A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command”There we are,” Aurora exclaimed when a large isle came into sight but instead of flying right towards it, the Exiles’ leader changed the X-Jet’s course so that the large vehicle was aiming at a smaller island instead which, judging from what one could see in such an altitude, was covered with wood for the most part.
‘Exiles’ … it definitely was a named that fitted them. Truth be told, Garnet had neither expected anyone to show up in the Danger Room nor that someone would actually reply to her question what they should call their… team. Much to her own surprise, it had been Jess who had made the proposal that got accepted though not everyone actively participated in the vote. Then again, not saying anything was a kind of vote as well, wasn’t it?
The way Negetive had supported the name though had somewhat annoyed the fiery mutant who once again wondered how those two whole days with the troublemakers would turn out to be. ”A group of outsiders among outcasts, commanded by a Barbie doll… If we’re not likely to save the world, seriously, who is at all?!” Still, he did have a point being so bluntly sarcastic. How were they ever supposed to act effectively in a serious situation which one half nagging at the other while only Feral and herself – probably – would be actually focused on what they needed to do?
This was another, maybe the main reason why they needed to participate, no matter in what horrible colors Circe’s imagination had already painted those days’ picture. They had to learn to work together, needed to be able to trust each other and so a goal they all had would – hopefully – turn out to be of advantage. The only question being whether Morticia and the others would actually try at all…
The plane landed smoothly and came to a halt. Aurora had asked Storm and Rogue repeatedly to help her learn to control the object; her urge to be prepared for every kind of situation only satisfied when she had reached the high standard she had now. Especially the battle at the Center of Inquisition, the single extreme life and death situation she had been in the vampires’ arrival aside, had shown to her how high the danger was that the team leaders or older members, those who normally maneuvered the jets, would get hurt or become unable to help them escape or leave at all in any other way. For this, she wanted to be ready… so that if it came to it, she would be able to save those she cared for, and even those who despised her although she had never done anything to them to deserve it.
It definitely was odd how much her attitude had changed regarding that in the past years. For so long she hadn’t cared for others the slightest… but how was she to get this important realization in the heads of people as Gypsy or Jess?
Deciding to postpone the reply to a point in time when she would actually know it, Aurora got up pressing a button to open a large door, more a gate, at the end of the jet.
”We have arrived,” she stated, quite unnecessarily as Aurora noticed walking past her team to exit as the first. It seemed like the natural thing to do for her. As the leader, she had to be the first to see new surroundings to get an impression… to maybe spot threats. Or so she thought. It wasn’t as if anybody had ever taught her what she had to do, as a team leader. All that she thought to know, she had seen at Ororo and there hadn’t been that many missions she had had with the GSF.
After everyone had followed her outside – they had landed in a clearing of the small forest – she began her explanation. After all, none of them knew what all of this was about and… ”In fact, I did not have the slightest idea what we were supposed to do here until this morning. I believe this is a part of the concept, they want to confront us with the fact that as a team of X-Men, we are likely to be forced to act quickly without the option of an intense briefing,”
Like Aurora had seen at Storm, her eyes wandered from one to another, realizing the point of it. ”Most teams are located somewhere on this island,” A hand was motioned towards the larger landmass behind them with just a few hundred meters of sea in between. ”Our target location, or meeting point if you will, is on there as well and while three other teams - the Blue Strike Force, Green Strike Force and X-Force – are having the same mission as we have, namely getting there, the rest is to stop us from completing it,”
A second passed in which Garnet pretended to give them time to let her words sink in while in fact she desperately tried to remember other facts of importance. When they came back to her nervous mind, a perfect façade hid the truth. ”There will be points granted for reaching the meeting point, taken for cooperating with other teams. The list is longer but those are the most important two. If there are no questions, I would say be begin with building a raft that will take us over there. And before you ask, it appears to be part of the concept as well to let us start here,”
This time, the girl’s feelings were obvious. She deeply objected against the decision of letting this more than in one regard ridiculously untrained team – whereas she didn’t exclude herself – start off farther away than the others with the extra difficulty of having to built a float first. Compared to that, the Danger Room session had been easy. While here all needed to work together, training tended to be one against another with occasional teaming up.
