Emma's Flat, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. [Feb 2nd, Afternoon, Marvel Time//Friday Afternoon, Fandom Time.]

[icecoldfrost]

Emma had...drunk. A lot. And had only her mutant metabolism to thank for not having alcohol poisoning. Hallelujah, genetic awesomeness. The only thing saving her from an epic hangover was using up the vast majority of the hot water in the building, more coffee than God, and eating an entire box of frozen waffles. Candy had already departed for her own apartment, to shower and finish sleeping off last night's revels, leaving Emma and Jono alone to talk shop.

"So, are you going to tell me why your brain feels like swiss cheese - more than usual - or do I get to guess?" Emma crammed the last bite of waffle in her mouth in a manner that should not be physically possible before pointing her fork at Jono. << You promised. >>

[OOC: For that dude!]

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

"A few," she said simply, "--only the ones I've invited."

--and they dropped through the ground to land in...stars. Above, below, all around. Encompassed by the night sky.

"The way I see the world," Emma informed him, reaching out to pull a star close to her, cupping it in her hands. "People's minds, every one. Oh, I can turn it into a room or a car or put whatever physical projection on it I want to make it more defined, but this is my throne room, as it were. The center of the maze."

[furnaceface]

Jono loosed a low whistle then, turning slowly to take in the sight of the starfield around them.

Minds, all of them, so much neater than the mess of auras that he saw when he reached out, little glimmers of consciousness that writhed and twisted and bled into one another if he didn't pay enough attention. White noise. A dull roar.

"You've got this down to an art, haven't you?" He raised a hand just slightly, but didn't dare touch anything around him, not out of fear of damaging anything, but out of respect that he was being shown this at all.

You didn't touch anything when you were a guest inside a person's head unless you'd been invited to. It wasn't yours to touch.

"It's beautiful... Stars. I never would've thought of stars."

[icecoldfrost]

"Really? With your lastname, I'd think it would be an obvious choice," Emma quipped, blowing on her star to send it dancing back where it came from. "Anyone in particular you want to see?"

[furnaceface]

"Nobody it would be especially healthy for me to ask to see," Jono admitted, shaking his head a little. "A long list of the dead, better left alone. Hell, even I'd be..."

In London, for one. Possibly just coming to the realization that it was entirely possible that he could be the first Starsmore flatscan, a disappointment even to the family that had thrown a long line of genetic disappointments.

... Or maybe he was making out with Gayle somewhere. Perhaps he was even younger than that. Hell if he knew. He wasn't about to do the math.

"Whoever you see fit, luv. I leave it up to your better judgment."

[icecoldfrost]

"I can recall people from Fandom, too, you know," she pointed out. "It doesn't have to be someone here-and-now, although that helps."

She thought about it a moment before holding out her hand, palm-up, and a bright, steadily-pulsing light with a faint aura around it, began to coalesce, rotating slowly. "Your friend, Doctor Lecter. Remarkable mental discipline, for a human."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded, watching the light appear with a sort of quiet fascination.

"I've never seen one of the normals with self-control quite the way he's got," he agreed, quirking a faint smile as he glanced up from the light toward Emma. "It's impressive. Makes sense, I suppose, considering his profession. I've only rarely seen him really rattled, before."

Which he wasn't going to recall the particulars of right now. You're welcome, Emma.

[icecoldfrost]

And she'd refrained from calling him a 'flatscan' out of consideration for Jono's delicate sensibilities! Everyone was welcome!

"Really? I find it suspicious. I generally get leakage from even the most intelligent people, regardless of profession. Then again, I make my living being paranoid," Emma replied with a shrug, setting the little light free with a flick of her fingers. "Everyone in New York is mentally noisy."

[furnaceface]

Most humans were classified as 'preaks' these days at least half the time, anyway. Jono was having difficulty with terminology after that whole Age of X snafu.

"New York is noisy," Jono mused, shrugging his shoulders a little. "In a completely different way from London. You'd think there'd be some bleed, people being people, doing what people do, but America does it in a very... American way."

Jono really had no idea quite how to describe it, beyond that. At least he meant it honestly, this time, instead of his usual almost mandatory British snark?

That said, wherever Emma was suspicious, Jono couldn't help but at least wonder. He thought, briefly, about the 'be careful' that Bob had said to him before the ghosts had left the island, and then he shook his head. Now wasn't the time, anyway.

"Is he comparable to other people on the island, at least?"

Where everybody was keeping secrets. Yes, that was a good frame of reference, Jon.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma glared at him. "There is no acceptable way for me to answer that question," she complained. "Either I admit to listening to the stuff people broadcast - which everyone bitches about, and acts as if I kill kittens - or I lie. Jerk."

[furnaceface]

Jono gave his shoulders a shrug and spread his hands a little.

"I'm in no position to judge anybody for that, these days," he pointed out. "I just meant, are other people as loud? I'm not as sensitive as you are, I've been tamping my senses down for years. And now that I'm not, I'm actively hurting myself."

Because of course he was.

"Somebody said something to me once, you just brought it to mind, is all. You don't have to answer if you'd rather not."

[icecoldfrost]

"On a scale of headblind-to-Jedi? He passed Empath-Actively-Ignoring-Me and is on the way to Jedi. Which? Is not natural for a human. It's weird," she answered, making a face. "I mean, it's not Ben-Hiding-Himself-in-the-Force-to-Fuck-With-Me levels of control, or anything. And it could just be him trying to be considerate of my powers. Manners seem to be a Thing for him."

