and if anyone has left and come back before, hit me with your ideas. I'm not above telekinetically frying all the circuits on this piece of shit just to make a point. I think it might end in some consequences I don't want, though, so if you have ideas that aren't going to turn me into a vegetable, I'm all ears.

Comments

[seeingscarlet]

At least you remember. It's...hard, when everyone else knows you and you can't remember who they are.

[ashandflame]

( Jean recognizes Wanda from last time around and remembers her being a telepath, too, and an all around nice person. She shoots her a sympathetic look. )

I guess it could always be worse. So you're still stuck here, Wanda? My condolences.

[seeingscarlet]

It's all right. I don't like that we're trapped here either, but...there are some reasons it is not so bad.

At least you missed Calibrations.

[ashandflame]

Calibrations? That sounds absolutely delightful. What kind of joys did I miss with that?

( Anything the Atroma could come up with is no picnic and Jean doesn't like the sound of it at all. )

[seeingscarlet]

Every night we dreamed of being in a room that represented either our minds or someone else's. You could see memories in the room, and even having powers like ours couldn't stop it.

[ashandflame]

( Jean has seen some horrible things in the landscapes of people's minds. She's seen Auschwitz in Erik's mind, she's seen other terrible things over the years. She thinks it will get easier but it never does. Not being able to control it? That's even worse. )

God, glad I missed it. You got through okay?

[seeingscarlet]

It could have been worse. Some people saw things I wish they hadn't, but...I know I've seen things they would rather have kept to themselves.

[A quick, sheepish smile.]

You understand.

[ashandflame]

Oh, do I ever. I've been overhearing things people don't want seeing the light of day for as long as I can remember. By the time I was eight or nine, it was so unbearable that I thought I was just going insane. Turns out I was just a telepath.

( Jean does jazz hands. Are jazz hands even a universally understood gesture? She hopes so. )

Surprise! You just read minds!

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda laughs despite herself.]

I thought I was going crazy too. It must have been terrifying to go through that as a child.

What happened in Calibrations was awful, but at least it was only at night. [Better for everyone else that way.]

[ashandflame]

Yeah, I'm still glad to have missed it. My life is pretty much a wreck so nobody needs to see that and I don't want to have to explain my choices to anyone. I shouldn't have to.

( Jean tries not to get too melancholy these days but a telepath just gets it in a way that other people don't. )

It's hard knowing that even among your own kind, people look at you with suspicion because they think they can't trust you. They think you're in their head, always, and that you're going to use it against them.

[seeingscarlet]

Or that they will explode if you sneeze or shake their hand.

[Not everyone is like that, thankfully. But Wanda's also watched important people twice her age or more greet the rest of the Avengers and then squirm and try to pretend they hadn't seen her or that something else had caught their attention. But she knew.]

Are you the only one in your world?

[ashandflame]

Oh, no, there's a lot of us. I'm probably one of the most powerful, sure, but there's a lot of telepaths and telekinetics. Telepathy still isn't a really common mutation, though.

( There's Emma, there's two versions of Jean, there's Charles, Psylocke - and those are just the ones that Jean has personal experience with. )

Are you the only one? That's...I couldn't imagine being all alone with that.

[seeingscarlet]

There aren't any mutants in my version of our world. I wasn't born with my powers.

I think it was easier, in some ways...but it's nice to meet so many more people here with powers.

[ashandflame]

You weren't born a mutant? How did you get them? Experiments?

( Jean thinks of Logan. His mutation had been natural but the adamantium didn't, had been the result of Weapon X messing around with him to make him a super soldier. It's cruel, to do that, but people have been experimenting on mutants for as long as anyone can remember. She'd seen things in Erik's mind about Nazi Germany that she wished she hadn't. She hopes that isn't what happened to Wanda. )

[seeingscarlet]

[...of course even in a world with mutants there would still be men like Strucker. There always are. What was it they were always saying? Cut off one head and two more will take its place? There's never any shortage of power-hungry, ruthless people.

She can only hope the Scepter had a different life in Jean's world.]

Do you know what the Mind Stone is?

[ashandflame]

( Jean tries to remember all the things she's run into in her time as an X-Man, both in the 60s and now, and a Mind Stone isn't something she recalls. It might exist in her version of the world but the world is big and she might not be on the list of people who need to know. )

I haven't but that doesn't mean it isn't there. It's a big world and I'm only a small part of it. We have people like Captain America in my world too - and that might be something he's involved in. I know of him but I don't know him.

[seeingscarlet]

It is...many things. It's a power source, and it can give the holder the ability to control minds. And it...it changed my brother and I.

[Jean's smart. She can connect the dots without Wanda having to spell it out.]

So many people looked at it and only saw weapons.

[ashandflame]

Well, people aren't weapons. People are people, whether they're mutants or not. It's not right to use someone's powers for your own gain. I'm sorry that happened to you and your brother.

( There's very little that can get Jean riled up quite as much as this and she feels her face going a little red just thinking about it. )

We're not here to just be playthings for other people.

[seeingscarlet]

I think that is literally why we're here.

[And it's clear from Wanda's tone what she thinks of that. She is solidly on Team Vision when it comes to attacking the Marsiva, and not just because she's his girlfriend.]

Not to fight, but as someone else's entertainment.

[ashandflame]

Ugh. Well, if I sneak a little fighting in, they're just going to have to get over it. I'm going to poke around this ship while I'm stuck on it and see what I can find, okay? Having another telepath on board will make it easier to keep it away from you know who.

( Jean isn't going to sit idle. Not this time. )

[seeingscarlet]

Be careful.

[When she'd sensed that thing - whatever it was - it hadn't made her sick, so maybe Jean will be okay. She's not going to be able to physically see it, and that seems to be the trigger.]

We can 'talk' about it later, when you're assigned a ship.

[ashandflame]

Yeah, exactly. When I get my ship assignment, I'll reach out to you first. I think you're the only person who can do what we do other than me.

( Both a comfort and a pain in the ass, in Jean's opinion. )