Players:
Summary: Sophie and Hosea have a talk about Sophie's recent brush with violence.
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2011. 5:32pm.
Log Title: Fear No Evil
Rating: G
Xavier Mansion - Spuyten Duyvil Cove
This little cove leads off to Breakstone Lake. Students can go fishing, boating, and swimming in the fresh water. There is a small beach off to the side of the dock where students can also go sunbathing.
Hosea has been trying to study, eager to take Sophie up on her offer to tutor him. Still, he's not much of a student, and while he is disciplined, he has a lot of educational ground to make up. His education is on par with your average fifth grader rather than with your average high school senior. There is one area, though, that he needs no tutoring, and that's with his Bible. The battered old leather wrapped pages sit in his lap, and the Nigerian has just taken the opportunity of the afternoon breeze to sit on the dock and read. His feet hang over the edge, toes just barely skirting the water at their lowest point. He wears nothing fancy, just a plain white tank top and a pair of cargo shorts.
Into the calm afternoon approaches another Xavier's student. Her footfalls are soft across the ground, as she walks at a careful pace, and the soft ground makes little sound as her cane taps along in front of her. Sophie follows her memory to this place, until she walks across the beach; and then at last there is a tap, as her cane encounters the edge of the dock. She stops there, and clasps her hands around the top of her cane. "Hosea?" she calls out. "Are you there? Someone said you might be here."
The African was deep enough in his reading that he didn't notice Sophie's arrival. "Sophie!" he answers. "Yes, I am heah," comes the deep voice in response. He pulls his feet up onto the dock, and stands to his feet, taking a single step before teleporting to a few feet in front of the blind girl. "How ahr you?" he asks. "It is good to see you heah, you got heah by yourself? By remembering?"
Sophie remains planted at the edge of the dock, though she taps it experimentally with her cane. "I did," she replies. "I got lost three times, but the path was easy enough to find again, si? Though if I had gotten truly lost in the wilderness, it would be the second time, I must admit." She finally steps forwards, taking a cautious step out onto the dock. "Hosea, the dock… it is safe, si? Sturdy? No missing boards?"
"Yes," he says, his smile still audible. "It is vedy sturdy. But be careful, on da left side you will fall in if you are not careful. It would not be good if you fell in!" He walks past her cane to her side, reaching out to take her arm gently. "You wish to go to da edge?" he asks.
A couple more caustious steps forwards are preceded by careful probing with the cane, at least until Hosea is there by her side. Sophie's fingers hold on to his bicep, and she flashes a grateful smile in his direction. "Thank you," she murmurs. "I can swim, but it is hard to know which way the shore is. I never go swimming alone." She pauses, and a smirk comes to her lips. "Well, maybe in the bath tub." She giggles softly. "We can go to the edge if you like. I think you said you come here a lot, si?"
"I would like to come heah a lot. Now dat it is warmah. Da chapel is where I studied during da wintah, because it was much warmer. America is a cold country! In Africa, it is always hot. Dere is no winter." He takes a few steps out onto the dock. "It is wise not to go swimming alone if you cannot see, yes?" he agrees. "Da lake is small, but big enough to get lost in if you cannot see where you are going."
Sophie nods her head in agreement. "It is very easy to get lost, when you have no way of knowing what there is outside the reach of my cane." She walks along with Hosea, and splits the tapping of her cane between the way in front, and keeping herself aware of the edge. "I… got lost on the way to the chapel the other day," she admits, her voice going soft. "Very lost. I was on a path taking me out of Westchester entirely and did not realize it."
"Oh, dat id terrible!" Hosea says, genuinely sounding concerned. Did you call on your phone?" he asks. "If you had called me, I would come and find you, you should not be lost in da woods!" He glances across the grounds. His larger hand pats the girl's hand on his arm. "How did you get back?" he asks.
Sophie blushes fiercely, and her gaze tilts back down towards the ground. "I was going to," she murmurs. "But three young men came upon me, and recognized me as a mutant. They took from me my book, my cane, they knocked me down and threatened me… I was too afraid they would take my phone if I took it out." She pauses, and coughs softly. "Professer Lenscherr… happened to be there. He heard what was going on and rescued me, and brought me back to the school."
Hosea's smile has completely disappeared now. "Did dey hurt you?" The tone is sober enough that without the statement it sounds like he plans reprecussions for the transgressors, even though he doesn't know who they were, and realizes that Sophie most likely can't identify them. "Professah Lensherr, he is vedy powahful. But you should be careful, I heah stories dat he is also dangerous. Not to us, but to those who are not mutants."
Sophie shrugs her shoulders lightly. "Beyond a few bruises, no… they did not hurt me. I think that they would have." She shakes her head slowly. "Professer Lensherr sent them packing; he did not hurt them, only scared them. Except… it was not only him that scared them." She sucks in her breath, and falls silent for a long moment. "I…" she mumbles, speaking again at last. "I did something to one of them by accident, that I did not know I could do."
Hosea arches his brow. "What did you do?" he asks Sophie. He doesn't actually know very much about the operation of the girl's power. "If dey were hurt because dey attacked you, you have done no wrong, dey have reaped da punishment for deir own evil."