To demonstrate what she wanted them to do during their first session, Aurora had asked Max to assist her because she knew more about his powers than about most of the others. Circe had started off with small and weak fireballs that the stone-shifting mutant was to simply change the course of by transforming the flesh of his hand and hitting the flame with it. During that, Aurora had tried to explain the importance of not using one’s full strength at the beginning but increasing the attack gradually to see where there was the point to work on. Since it had only been a presentation, she had stopped quite soon and only emphasized her words by showing what she really was capable of by casually turning one of the dummies into a pile of ashes with a snap and the glimpse of a second’s time while continuing her explanations.
As she had said quite clearly, this method of training wasn’t the best for all of them since some were – by nature – no fighters. It had also been the purpose of the initial training to become certain of who belonged to which category and the result had hardly shown any surprises. Yet as Circe had underlined, there was a place and the need for each and everyone. She just hoped they had all understood that.
TBC – Exiles only! (OOC: I had to NPC a little. Lady, tell me if you disagree with what I said about Jess and want it changed.
EVERYONE is asked to add something about the training regarding your character(s)! You can decide who your character was training with on your own if you want but add a note for the respective player asking whether that’s alright and be ready to edit your post if s/he is not.)
"Will this chance be for good or bad? I do not know… so giving it a try and doing my best seems to be the only option I have"
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
The trip had been a relatively quiet one what with Jess brooding to himself in his section of the plane and Casey trying to make himself invisible to the bullies of his school team. Within the first five minutes of takeoff Jess had pulled out a book and started reading. Only when any sort of noise could be heard did he tear himself away, glaring a warning at whoever had interrupted him or sullenly glaring at the world itself if the noise could not be attributed to anyone in particular. It hadn't taken much to get his point across and he was left in relative silence by most.
Nearby Casey's bright blue eyes flitted nervously around the interior. He was not comfortable with this group of people who were suposedly his 'teammates' and didn't realish the idea of spending anymore time with them than he already had. Casey however was a teacher's pet, a good little student and as such he wasn't about to protest this team mission or cause any sort of trouble even with a legitimite protest. His strategy was to simply stay quietly to himself and hope that everyone would forget about him and leave him alone. For the entire trip he didn't utter a single word and that was more than alright with some of the others on the jet.
By the time Aurora announced that they were there there was the smallest sigh of relief from Casey who just wanted to be on solid ground again. He wasn't really scared of flying or of heights, it just made him ever so slightly uneasy what with all the plane crash movies he'd seen before. However instead of landing on the island she changed course and Jess, who looked up from his book with a glance of pure annoyance, has an even darker expression on his face as he saw the smaller island they were now aiming for.
"Perfect let's stick a group of people who couldn't care any less about one another on a small island and see what happens," Jess muttered under his breath but loud enough so that Aurora could choose to achknowledge it or not. "Sounds like a great new reality show," he added only half sarcastically.
As the team leader announced that they had arrived Jess said, more to himself than to anyone, "Gee thanks for that insight Captain state-the-obvious". The two sarcastic comments in such a short span of time indicated just how irritated with the plane ride and the whole idea of completing a mission as a team he really was.
The group, in varying levels of reluctance, followed Aurora over to the clearing of a small forest. As she explainned their mission Jess couldn't help but be more than a little moody and sceptical about the whole thing. So they were suposed to find their way to a certain point? Sounded like one of the dumbest things he had ever heard and Jess had heard alot of dumb things between living in New York and talking to his mother's many boyfriends. Casey on the otherhand was terrified. He was sure that he would be the first one out somehow or other with his team attempting to sacrifice him or leave him behind or some other such thing. The blue eyed mutant snorted in laughter at the mention of points being taken for co-operation with other teams. They couldn't even co-operate amongst themselves let alone the thought of working coherantly with others. The two completely different teens did agree on one thing though. Neither one of them was keen on the idea of building a raft or the idea of starting way over here, farther away from their goal than even some of the most experienced teams.
