Players:
Summary: Jinx runs into James—and then one of the Tegu-Haaz denizens.
Date: October 4, 2010.
Log Title: Familiar Faces
Rating: PG-13.
Tegu-Haaz - The Clifs
The cool breeze cuts through the air and slams into the trees on either side of the little grassy area beyond the moors. The water crashes against the rocks thirty feet below. The jagged red cliff face is step and looks over the rough waters that seem to go on forever. The cliff seems to stretch in either direction as far as the eye can see and in the distance a lighthouse can be seen. The woods are thick on either side of this area where the grass and plants are over grown. At night as the wind whistles across the area, screams and cries of help can faintly be heard. This is a perfect place for those who wish a quick release from life's mortal coil to jump.
It has been a strange couple days. After waking in the strange world, Jinx found herself driven to the eerie woods by the spectral dark shape that seemed bent on her destruction. Since then, she has subsisted on apples stolen from a shriveled orchard, and generally kept her head down, slinking about and trying to figure out the lay of the land. She stole a cloak from a forgotten hook, and has thrown it over her shoulders, keeping her feral appearance a secret from any who might be looking. Jinx is currently wandering the edge of the cliffs, looking down at the crashing waves below. The cloak billows around her legs, and she turns towards the moors, the mid-day almost-sun having cleared some of the fog.
Dark shapes aren't the only thing hunting Jinx today. A fact that's about to become plainly obvious. Not far from the skunk girl, a sharpened wooden spearand the hand gripping itappear on the top of a large rock. And then, a face, as mystery voyeur begins to peer out at the unsuspecting female. Two harsh eyes beat down on the girl and the face behind a muddied mask watch for a long moment before inching closer to get a better look. The human form 'hmms' to itself…then accidentally dislodges several pebbles. There's a bit of scurrying as he tries to escape view.
Jinx turns her head sharply at the sound of the pebbles clattering down. The wind takes hold of her cloak, ripping it back from her head and revealing the purple spikes and animal head of the girl. She sucks in her breath, and starts to run down as fast as she can to the moors, picking a not-so0careful path downwards.
It's at this point, a third form enters the fray. On an intercept course towards the skunk, the large animal races fast and hard, its form blurred by speed. Behind the skunk, the voyeur does the same, spear raised and ready as the humanoid runs with equal speed. But he's got distance on his side and catching her first, he tries to kick her foot out from under her in an attempt to send her toppling. Weapon held high and ready, he turns just as the other reaches the pair, the two colliding with a sound of gridiron-like impact. There's a yell from the man, a scream from the animal, and both go rolling away from Jinx.
Jinx tumbles when her foot is kicked out, yelping as she tumbles and skins her knee on the rocks. As the animal is taken out with the man, she scrambles to her feet, trying to put more space between her and whatever is going on behind her.
When the pair come to rest, the animal finds itself rather unceremoniously impaled on the spear. Emitting the type of sounds you'd expect when you've been shanked with a giant wooden pole, the large, black wolf-like creature tries to crawl off. Meanwhile, the masked man groans and rolls onto his stomach before starting to push himself off the ground. Blurred vision refocuses slowly, but not so slow as that his message can't be carried on the wind to the escaping girl's ears, "Jinx…wait…"
Jinx hasn't heard her name in days. Perhaps she never expected to hear it again. "What?" Skidding to a stop, she turns, eyeing the creature and the man. Her hands fly up in front of her, what many might expect as a pleading gesture, is in fact a defensive one. "Who are you?"
Standing with a rather pained look in his eyes, the stranger in the straightjacket like coat stands. He too feels the effects of the harsh wind; long hair blowing freely as he watches the woman before puling off his mask and discarding it into the ground. Under it, a potentially familiar face: James. In his human form. Although, looking much more worse for wear than his image inducer would have portrayed him. "Do you remember me? The 'real' me?" the would-be hyena asks as he watches the girl for a moment, "Is that you, really you? Or is this another trick?"
Jinx remembers the face, and she hesitates. "James?" she asks, her voice breaking. Her hands lower a little, not sure that she is not being tricked either. "Is that you? Well.. sorta you?" She moves forward a step, and it is not the lashing wind that makes her shiver. "James, of course it's me. What happened to you?"
James lowers to the ground, hand gripping a very rudimentary knife that's attached to a belt of similar quality. Keeping his distance, James circles the girl, eyes harsh and waits to see if getting close triggers some sort of awful reaction that will no doubt be bad for him. Even in his human form, James has retained some of those animal qualities his mutation has forced upon him, but in case, it's in movement only. His stance is feral, giving firmly making his self-proclaimed Lost Boy of Xavier's all the more fitting. Inching close, he sniffs at her, "It really is you, isn't it?" He stands, hand still on his knife, "I changed…what happened to you? why are you *here* Are there others?" His face looses its harshness, but his body is still cautious.
Jinx's ears fold back. He has a knife, and he is circling. Her fur bristles along her back. "Who else would it be!?" she retorts sharply. "Others? I have no idea… this thing chased me into the woods and I have been lying low. I keep smelling people on the wind but I can't seem to find them," she frowns a little. As his stance is aggressive, she swings her weight between her legs and prepares to fight if she has to. "I just woke up and that thing was chasing me. What happened to you? You're all… bare…"
"You shouldn't be here, Jinx," James says in a rather obvious tone, that almost makes it sound as if she had a choice, "This place; It's bad." He looks at his hands for a moment then quickly puts the knife away. "I missed you," comes out next as he approaches, arms wide and unthreatening. "That…thing did this to me when I got here a few days ago. I can change back, but it's different now. And it's temporary. We've been trying to kill each other since then. It's been a nightmare."
