Players:
Summary: An uninvited guest puts a quick end to a relaxing week for James and Jinx
Date: August 20, 2010
Log Title: Camping Sucks
Rating: R.
Northern New England
The weather in the mountains near the border get cooler than the lowlands in the heat of summer, and autumn comes sooner to the valleys with hardly more sound that the ruckus of crow calls and angry bluejays out to annoy the world. At night, though, the birds give way to a chorus of other life forms of a smaller variety. Crickets, bats, the occasional owl… night in the woods is hollow compared to the tranquility of the day. Jinx has abandoned the cabin this time to make her way to a grassy slope of a clearing not too far from the cabin proper. For once, she is thankful of being furry because the mosquitos find a hard time drilling in to her plush fur. It provides an excellent view of the starry sky, and enhanced night vision makes the view incredible. She lays on her back on a blanket on that slope, watching the shimmer of a satellite slowly trace it's way across a sky so big it can hardly be believed.
It's been a rather chilly 48 hours for more than just the local wildlife. Jinx and James have hardly spoken a word; an uncomfortable silence the footnote of a shared vision of what ‘might’ happen 10 years from now. Gone are the notebooks to wherever the hyena had them squirreled away to begin with. And with them, a little bit of the innocence the two young students had, replaced by quiet and uncertainty. But, for a change, James is the first to crack (in a non-mental way at least). And so it's the gnoll that comes to find the girl, tracking her scent a short distance from the cabin to her and the towel. "Hey," he says as he approaches, "What's up?"
Jinx has a smile for him as he approaches. She can smell him on the wind, hear the distinctive pattern of digitigrade legs through the forest. "Hey… you should check this out," She raises an arm to the sky, her claws glittering in the light. Above is a display to make the most imaginative planetarium jealous. "Check it out… I can see at least 3 satellites in the sky. I am hoping for a shooting star," she grins to the hyena. At night, he looks more menacing, but her scent is not threatened at all. She is calm, and thoughtful, laid out on her back with her ankles crossed casually. "I brought some Coke."
James nods and takes a seat on the grass nearby, "Yeah..I spent the other night looking straight up at time for a couple hours. Helped me think." Not that he had a choice…3 cans of No Fear and a slippery rock ended in a hard fall that took his healing factor some time to repair. It was probably the most still he's been in a decade. "How's the vacation for you so far? Sorry for the silent treatment. Things were on my mind."
"I needed the quiet too," she observes in a soft murmur, reverent to the tranquility of the night. Some dark silhouette flutters overhead. "I read your book," she says. He already knows by the scent she can't erase that follows everything she touches. To another animal, there is no privacy and he not only knows her business, but knows it in more intimate ways than she is comfortable even considering. "I think you wrote some of the same thoughts I was having. I am just not sure what it means, now.. y'know?"
James probably isn't surprised, but that doesn't stop the threatening smell of displeasure from crossing the space between the two ferals. He grunts in return, really unsure of how to address the notebook thing in any way other than being a bastard about it. And now's the time to take a lesson from Rashmi and choose the battle, because tonight he knows he can't argue privacy AND the shared vision. "I can't stand Star Trek, you know? All that time travel stuff and how knowing is the same as not knowing and how it's going to happen, but not…and then some asshole with red fuel reboots everything and all the ships blow up? Complete waste of time.” He pauses, “So…what were we talking about? Oh, yeah…us." It's an attempt to throw Jinx off a little, something she's probably familiar with by now.
A blink. "Star Trek sucks. Idealized universe. When does anything ever get wrapped up into a nice ending? No one likes a nice ending," she smiles a little, regardless. She curls her hands behind her head, elbows pressed to her blanket. "I don't remember it clearly. It fades all the time," she breathes a soft sound. "But I remember it was beautiful and terrible all at once, and that I was really happy to see you," she looks up to the big gnoll rippling off displeasure from his scent like a cheap musk. "You have a right to be pissed at me, and I won't deny that I had no right and all.. but you can't tell me that if I had left you a big opening, you wouldn't have done the same. I'm thinking that maybe you and me aren't as different as I thought."
James shakes his head, "I probably wouldn't have waited for you to leave. And I dunno why I care…it's not like you didn't already know anyways. It's just…I like my space I think. Best excuse I've got at least." To the rest he stays quiet for a moment, "Why didn't you like that I could shift? Thought we were cool until you heard that. Then we weren't. You know I've been told that I'll never do it again. Why did it even matter?" He tilts his head, looking over, trying to understand the difference.