Sophie taps around the edge of the dock, before letting go of Hosea's arm. She takes a step forwards, and telescopes her cane into itself; something that it most certainly did not do before. She tucks the folded up cane into her slave, and smooths out her dress as she stands at the edge of the dock. She holds a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. Then, in one quick movement she raises her right hand; she holds her palm away from herself, and a brilliant beam of white light appears from her palm; the beam hits the water, and a small cloud of steam rises up into the air. Sophie's display ends moments after it began, and she folds her hands together over her belly.
"Oh!" Hosea announces, "Dat is a vedy pretty powah. A pretty white light. It made da watah steam as well," he tells the girl. "Have you done dis before? Or was it da first time when you were being bothered by those men?" he asks.
Sophie shakes her head. "First time," she murmurs. "I didn't even know I was doing it until it was too late. I lit a tree on fire, and I could smell burnt clothing and skin so I know I hit one of them." She bows her head, and sucks in a deep breath. "I did not want to hurt anyone," she whispers. "I did not want to be able to do this, either. But I can, so I will have to learn how to control it, si?" She looks up again, and brushes her hair out of her face as she forces a brief smile. "Only… I am not sure why God would give to me such a power. Perhaps I am not meant to know, I realize… I just…"
Hosea moves his hand from her hand to her shoulder. "It is all right. Da Lord knows what he desires for you, yes? Because your powah can burn, dat does not mean you must use it to hurt people. Fire is a tool, so you must learn to control it like a tool. God gave you your gift for his purpose, and in time, He will reveal it to you, yes?" He chuckles. "Thought it nevah seems fast enough to us I think!"
Sophie smiles once more at the touch, and her own hand comes up to rest on Hosea's. "Si, it is true," she murmurs. "And… si, God will show me, sooner or later. It is only, the one part that does bother me is… well…" She sighs softly, and bites her bottom lip. "If I had to, I would use this to defend myself. How could I stand before God and explain why I allowed others to take from me the life that he gave me, and did not use the tools that he has given me to protect the gift? I would be at a loss for words."
Hosea shakes his head. "Dere is no evil in protecting yourself, Sophie, but do not think dat God would be angry if you do not. Da way of violence is not what he calls his people to. I have come from dat road. It is a terrible place. But see, God has brought me from darkness into light!" He pulls her into a hug. "Think of Paul, he was beaten and left for dead, but he did not fight back. His gifts were great, yes? Dere is no safer place to be den in da middle of God's will, no mattah how dangerous it may seem to human minds."
A soft squeak is Sophie's response as she is drawn into a hug. Her arms wrap around Hosea's back, and she rests her head against his chest. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," she murmurs, "I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me." She smiles softly, lets the tension go out of her muscles, and rests in the tall Nigerian's embrace. "Thank you, Hosea."
"Yes!" Hosea exuberates as she quotes part of the twenty-third Psalm. "He prepares a table in da presence of my enemies." Why? Because He is God, and da enemies are just men." He makes a pffting sound, at the indication of men. "You are most welcome, Sophie." He pets her head softly. "And I am glad dat God has kept you safe."
Sophie sighs pleasantly, and shifts her arms upwards to rest on Hosea's shoulders. She rests like that for a time, until she tilts her head to gaze upwards. "When I said 'thou', I was referring to God, of course." She smiles, and bows her head back down, to rest once more against the Nigerian's chest. "But was not the only 'thou' I was referring to, just this once, si?"
Hosea's brow raises. "Ah," he answers. "Sophie, I would protect you til I was to die, if dat be what it took to keep you safe, yes?" Perhaps not surprising is his very traditional view of how a man should behave toward a woman. "You are a special girl I think." He seems to become a little nervous after the statement, and his heart speeds up a few beats. "You are vedy special to me, more den da otha girls heah, even."
Sophie can feel the rise in heartrate, given how she is positioned, though she passes no comment on it; her own heart is racing as well. "You wouldn't die," she murmurs. "I would heal you, Hosea… and burn your enemies, if I had to." She blushes as she speaks, though her lips quirk upwards in a pleasant smile. "You are very special to me as well, Hosea. Of… of all the people I have met in America, I think I am the most glad to have met you, si?"
Hosea's own lips curl back into the smile as the girls speaks. "And I you, Sophie," he says. It's rather ironic, sine neither of them are from America in the first place, but then, their original nationalities probably aren't what either of them are thinking about.
The blind girl hmms, and nods her head slowly. "I miss Spain, sometimes," she murmurs. "But I am glad I have come here, and I would trade it for nothing. She moves back a half a step, though staying in range of Hosea's hands as she produces her cane, and expands it to full size. "Do you have your bible with you, Hosea? I am still waiting for mine. Would you like to read it together?"
Hosea pulls the tattered Bible from his cargo pocket. "Yes, I do, and I would love to read it with you. Let us read what God has for us today." And so he sits at the edge of the dock with Sophie, and the life from well-worn pages of Scripture is brought to the young pair once again.