Jess blinked, his dark eyes already pools of blatant disgust at the entire idea. Had he heard correctly? Was he really expected to go out and get wood for some stupid raft just because one of the almighty team leaders had decided that it would be hilarious to start the newbie team farther away than those with more experience? The rebellious side of Jess flared up and he decided there was no way he was about to collect wood when his powers were useless in that regard. Powers. That gave Jess an idea and he looked his team leader in the eyes with the hint of a challenge in his dark orbs. "No," he said as calmly as he could and took a seat on the ground. Pulling the worn book from his pocket he turned to the folded corner of the page on which he had stopped and start reading once more.
Casey blinked at him, blue eyes wide with disbelief. He wasn't doing anything, he wasn't co-operating and their leader was doing absolutely nothing about this form of rebellion. His eyes flickered over the axes leaning up against one tree and then came back to Jess. So Jess had made his decision and didn't seem to have any intention of participating but what about the others? Casey didn't want to disobey a command but he also didn't want to be the one dissenter in the group. If they were all going to follow Jess' example than where would that leave him? As the victom yet again? Casey wasn't about to let that happen so he stared at the ground, not wanting to make a move until one of the stronger and more assertive members of their group had done so.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
First and foremost, Gypsy hadn’t been happy with her communicator going off to tell her to go to the hanger waking her up. Waking her up was never a good idea, but it was lucky that no one had come barging into her room to wake her otherwise they would have been in deep trouble. However, she quickly got over it and got ready to make her way to the hopeless team that was most suitably named ‘Exiles’.
While on the jet, Gypsy recalled the Danger Room session. It hadn’t been too bad, but it could have been better. The former mutant didn’t do too much in the training session, but no one seemed to demand that she do to much. She would have liked to be able to have more of an input like she used to be able to with her old powers, she couldn’t really use the powers she had now to cause any harm ignoring the temptation of sending someone to Hell. She’d be in way to much trouble if she did that and the last thing she wanted was people pestering her telling her what she did was wrong.
A slight jealousy had been sparked when Gypsy was witness to Aurora’s fiery power. Memories of what she could do being shoved in her face, taunting her of what she had lost. Did her team leader know how cruel she was being? Probably not, but it still didn’t give Gypsy any reasons for liking her any more.
However, Gypsy had to admit that she was surprised that Garnet could actually fly the jet. When they had boarded it earlier she half expected one of the older X-Men to walk on in and fly them to wherever they were off to, but that was not the case. She was at a wonder to how many surprises this girl actually had, but didn’t allow her thoughts to linger on that for too long.
”We have arrived,” An eyebrow rose. This group may not care much for each other but they weren’t stupid. They could tell that the jet had landed. There was a slight shake of the head after Aurora had passed her before she unbuckled her seat belt and got out of her chair.
It felt good to be out of the jet and in fresh air, and this was coming for the girl who spent most of her time locked away inside. Though, something nagged away inside her, ‘what the hell are we doing here?’ So for the first time Gypsy actually put all her attention over to Aurora as if demanding her to explain everything of course the fiery mutant started speaking before she could see her look, but all the same Gypsy got what she wanted.
”In fact, I did not have the slightest idea what we were supposed to do here until this morning. I believe this is a part of the concept, they want to confront us with the fact that as a team of X-Men, we are likely to be forced to act quickly without the option of an intense briefing,” It was good to hear that ever their leader wasn’t kept in the loop about things until recently. A nice little surprise for everyone! The part that mentioned this team being a part of the X-Men made Gypsy laugh a little. The world was doomed if it was up to them to save it. And then the fact that you don’t always get a briefing before mission was something that Gypsy could see for any mission that was handed to this group, they probably wouldn’t be bothered to show up for the meeting thus how they would miss out on it.
”Most teams are located somewhere on this island,” Her hazel brown eyes followed Aurora’s hand motion. At least the Exiles didn’t have to share their island with the others. Perhaps she could handle it with just their team, but it seemed something else was coming and the forecast wasn’t good.