She sits up on her blanket, drawing her knees tighter against her chest and wrapping her arms around loosely. She breathes a sound. "Because I was jealous, I suppose?" she muses, trying to work through feelings that remain murky in her mind. "See… when I started to change… that was it. I changed and there was no going back. This is what I was, forever." She waves her hand to accentuate her words. "So when I heard you were a shifter, it was like I suddenly was really alone again. I didn't really know what to say. I mean, if I could shift you bet I would be all over that," she snorts softly. "I wasn't mad at you for being able to before or being stuck, just that I'd assumed you were like me and found out different, that's all."
The gnoll nods and listens quietly, "Yeah, but wouldn't you too? I mean, if someone showed up right now and offered a non-holographic way to hide what you are, or to remove it completely, you'd take it." He sounds sure of that.
"No, we're not that different because I know what I'd do. And I'm gonna bet it's the same thing you'd do. Even if getting to feel what the rest of the world calls normal only lasted for 5 minutes."
"Oh sure. I agree completely, and that is what I am saying," she looks from him to the stars, then back to the shaggy form of the gnoll. "You're absolutely right. I *would* take that chance and that's why I was bent, because even if for a minute, I would have liked to feel that I could shift back." She smirks softly, her whiskers twitching. "Then I actually thought about it some more…. and I realized that it was a terrible thing to believe you could shift and be stuck in the form you didn't want, and that maybe I'd been spared something by just changing and not having a choice otherwise." She raises a hand to him. "So, I was wrong. Now… want to give me a hand up and we can go back to the cabin?"
James listens to Jinx for a moment before adding, "Well yeah. Everything was fine until it stopped. It was the difference between a lifetime at Xavier's or a lifetime hiding as a mundane. I mean, in a few years I might have got to college or something. Now, my version of fitting in is controlled by a hologram and my choices are good guy, bad guy, or government tool." To the final question, the gnoll shakes his head, "No…I dunno that we're done yet, are we? I mean, christ, we're on the same team now. It's like we can avoid one another and forget what we both saw."
"No, we can't really avoid each other on the same team… and i am not suggesting we're done with anything," she takes her hand back and swipes it along the top of her thigh, abandoning her idea of going back to the cabin for the moment. "The future us was us in love or something. This was our place," she gestures towards the cabin with a nod of her head. "I felt that emotion. It felt good and warm and strange and terrifying al at once." She pauses a few long seconds, letting the night invade again. "It wasn't a memory I expected to have. I never figured that you liked me much… or really even anyone in that sort of way."
"I kinda always did like you—at first," James admits, before adding, "Then I decided I didn't. Now, I dunno what I think anymore." He frowns a little, "Wanna know what sucks the most? I found this cabin before the future crap happened. Like, at least a week before. And then I had those visions I recorded and then I ran into you ON the way here. And I ended up bringing you here anyways—which I didn’t even consider at the time because I was trying to help! But, really, did I even have a choice? Was this supposed to happen? And what happens now that it has? Can we avoid anything that I wrote down? What happens if we do? What happen if we don't? I mean seriously…I'm 17 years old and my parents are farmers. When the hell did worrying about collapsing time-stream continuum become MY concern?"
She laughs then, and it is a soft sound. "That time line is already fucked up," she shakes her head. "Connor coming back and bringing that Dead Lady with him… it's already made our time as different from his. I figure maybe him going back or whatever like… popped a bubble and we got sprayed with some of his um… time juice," she spreads her fingers as if to emphasize her point. "So the way I figure it, we can be whatever we want still… and we don't have to have THAT future if we don't want it. We were shown a possibility, is all."
James raises an eye ridge, "Time juice?" He sighs, "Okay, forget it. Obviously I'm the only one with the issue here, and I'm historically known for dealing with things after freaking out. So, don't worry. I'll keep my issues off the radar." He nods back to the cabin, "After I destroy that notebook, only you and I will know anyways."
Jinx looks up with him. "I'm not saying you are the only one freaking out, James. I just… I'm saying that we don't have to live a future that we don't make, you know?" She struggles to explain her ideas, her ears skewing to the sides a little. "I wish you wouldn't destroy it. I liked the idea of knowing that even in one kind of future, I could touch someone and it meant something."
"You don't seem to understand," James says sounding a little frustrated, "The future made itself without our input. We're here..that's all the proof I need to know we're in the passenger's seat." He crosses his arms, frowning a little. The idea of this whole time thing requires way too much theoretical mumbo-jumbo. And as smart as may be, or as dumb as he may play himself off as, he like to know facts: the sky is blue, pop rocks and coke won't kill you, and the future is not pre-scripted. Listening to Jinx he shrugs, "Not sure why you think it's going to be a problem. Sure kids are asking you out all the time."