Jinx hesitates more, looking at the boy closer. "I don't want to be here, I can tell you that!" she huffs. "Who's trying to kill who? Are you trying to kill me?" She sees where he puts the knife, and makes a quick calculation of the time needed to dive in and take it. She'd never make it in time. She straightens her shoulder, her tail whipped by the wind. "You can change? That's good, right?"
James has the decency to look hurt at the idea, "No," he says with a shake of his head, "No. Never." He steps back and away. Obviously he's a threat even when he's this…small. At a much-short 5'6", the human walks towards the black wolf, it's eyes on the approaching human. James grabs the spear and pushes it hard and deep, before giving it a twist. Something breaks inside the creature and it dies, a dark laugh it's final words before turning into a puddle of goo. James doesn't retrieve the spear, instead, turning back to Jinx, "We need to go. It'll be dark soon. And they mostly come out at night. Mostly."
Jinx blinks at what happens to the creature. She wasn't expecting that! She drops her hands to her side. "Um, so… what are 'they'?" She gestures to the creature. So far the return on her questions is fairly slim. "That must have been like the thing that chased me," she muses, and moves forward to walk with him.
James, still clad in a rather fitting cut-up straight jacket and matching pants, looks over to Jinx, "Sorry about the other day." He pulls off the knife and hands the hilt towards her, "I can tell I'm scaring you…so at least that's normal?" He tries to joke his way back into her trust, "I'm not sure what they are, but since I was attacked, I've been able to shift again. So…I dunno. Maybe they're magic." He lets out a grunt, his body still trying to put up a front his not-7' form no longer supports, "Let go back to my place, I have a fort at an old building. In the morning, we'll go looking?"
Jinx reaches out and takes the knife carefully. She looks at the man. "It was *you* that chased me?" she asks, trying to follow along with what he's saying. She holds the knife in front of her in the sort of way that people do when they have never used a weapon before, and are afraid it will act of its own power. In this world, it might be true. "Okay," she says, and looks at him again. "It's weird to see you like this, James, but I am glad you're here."
The accusation makes the feral boy stop in his tracks, his faces displaying emotion his larger self can't master, "No! The..the kiss. I'm sorry I freaked you out like that. I swore to myself if I ever saw you again, I wouldn't apologize for that…but…I kinda did anyways." He shrugs, and reaches out once more, "Jinx…can I…just touch you for a second. So I know it's really you?"
Jinx blinks at the request. "Um, sure?" She says to the request. At his apology, she shakes her head. "No… it wasn't you. It's just.. it's me too," her eyes angle away. "I'm just not good at letting people get close to me. I know it's dumb, but it's just weird."
James changes his mind for whatever reasons James does these things. Maybe today it was a micro planetary alignment. "No…it's you. For sure." He looks down at the ground then starts back up, "Well…follow me. Only a hour-or-so walk."
Jinx's ears flick again. "Uh. Okay," she moves to follow him. She would like to trust the boy, but his behavior is more irratic than usual. She pulls the cloak around herself. "You believe it's me now?"
"Yeah," James says with a nod, "A fake you would have like..I dunno…offered to make out and then eaten my face? or sucked out all my marrow using my nose. Or salt. Salt vampires do that. At least, that's how you'd do it in a movie." He shrugs and shoves his hands in his pockets. Annnnnd misses. No pockets!
Jinx hmms and eyes the man. "I have never heard of salt vampires," she says. She's not sure he is for real, either. "So, you said there were others here? And something about killing?"
James shakes his head, "I haven't seen anyone from the school. Bit there's plenty of 'others' around here." He quickly promises, "You'll see." To the latter part, he says little more than offering, "That *thing* tried to kill me. Several times. It was self-defense. Him or Me. You could have been next Jinx. He was after you too, from the looks of it."
Jinx looks back over her shoulder to where the goo monster/wolf was. "Maybe. But why?" she asks, looking back at James. "Why is any of this happening? Are we dreaming some sort of freaky hallucination dreamed up in some psychic's weird mind?"
"I dunno how long you've been here, but I've been here since Friday and I still don't know what's going on," James says as he shoots Jinx a look, "All I know is that I was brought here, attacked, and made to be human again. I don't need any other reasons to fight back. But…until we find out who, I'm gonna blame you-know-who. And when I see her, I'm gonna punch her 'til candy comes out."
"That's about how long I have been here," she confides in a soft voice. She moves along in silence a few steps. "If we use you as an example, the attacks changed you. One could assume that they'd do the same to me. I wonder if I would change back too?" Her ears lift at the possibility. "I don't think Selene did this. It would be a huge thing to do. But who knows… maybe this is a DR session or something."
"I dunno," James says with a shrug, "All I know is that we need to make it back to the Asylum before night. After that, we're going to have bigger issues than the blame game." He turns to give Jinx one last searching glance before he sets his mind to walking, turning quiet in the process.
"Asylum?" Jinx squeaks a little. She looks around. Cliffs, Asylum, spooky forest and forbidding moors. It is like she has been transported to a Hammar film. "I'll try and walk fast," she hops up beside him, thinking that she does NOT want to spend the night out in the open.