”Our target location, or meeting point if you will, is on there as well and while three other teams - the Blue Strike Force, Green Strike Force and X-Force – are having the same mission as we have, namely getting there, the rest is to stop us from completing it,” A loud and annoyed sigh escaped from Gypsy. She didn’t want to have to waste her weekend getting to some other island to reach a meeting point. It seemed like something you did when you were a child and really, if you were on some mission you wouldn’t be needing to build a raft when you had a jet right nearby and why would you be racing against groups to get to a spot? Okay, it could be converted into a mission like situation but she was just too annoyed to let her thoughts make this actually sound reasonable.
”There will be points granted for reaching the meeting point, taken for cooperating with other teams. The list is longer but those are the most important two. If there are no questions, I would say be begin with building a raft that will take us over there. And before you ask, it appears to be part of the concept as well to let us start here,” The idea of them teaming up to build a raft was almost comical. Bad enough that they have to spend the weekend together, but now build a raft? Couldn’t they just fly over there instead? It did matter if it was cheating, this team didn’t stand much of a chance of winning. How could they when there were much more advanced teams out there.
However, Gypsy knew that if she bothered to say anything it wouldn’t work out they way she wanted and surprisingly, even for herself, her views seemed to change. Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t become suddenly happy about all this and rush off looking for raft building material all over the island. She just decided that if they were going to get off the island they may as well get it done quickly. Besides, if luck played on their side they could even find themselves getting to their meeting spot first and hopefully heading home early. Winning didn’t play any factor for Gypsy, she hated group work and hated teams and to win on one would be so degrading but if they could all just get things over and done with quickly this weekend mightn’t turn out as bad as initially thought.
"No," At the rebellious attitude of Jess, Gypsy’s gaze shifted over to Aurora to see how she was going to deal with this. Jess was one of the two people she could actually handle on the team, the other being Max, but she did enjoy seeing others misfortunes. But luckily for Jess, he wasn’t going to get one as another surprise came from the Exiles leader in her not doing anything about it.
A spark of curiosity ignited in Gypsy at this, but be as smart as she is she couldn’t figure out that they were all witness to Jess’s power in action. She looked over to Jess for a moment to see him reading then back to Aurora. She was a little disappointed at the leader. If she wanted this team to work wasn’t she going to whip them all into shape? Wouldn’t this be the perfect time to set an example so that no one should mess with her on this mission? Well, it made sense to the part demon. This only brought one thought into her head, this team had already caused her to go into denial. If she was just going to let Jess sit and read while everyone else had to make a raft then something must be wrong with her.
But Gypsy didn’t fell all too keen on allowing him to sit back and relax while everyone else had to work. While she had to do work. If she was going to do something, more to get this petty ‘training mission’ over and done with as quick as possible, everyone was going to. Another shake of the head was sent in Circe’s direction as she turned and walked over to Jess, kneeling beside him. Her long black skirt was certainly not the most suitable wear for this weekend, but she didn’t know what was planned for it. At least she had a thick black jumper to keep herself warm if the nights got cool.
"Thank you," Gypsy said as she took the book from Jess and closed it, a false friendly smile plastered on her face as she did so. She then looked over to Paige for a moment, remembering how she had hold of her book when they were last all together before she looked back at Jess. "Hear me out and you can get it back," she made sure to set down the rules before she started. At least she was being reasonable, she could have thrown the book into the forest if she wanted but she didn’t.
"How many of us do you think actually want to build a raft, let alone be here?" Her question stated, as she pointed over to the other members of Exiles. At this moment she hoped that no one stood up and said that they actually felt like building a raft, but if they could see that she was trying to prove a point and were wise enough they wouldn’t do it.
"None of us want to waste our weekend with each other, but there's only one thing we can do about it." Her words were stern, like a mother telling off a child in a way not to send them into tears. Gypsy was sure yelling wouldn’t send Jess into tears, he was a big boy but yelling is so over-rated. "It hurts me to say it but," she paused for a moment as if drawing the courage to say what she was about to, but it was more for dramatising things above anything else. "We have to build a raft. If we don't and don't get this stupid thing over and done with, we're going to have to probably spend more of our time here instead of at places we would like to be," with that fact she was certain that others could agree with her on this, not that they had to. They might be all different people, but this was something they would all certainly not put their names down for if this was optional.