JInx shakes her head. "No. I don't get lot of dates. People have a hard time with the furry thing," she smirks, trusting that he will understand at least that part. "And those that don't… well. You just sorta wonder if they are some creep or something." Or maybe Jinx is just paranoid and suspicious and scared of anyone getting too close. "I like thinking that the future changes with us. Otherwise, what's the point of it all?" She smiles to him, and bends forward, gathering her feet beneath her then bending to gather her blanket into her arms, spreading it with her claws to shake out the leaves and twigs. Her tail sways behind her, a beautiful plume of black and white. "Maybe there' s no point anyways, but the idea that the unexpected will happen and that something amazing is in the future is enough for me." She turns towards him, folding he blanket over her arm.
James firmly believes there's no point, but won't inflict his pessimistic views on those who think otherwise. The same views he kinda half expected Jinx to have or understand more to his liking. "I still don't see how 'this' is working anything out. We've said all of 5 things about it. But, I guess I'm still the one with the issue."
She steps forwards, towards the big hyena. "What is it that you want to work out, specifically?" She asks. There is nothing confrontational in her posture, and he towers over her mush shorter height. "The future? Your feelings? I have told you how I feel about stuff… maybe you should tell me what you feel?"
James puts his ears back, "I feel like you're walking out. Like you're trying to block this out by giving it barely any thought then calling it done and laid to rest. I feel like you invaded my privacy, told me you did so, and then pointedly want to do nothing about the fact that you got to pick through my thoughts and not give me a chance to find out yours." He narrows his eyes at her then moves his head to look away, adding quietly, "I feel…that you want to treat this exactly the same way I treat everything."
Her ears flip up to listen to him, and everything he has to say. "I did invade your privacy. I am sorry that I made you feel vulnerable, but I can't feel sorry for learning about that shared memory," she shakes her head, her bangs drifting down across her gaze. "I don't know what to think, honestly. It's scary and exciting all at once, you know? Knowing I loved someone, and was loved in return," she smiles and reaches for his arm, but hestitates before touching him, knowing how he dislikes contact. "I wish I could show you. Words… just don't work sometimes."
James turns his head towards Jinx, gaze more on the ground than on her, "People I get attached to always disappear." It's said simply. And although the freshness of the future memories have long since faded, he still knows he knew enough to feel the same way Jinx says she did. "Okay," he manages after a pause, "Show me."
Her hand touches his arm, fingers splaying and palm pressing down. The sensations flood forth. It is a mix of wonder and apprehension, of giddy excitement and teen crushes and of a memory of something adult and permanent. There is fear for a future that isn't understood, but there is not one shred of rejection or regret in her touch and that transfer of emotion. There is comfort and safety, and knowing that of everyone in the whole world, that a future James looked after her and might do so again. She smiles to the hyena, hoping that he understands everything in the mixed-up sort of language of emotion.
James gasps as the flurry of emotions finds it's mark inside the hyena. With her hand on his arm, James turns to look at Jinx as he experiences things he's been denying himself since be become stuck in his present form. It takes a long moment for him to regain the ability to speak, the first words he offers being "I'm sorry." He puts his hand on hers as he tries to find the words to explain what he's feeling, but it all seems to pale in comparison to the things he was just shown. "Jinx…I…" he starts, pausing only to lean forward as he puts his hand on her shoulder. But whatever he was about to say is interrupted by a loud snapping of a branch coming from behind. A large, white creature steps out from the forest's dense foliage, its angry eyes on the other two animals. Feeling the presence, James turns on his heel, pushing Jinx behind him defensively. But even his best threatening posture is no match for what happens next. The beast that towers even over the gnoll pulls it's arm back and with quick swipe sends the hyena flying away effortlessly, and far with a hard CRRRACK. Looking down at Jinx, the creature takes a step forward and booms, "Wen-Di-Go!"
The benefit of the connection of hands is the instant where alert and alarm surges forward, perhaps giving the hyena a moment's more warning than if he was waiting on his own eyes alone. Suddenly, she is shoved behind him and then he is gone. The monster towers before her, and her claws rise before her, flashing in the night. "Dude!" She growls, setting her feet into a defensive position and focusing her mind to think of the most noxious and annoying emotions she can think of in case of contact. "What is your problem!"
Apparently its problem is something big…or was. Now it's problem is something much smaller. The giant brings back the now blood-stained paw for another swipe, large clawed hands raised above its head in preparation to strike. With a voice like shrieking wind, the creature bellows once more, "Wen-Di-Go!" The hand flys forward to swat the insignificant creature below it.