Which, coming from Emma Grace Frost, American blue-blood who wielded manners like most Fandomites used weapons, was saying a lot.

[furnaceface]

... Ha. Jono could pretty much guess who Emma had based those comparisons off. Which just reminded him of Raven's request. Which had him pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ah, my.

"Well, most of the people he seems to spend time with these days are telepathic or empathic in one form or another," he noted. "It's entirely possible that he is just being considerate. Especially since he knows I have an unpredictable tendency to pick up on telepathic bleed."

[icecoldfrost]

"No, Raven is 'Empath-Trying-Desperately-to-Hide-from-Me,' which is barely above flatscan. Sookie being cranky but not really trying that hard is 'Empath-Actively-Ignoring.' Duh," she said absently. Because, well, telepathic bleed. "And no, I don't want to know whatever Raven wants, because it's likely to make me crabby and we're busy putting your brain back together."

Although, to be honest, Raven usually made Emma cranky. Empaths and feelings and ugh.

[furnaceface]

"Fair enough," Jono replied, blinking up at her. "Like you said... brain. Putting it back together."

Last thing they needed was a heated discussion about that. Hannibal had already given Jono his opinion on that one, at any rate, and the advice had been good enough, even if he didn't quite seem to agree with Jono's cause for distress.

"I don't think I've seen Sookie cranky before, come to think of it."

[icecoldfrost]

"Most of the time Sookie is made of sugarplums and southern hospitality, but if you get her fae side riled-up, watch out. She gets zap-happy." Emma, don't sound so pleased by that. "It's glorious."

[furnaceface]

Jono gave Emma a wry smile, at that. Blue lips, barely visible through orange flame, if only for a moment.

"I have seen her use the lightning," he noted. "She actually came to me after her first time, asked me to help her control it."

Yes, he was aware of the irony in that, considering his own issues with his powers.

[icecoldfrost]

"I need to learn how to do that," she said, frowning down at her hands. "I know I can, in theory, but it's not like I have anywhere to learn anymore."

[furnaceface]

"And it's different, actually doing it in the flesh, than running over the hypotheticals of it in your head," Jono agreed, nodding thoughtfully. "It's like once, I had a friend whose powers let him copycat those of other mutants around him... And he used my powers to fly, the bastard. All I managed to do was melt some bloody snow."

There was a fond note in Jono's voice, there. He missed Ev. He'd been a good man.

He spoke of far too many people with that same sort of fondness, these days.

"Funny, I only just remembered that now... So much has happened since. I miss flying." He tilted his head at Emma. "Can't get to the island often, can you?"

[icecoldfrost]

"When I go to the island, it's either a disaster and I don't have time to try new things in a scientific manner because we're fighting for our lives, or I haven't seen Jack in months and we're not getting out of bed for anything less than another invasion," she replied wryly. "Besides, my experimentation with my powers tended to be frowned upon, unless I was with Kerrigan. Something about people whining 'Emma don't zap people it's rude,' it gets tiresome enough that you just stop doing it."

[furnaceface]

Jono was silent for a moment, lips pursed thoughtfully, and for a moment, he was just... Him. Flesh and blood, whole. The fire peeled itself back to a dull roar, there, but not a force of destruction. Just a force of Jono.

"Don't suppose there's anywhere around here that you could safely give it a go?"

[icecoldfrost]

"The sewers, but it's harder to get down there these days, and while Hank can walk me through the theory, again, not a psi," she said, and her smile was hard. "Of course, I can always show up on Xavier's lawn and knock on the door to ask why I was left alone to starve and try not to fry anyone's brain by accident, but I doubt that would go over well. Oh! Or confront the other mutants in the Hellfire Club that yes, I know and they know and we all know who knows and can we stop pretending so I can get some practical work in?" Emma raised an eyebrow at Jono. "I don't give a shit about safe. I'm a mutant; nowhere is safe. But I do need somewhere useful."

[furnaceface]

"Useful," Jono echoed, nodding faintly. "What about Glacia, then? Not all the bloody time or anything, but people are hardly going to bat an eye at somebody throwing powers around in the backyard to Karla's estate. You or me. And it moves double-time compared to Fandom and the like, so you could get twice as much practice time in."

A beat.

"We could. I wouldn't mind seeing if I could figure out that flying trick, myself."

[icecoldfrost]

Emma gave Jono a look that clearly said she thought he'd lost his brain. "Right. Because you figuring out how to fly when you've already sprained your brain is the best idea ever."

"Which, we came here to fix." Emma shut her eyes, and a gray, smooth, platform rose out of the starfield serving as 'down.' "We can talk about how me in Glacia with baby-mad Glacians is a terrible idea later. Built any sandcastles lately?"

[furnaceface]

"I've had worse ideas," Jono replied, shrugging his shoulders and tilting his head at her. "... Sandcastles, luv?"

So, that'd be a no.

[icecoldfrost]

"So that's a no," Emma confirmed. "Look, I don't suggest using a psychic semblance of a sandcastle for your actual walls, unless you plan on burying some poor bastard alive in your brain, but it works great for making patches."

Emma's white suit coat vanished, leaving her arms bare, and she dug her hands into the sand. "Look at this way - our brains are the castle. The ambient psionic noise of every day? That's the low tide. And when we do something stupid, that's high tide. So, what do you do? You dig your trenches to divert the water so you can shore up the walls in peace. It's a rather zen method of basic mental maintenance, and can take the place of trying to mediate while actually getting shit accomplished."

For the record, Emma was terrible at mediation.