"And do you really want to spend anymore time here than we must?" Gypsy was being quite nice she thought. If it were any of the others she would have been a lot harsher on them. And who says that an attitude gets you nowhere? It sure does save a half demon who can send you to Hell from getting angry at you!
"If you help out, you can read us a story by a campfire if you’re lucky!" She said as a bribeful tease as she looked over the book. She was yet to fully wake from getting woken up against her own will so she couldn’t be bothered to read from it to see if it was any good or not.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
One green, feline eye opened at the sound of someone’s voice. Her brain didn’t register what had actually been said, but she quickly decided that it wasn’t of great importance. Whatever this trip was for, she had become bored of it almost as soon as she got on the jet. It didn’t help that, although having no fear of flight or heights, she felt un-comfy being in the air in this machine. Okay, so the journey had been relatively smooth, but that just went to show how unnatural it was. But to fly with the wings of a hawk, now that was an experience. To feel the wind moving against you, yet helping you, to be able to dive at ridiculous speeds and still pull up and survive, to feel the thermals beneath your wings. Now that was something to get excited about.
Forcing herself to stir slightly, her other eye opened as she glanced out of the window. Although she hadn’t been asleep, she had allowed her mind to wander, trying to ignore her doubts about this so called ‘team’. And now her eyes wandered over the expanse of water below them, ignoring the islands for a moment, and a slight grin etched its way across her face. The sea, the ocean! How long had it been since she had been near it? She tried to work it out in her mind, and ended up with a simple conclusion. It had been too long!
She forced herself to ignore the sudden joy she felt. Although Racheal took on many of the feline’s instincts, there were some of her morphs that over took that instinct. And the orca was one of the strongest. Suddenly, she had a sudden yearning to simply get into the water and morph. To feel the amazing power of such a gentle, and majestic beast, and to once more soar through the water like her kestrel soared in the air or her felines raced on the earth. She sighed happily, quietly, leaning back in her seat, truly uncaring now that she had been silently unwilling to come.
What was in a name? Orcas were also called Killer Whales. She had once found out that this was because of a misinterpretation, and their true name was ‘whale killer’. She understood their true name, but their common name lead to fear in some people – she had seen that. And this was despite the fact that human attacks by orcas were almost unheard of. And now this little group were known as the ‘Exiles’. Now that seemed to suit them down to the ground. Well, she knew that she, at least, was an outcast, and the others seemed to be in a similar position. She silently admitted that she actually liked the name, and maybe her slow, hesitant vote for it had been a slight surprise, but she couldn’t think of anything better. One of Racheal’s little quirks was that she liked things to have a reason. And even if she didn’t know the true reason for something, she would find some sort of excuse for something to happen.
Which was why she didn’t like people much. Humans, both mutant and ‘normal’, were unpredictable. They could do things for no reason, act without having an excuse. As the X-jet went into land, her eyes shifted from the approaching greenery to the others in this little team. And again the thought entered her mind. How did she ever get to be in a position where she would have to work with anyone else? Okay... maybe, just maybe she could try and work with them. At least then this should be over and done with pretty quickly. Whatever ‘this’ was. Just as long as she wasn’t expected to trust them, then things would be fine. Help them, sure. Accept help… well, maybe, though the idea of having help might take some getting used to. But she wouldn’t trust them. If they wanted to trust her they could, and she would try and give them a reason to trust her (if they didn’t cross her). But Racheal’s trust had to be earned. And this little kitten held a major fear…
”We have arrived” Racheal had to stop herself rolling her eyes. Wasn’t that kind of obvious? As soon as she stopped herself, she came to the conclusion that this was not a good day. At least the sun was shinning, that was better than nothing. Maybe getting out of this stuffy machine would help her calm down. As much as she enjoyed swimming, she hated the rain – it tended to wash away the scents of the world. She didn’t follow Aurora directly, rather she waited till at least one of the others had followed before walking out.