Jinx's eyes go wide as the creature seems to be hell-bent on making her as much as an afterthought as James. As the creature rears his hand back to swat, Jinx dives forward, seeing her chance to duck in. She is less than half the creature's height, and dashes around the surging muscles of its knee, skittering and skidding behind. She slaps her hands against the creature, her claws digging in to make sure she has contact. Sickness wells forth from the connection, a brutal mix of nausea and depression, like a hangover distilled into a sharp moment.
The lumbering beast tries its best to pummel the small woodland creature that its taken a disliking to. But, the razor-sharp claws miss their mark as Jinx uses the larger beast's size to her advantage. The skunk's attack sinks in and in a moment the white monster is howling in confusion, "Wen-Di-Go??" Nausea trumps anger as day-old-food becomes unsettled in the monster’s stomach, it's muscles contracting as it starts coughing and dry heaving. What happens next isn't pretty, "BLARF!" And neither will be forgetting this for a long time. But when the gagging has let up it beats a hasty retreat, heading back the way it came with a much-more pitiful sounding "….Wen-do-go…???!"
For a woodland creature with a superior sense of smell, having a 12 foot tall monster upchuck rotting deer and hillbilly is not a smell she will soon forget. She pushes off, finding a tree to hurl behind as the scent overwhelms her. She watches to make sure it is on the retreat for now, and then goes to find James. She tries to smell her way to the hyena. "Eww eww eww…" she whines as the scent permeates *everything*. "James…! James you okay…!?" she calls in the dark, stumbling through the forest in the direction of the toss.
Easily a good 30-50 feet away from where he had originally stood, James is laying face down in the mud, his arms wrapped tight around his midsection. The smell of blood overrides the scent of Canadian-Monster vomit at this distance, but given the amount it takes to do so there's little doubt that the gnoll has seen better days. There's a sharp cough and a groan, "Ov'r-ere."
"Oh shit… oh man…." She rushes over, crashing through the underbrush and poison ivy to find the gnoll. She kneels in the mud, her hands pressing against him to asses the damage. Concern, guilt, resolve. Her emotions pass the barrier between. Strength. "How bad are you hurt? Do you heal or whatever? God, James… don't die or whatever. You weigh like 400 pounds and I can't carry you."
James opens up an eye and looks over the girls form, his teeth tightly clenched, "I'm trying…he got me good. If I move my arms, things might fall out." He shuts his eyes, "Oh god this hurts." He sighs heavily, every word sound forced, "You can't move me…too big. Sorry…was too slow. Needed to be faster." He blinks hard, eyes not reopening right away. Using his remaining strength, the hyena rolls over, arms tightly wrapped around his body. Everything is red, wet, and torn. But even though only a few moments have passed since the initial attack, the hyena's woulds have mostly clotted, his jagged flesh attempting to rewire itself, "Wow…camping sucks."
Jinx is suddenly reminded of the pile of red fetid stuff the monster left behind. "Shh… shh… no. It's okay," she curls behind him, moving so that his head at least is off the ground and pillowed in her lap. She strokes her fingertips over his ears. The emotion turns into a suggestion of soothing calm, but it's artificial and mixed with a worry that seeps through the edges like cracks in a flawless window. She's young and cannot shield her own emotions from bleeding through. "C'mon, James. Who's gonna harass the new people? Heal and stuff and I'll buy you a No Fear."
James sighs heavily, the calm over taking his body as coldness sets in at the tips of his toes and fingers. "Hey, I've had worse," he lies, "Only hurts when I laugh, anyways..and this ain’t funny." He reaches up with his arm and grips the shoulder of the girl sitting above him, "Anything happens, tell…well hell…come to think of it, there's no one I wanna apologize to. They're all chumps." Looking up, he offers, "Maybe you were right. Future isn't written. Sorry I was a dork." He positions his head just enough to look up, feeling a little much too comfortable for his own good. What happens next is fast and sudden, "I lo…*" Another sigh, then nothing. The hand slips off her arm and falls into the mud.
