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

[passingthrough]

White hot room? [Some kind of room of torture?] The Phoenix Force? Is that a team of people you fight against? [Sorry, Jean. The Phoenix Force doesn't present itself in Kitty's universe until after she's already dead.]

[ashandflame]

Ohh, your Jean must have kept it to herself. It's...well, there's this cosmic space thing that wants to take up residence in my brain and you know how it is. Not enough room for everything so Jeannie has to go.

( It's a very flippant answer but Jean has complicated feelings on the Phoenix Force, especially since she managed to talk it out of inhabiting her recently, and she doesn't want to run into it again. )

[passingthrough]

I think if my Jean had a cosmic space thing inside her I'd know about it. [How dare? But also, kind of worried about this Jean now. Are you okay?] Do you...? Is it here?

[ashandflame]

Well, I talked it into leaving me alone recently, so I think we're good for now. I just don't know how long that particular negotiation is going to last. It's like a temporary truce, I think.

( Now that her older, better self is back from the dead, though, maybe the Phoenix Force will go pester her instead. It's a terrible thing to wish on a future version of herself, Jean thinks, but she just can't deal with it right now. )

[passingthrough]

It probably can't get here without an invitation from the Atroma. [But that's always possible if it can take form on it's own or one day Jean wakes up with more memories, but she just got back. That problem can wait until at least tomorrow.]

Jean, there's something I need you to do while you're still on the Marsiva. [Then quietly she tries to center her mind and make thoughts stand out clearly the way another Jean taught her a long time ago. Kitty is not psi sensitive in any way, but she was taught techniques for blocking and projecting her thoughts as much as possible for someone without any powers of that nature. Still, she doesn't expect it to work given the way Xavier's powers had been hampered during his stay. She's not sure any telepath's range reaches from one ship to another in the fleet. But it's worth a shot to keep this quiet. And if anyone's going to be the exception, she believes it would be Jean. Well, Jean or the Shadow King, but let's not get into all that.

Can you hear me from there?]

(OOC: Totally fine if she can't! Fine if she can too! I don't know what kind of limitations if any you put on her!)

[ashandflame]

( Jean isn't a stranger to hearing people's thoughts but hearing someone deliberately in her head is a little different than the norm. Charles did it, of course, but she isn't around enough telepaths on a regular basis for her to be used to it anymore. When people aren't telepaths, though, they're not good at figuring out how to project and while she can hear Kitty, it's just loud and she can't make out the words exactly. She knows it's Kitty but that's about it. )

I hear you screaming - you've got to think really hard when you're not a telepath. Use pictures.

[passingthrough]

[Audibly.] But I'm so bad at Pictionary. [Give her trivial pursuit any day. Can she even do this in pictures? If she thinks of the memory that was implanted in her mind by Castiel of the creature then is she going to be subjecting Jean to the unbridled sense of dread and hallucinations that come with it? She can't do that without warning her and how do you warn someone of that in pictures?

She tries to picture the memory of Wanda telling her about her sensing a lifeform on the Marsiva. She's guessing that will be too complicated to convey especially over this distance. Especially since she's trying to picture words ultimately, but it's worth a shot.]

[ashandflame]

( Jean sees the monster but it's all a mess, like a toddler's crayon drawing. There's enough spiky emotion around it that Jean senses danger but she doesn't quite know what to do with it. It's something intangible, almost dread, and Jean visibly shudders from it. She speaks out loud. )

Anywhere we can talk about that without being overheard? On a planet, maybe?

[passingthrough]

Talking maybe, but I need you to scan the ship you're on now. See if you can pick anything up. We can't just go to any part of the Marsiva anytime we want. [So a telepath there now is something they don't usually get.]

(OOC: And probably calls for asking the mods if there is anything she can find.)

[ashandflame]

I'll poke around and see what I can find. Next time we see one another in person, I'll figure out a way to tell you if I saw anything.

[passingthrough]

Sounds good. [She's torn. It's been awhile since they shunted people off to ships so it could happen any moment, but she didn't get much time with Jean last time she was here and she doesn't want that to happen again either.]

So, does it feel like you were just here and no time passed or do you have new memories from home?

[ashandflame]

It feels like I was just here and went to sleep. No time passed. I was still on Klyntar when I showed back up here, so I didn't miss any time at home either.

( It's weird but maybe that's just how the Fleet works. Jean doesn't presume to understand how reality warping alternate dimensions work on a regular basis. She doesn't even fully understand time travel. )

[passingthrough]

[Kitty nods, accepting all that as common. If she'd remembered more at home that would have been pretty normal too though. Lots of ways for weird things to be normal here.] Klyntar?

[ashandflame]

Symbiote planet. Ever met Venom? It's where the black goopy half comes from. We kind of had...an infestation on Earth. Had to go back to the source.

( It's been an interesting week, to be sure. )