Closing her eyes briefly, Racheal lifted her head towards the sky. As she stopped, lowering her face from the blissful sunshine, she glanced around again at the small group. In her eyes, their little ‘training’ session yesterday had been completely pointless. She had lived with her powers for around 14 years. Although she only had one true experience in fighting, each morph held their own, instinctive memories and she need only call on them in order to battle. And as for holding back… Well, maybe it worked for their fiery leader, but if she was to start off with her weakest attack, against most true enemies she would be killed in seconds. After all, what sort of harm could a Dartford Warbler, a small, English heath land songbird truly do against anyone? She didn’t have the time to switch morphs between the attacks. She simply had the first moment to decide who would fight best and then use it. Though yesterday perhaps her Black Panther morph had been a little over kill…
”In fact, I did not have the slightest idea what we were supposed to do here until this morning. I believe this is a part of the concept, they want to confront us that as a team of X-Men, we are likely to be asked to act quickly, without the option of an intense briefing” … “Most teams are located somewhere on this island” Emerald eyes followed the other’s hand movement. One eyebrow rose slightly, managing to stop an increase of the grin which had remained on her face since seeing the ocean beneath them whilst in the X-jet. The other island wasn’t far, not enough to give the orca a full stretch, but still…
”Our target location, or meeting point if you will, is on there as well, and while three other teams – the Blue Strike Force, Green Strike Force and X-Force – are having the same mission as we have, namely getting there, the rest is to stop us from completing it” … “There will be points granted for reaching the meeting point, taken for co-operating with other teams. The list is longer but those are the most important two. If there are no questions, I would say we begin with building a raft that will take us there. And before you ask, it appears to be part of the concept as well to let us start here” Racheal seemed to ignore the pause, listening, but not with her full attention. The idea seemed clear enough. Stick a bunch of people together; abandon them on an island, forcing them to work together. She saw one error in the concept. She just couldn’t imagine it working…
”This is boring..” She forced herself to ignore the tiny voice of her various morphs. Out of them all, there were only four morphs who would naturally group together, the lioness, the orca, the thoroughbred mare and the golden retriever. And even they didn’t see the point of this. Team work couldn’t be forced. There had to be a hierarchy, a job for everyone whilst they hunted or grazed. Okay, so Racheal agreed with them, but she didn’t want a difficult time, she just wanted to get this over and done with. It was easier than kicking up a fuss.
She also had to stop herself suggesting that they swam across. She had to pause though when the thought entered her mind that she could just swim off and leave them. Freedom again. But she only paused for a moment before once more pushing that thought away as well. Silently she scolded her morphs. She never felt it odd that these different creatures lived inside her. Surely most people had some sort of voice they listened to... these were just hers.
Silently, she ran the idea through her head again. Although there were a few points which remained unclear, she doubted whether their leader would actually have any of the answers. Well, at least the idea made some sense. And it had a reason, which was good. There was really only one question that came to mind, though depending on the answer, more could erupt…
..."How many of us do you think actually want to build a raft, let alone be here?" Gypsy's comment temporarly broke her train of thought, Racheal's feral eyes turning to the other. "None of us want to waste our weekend with each other, but there's only one thing we can do about it." ... "It hurts me to say it but," ... "We have to build a raft. If we don't and don't get this stupid thing over and done with, we're going to have to probably spend more of our time here instead of at places we would like to be,"... "And do you really want to spend anymore time here than we must?" Well, at least Racheal wasn't alone in her thinking. She doubted that she was, but it was always half decent to find someone elese who took a similar stand point. But how tmepting was it to say that they could go a head and build the raft - but she had no intention of using it? She sighed slightly to herself. Trying to see how they got the wood could be pretty amusing too...
"If you help out, you can read us a story by a campfire if you’re lucky!" Oh, how tempting it was to add the fact that if he was really lucky he might actually get fed! Racheal forced the temptation down, refusing to seem too controversal, despite her distaste at Jess's reaction to the mission. The island may well lack large predators, but something that simply sat still would be ease prey. But talk of the camp fire brought her question back to mind.