Her eyes widen further. "You loooo? No no no… you're not doing this!" She taps his cheeks lightly with his fingertips, and when that doesn't revive him, she tries a smack that is meant to hurt. No response. "Oh shit… I am so gonna get grounded and I can't even drive yet!" She huffs a pant, her breathing rapid and on the verge of panic. Then… she smells it. Her ears perk. She knows this scent… recognizes this edge. She puts her nose very close to the hyena's mouth and breathes in that scent.. where life and death hang by a thread. "No… no…." she says with more clarity, a realization dawning upon her. She raises her head, looking into the darkness of his eyes. A hand rises and folds across his brow as she cradles him against her. "Come back." The sensation throbs forward like a bubble expanding and finally breaking in a brilliant flash of purple plasma, her body synthesizing the precious little chemical to call James back from the brink of death, to give him the minute encouragement to turn from the light. "Come back."
James sits bolt upright, his hands scratching at his neck as his body fights to fill his lungs with air. Chest heaving, the creature stands, takes a few steps and falls back to his knees, a response more driven my instinct and panic than anything conscious. The coughing starts next, followed by the soft thud of a large body falling the rest of the way to the forest floor. But, even in the dim light, someone could see its movement; breathing. And, for the moment, consciousness—or at least enough plaintiff sounds to emulate it.
She struggles to her feet to follow. "It worked… it worked…" she wishes he were conscious enought ro be able to validate what she's done! But mostly, she is pretty thankfull that there's no guts trailing behind him in a leaf-gathering trail. When he falls again, she goes over to try and wedge herself under one of his great arms. "You okay? James, can you hear me?" she asks. On her mental list of things she needs to learn, she adds CPR.
The noise out of James' lips validate at least some of Jinx's new-found ability, "Uhhhhh…!" But, other than his beating head, moving chest, and one-again healing form, the creature is mostly dead weight. Still breathing hard, his scent of a wounded animal, the gnoll reaches clumsily for the skunk, "Phone. Emergency." the flailing paw nearly hits her muzzle before it falls hard to the forest floor once more, "Tired." There's a hard sigh, this one no longer threatening to be the last.
She gets the message. "Okay, James," she nods her head. She is not so shy as to not take it upon herself to thoroughly search his pockets for the phone in question, learning a thing or two about hyena anatomy in the process. Hey, it's the forest and it's an emergency situation! Finding the phone, she flips open the cover and does a quick search of the last numbers. "Kenta…" she breathes, and dials the number with her thumb, waiting for the teacher to pick up on the other line. Her lips are pursed, and she realizes both of them are probably in big trouble. Again. Though she cannot help being somewhat giddy from her new awesome trick!
The response is a surprising one. It’s no sooner than she hit ‘send’ that the Blackbird appears overhead with a roar as it hovers, looking for a spot to land. The belly hatch opens and a figure jumps out, landing with hardly more than a soft thump and a flourish of black clothing and long hair. The jet leans to the left and begins the painstaking attempt of landing near the clearing around the cabin as the ejected adult approaches the two students. It's a familiar voice, and likely an unwelcome one: "Are you injured, child," Selene asks, "Can you carry yourself back to the jet, or do I need to move you both?" She inspects James to see if he can be moved.
Damn that blackbird is fast! Even though it feels like forever that she has sit and held the hyena's head, wondering how she was ever going to get him back and how she is ever going to get the mud out of her skirt and then the blackbird is screaming overhead. Jinx's breath stills in her throat at the arrival of Selene, whom is probably one of her least favorite people (or beings) in the whole world. Obliged to be nice, she wipes the bangs out of her eyes. "No, no… I'm fine. James is pretty banged up though. He's not healing very fast." Not that she has any frame of reference.
"I am aware," Selene responds. But how she knew long enough ago to be here so fast is never offered. She puts a hand on the gnoll causing James to answer back with the flash of teeth—a sure warning if there ever was one. "Don't make me drag you," are the next unkind words to leave the woman's mouth before putting an arm an arm under James and then picking him up so that he can walk back, albeit assisted by the somewhat living dead who seems to have no difficulty dealing with the extra weight.
Jinx rises to follow along behind, straightening her skirt and brushing the mud from her legs in swift strikes. She watches the lady cautiously, hoping that she doesn't think of snacking on James on the way back to the cabin. Such things have been known to happen. "There was this big white thing that attacked us. Kept saying 'Winnebago'. It was like, huge and had claws. It slashed James pretty good." Jinx's tail gives a flick, remembering that James got slashed protecting her.
Taking the gnoll's weakened form over to the idling jet and the stairs leading into it's belly, Selene makes a mental note of the attacker's description, "That sounds familiar, old, and dangerous." She raises a thin, black eyebrow and casually waves the skunk up the walkway, "After you, child. The sooner we lift off, the sooner you're safe and the quicker James can be taken to the med bay." Once inside, she, Forge, and a few others help stabilize the patient before readying to leave. And, in moments the jet is gone as fast as it arrived.