”How long is this thing supposed to take anway?” Her emerald eyes turned back to Garnet. It wasn’t just that Racheal didn’t want to be stuck out here with these guys for too long, but as she looked around them, she wondered if any of them would have even a first clue about how to survive a day out here. If this was going to take a while, they would at least have to find food, if not camp. The idea that there may be supplies didn’t really surface in her mind. The idea of these people even trying to hunt would normally have amused her. But not now, a poor hunt/kill/forage was worse than none at all. Silently she prayed that this was expected to take only a few hours, maybe a day at the worst. Inwardly she sighed. This was going to be a lot more trying than she thought. Well, she decided, bringing her mind to her previous thoughts; at least the sun was still shining.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
Jess’ sarcastic comments didn’t actually came unexpected… in fact, it would have felt a little odd to Aurora to not have his voice bickering somewhere silently in the background; not obtrusively loud but too easy to pick up to be really intended not to be heard by her. She didn’t comment on it. Slowly but surely, Garnet had come to realize that this was a part of his nature, something she most probably would never be able to stop him from doing and so she had to accept it. Strangely enough, the fiery mutant even found herself smirking at those words that were all too true – yet it disappeared quickly in the attempt not to undermine her own authority. Even thinking that word in regards to her position in this “team” felt ridiculous… yet, hopefully yet.
When Negetive denied to follow her indirect command to work together so they could be heading for the main island… she didn’t notice. In the very second he had said “no”, Aurora forgot she had ever asked him, a part of her fully oblivious to his refusal, yes, even to the fact that she had expected him to do anything while waiting for everyone else to either pose a question or do as asked of them. All the more Circe was surprised upon Gypsy’s reaction, glad that Morticia – although lacking the spirit – at least seemed ready to co-operate. Her words made it easy for Aurora to figure Jess had no intentions on helping but she just couldn’t remember having heard him objecting. Since the matter was obviously dealt with – maybe as a side effect of Negetive’s power – Exiles’ team leader focused on more important matters…
Racheal: ”How long is this thing supposed to take anway?”
Hadn’t she mentioned that? Thinking back, Aurora found herself uncertain about that part and replied with a smile directed at the feral. ”Today and tomorrow… so we will have to spend a night outside as well,”
Seeing there were no more questions and assuming the animal morpher’s had been answered, Garnet turned again to face all of them and made a gesture towards the woods. ”Very well, we should get started then. I think distributing tasks would make the most sense… Max, Jess,” Dark gaze wandered to the two boys, Aurora’s mind still refusing to let her remember the second one’s reaction. It was quite difficult to form small groups of those people at such a task that mainly asked physical strength but she hoped it would work out anyway. ”You will fell the trees. We are in need of two tall ones that must not have too many low branches so we can use them with the least effort. Make sure to choose trees that will not be hindered by others when falling and be careful. You will find working gloves and all you need inside the jet,” Handing out the other tasks, Aurora turned to the persons in question hoping to be acting in a fair manner. Apparently, she would really need to say a few more things, especially towards the two stronger males who would end up having the most work.
”Feral, I want you to gather anything that can serve as ropes to tie the stems together. I think I have seen ivy and other plants with ranks in this region… Paige, Casey, please prepare what Racheal brings you for later use. Think about how to construct the raft, what length and width et cetera. Morticia, you and I will get the felled trees to the shore for further processing… your job will mainly be to push them in the right direction while I will let them hover.
After the plan is ready, all that are done with their other jobs will help cutting the stems to the size needed respectively tie them together… I am sorry but the hardest part will probably be yours since you are the physically strongest of us,” An apologetic smile appeared on her flawless features as Garnet looked at Jess and Max. ”I assure you, after those two days, everything will be equalized again. For effectiveness’ sake, however, it is necessary to use everyone’s assets to the fullest where fitting,”
Nothing Aurora said about the fact that she would have been easily able to speed up the process by felling and cutting the trees on her own within a few minutes’ time. She did have the desire to win with this team nobody seemed to give a chance – no other chance but this one they had – however, more important it was to actually make them become at least more “teamish” than they were. A task that didn’t actually sound difficult considering they had no affinity to one another at all. If she did everything or even the most part, there would be no good in it… and so she swallowed her pride, bit the bullet and liberally accepted the possibility of losing. After all, there were more important things than winning… wait… had she just thought that?
(OOC: Sorry for the wait, I wanted to give people the chance to maybe have some posting going on among you...
I edited the Feral siggy a little... would be great if you could me using the "new" one instead, kitty - please replace the old one completely so that the URL stays the same. - click -)
"Will this chance be for good or bad? I do not know… so giving it a try and doing my best seems to be the only option I have"
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
Jess Mariano didn't raise his head from his book although he certainly heard the footsteps that signified someone approaching. This was a bit of a surprise he had to admit since his powers had surely put their 'fearless leader' to rest and non of the wimps among the group would approach him. That left the person as Max or Gypsy so either he was in for an encounter with a mutant he had decided he hated despite the short span of time in which they knew eachother or Gypsy would threaten to send him to Hell. He preferred the later.
The figure knelt beside him and without looking up Jess knew it was Gypsy. He didn't really picture the school bully as the type to kneel as if he wanted to actually have a conversation. He was forced to look up however as a pair of hands unexpectedly took the book from his hands. She closed the novel and gave him a smile that appeared friendly to the unknowing but dumb as he might at times pretend to be Jess was anything but stupid. He glared at her grimmly for a moment, darkened face saying what his lack of words did not but then fixed her with his own plasticy smile.
"Hear me out and you can get it back," the mutant girl said and Jess fixed her with another look but didn't say anything, willing to let her speak. He wondered if she knew that she was the only person on the team who he would actually let hold his book captive in exchange for conversation. Jess recognised that Gypsy was being something approaching reasonable and his look lightened slightly so he wasn't completely glowering at her.
"How many of us do you think actually want to build a raft, let alone be here?" Gypsy asked and Jess' lips curved up into a smirk as his dark eyes fixed on Casey and Paige nearby. He had a feeling neither of them minded so much and that it was only some of the company here that made them nervous. Neither one said anything though, Jess figured that they weren't dumb enough to get sent to Hell while Gypsy tried to prove her point.
"None of us want to waste our weekend with each other, but there's only one thing we can do about it." She sounded almost like she was telling off a misbehaving child and mentally Jess thought 'ouch' as he recognized this. Naturally though he was difficult as always, thinking to himself that for everyone else here there was only one option. He had two options and one of them involved minding his own business and doing absolutely nothing with their mighty leader not even noticing he wasn't eagerly felling trees. She didn't know though, she probably thought that it was just Aurora being weak and not that it has anything to do with powers.
"It hurts me to say it but," She paused here with a dramatic sort of emphasis and Jess felt like he was in a bad teen movie. Problem was in these sorts of movies there was usually a large animal or a serial killer to take the silly teens out one by one. He guessed Paige would be one of the first to go if this was the case.
"We have to build a raft. If we don't and don't get this stupid thing over and done with, we're going to have to probably spend more of our time here instead of at places we would like to be. And do you really want to spend anymore time here than we must?" Well that was a sobbering thought. Sure he could get out of doing anything productive and could sabotage this joke of a team but where would it really get him? He's still have to face the music in the form of harsh words from his Uncle when he got back and it wasn't as if he'd gain much from sitting back here.
"If you help out, you can read us a story by a campfire if you’re lucky!" This was a tease that he wouldn't have accepted from anyone else but it was playful and from Gypsy not so condescending.
Grudgingly Jess gave a sort of half nod and scowled at the island he was now on. Gypsy hadn't made him any more favourable about the island itself, his teammates or any other part of this sorry excuse for a mission but she had made a point and he intended now to do as asked, although not without his usual sarcasm and complainning. He would make things difficult but not impossible.
"Whatever," he said, voice low with a shrug. Jess rarely said yes to anything, unwilling to compromise that much. What he did do was shrugg something off, say whatever instead of fully giving in. He figured she would get this, that he wasn't willing to be an optimist about all of this but just a grudging participant.
”How long is this thing supposed to take anway?” That voice came from one of the other team members and Jess noticed the feral then, realising that she had blended into the background before. He was indifferent towards her, not disliking her or feeling a lack of respect for her as he did Max and Casey yet also not feeling admiration and something approaching appreciation as he did for Gypsy.
"Today and tomorrow… so we will have to spend a night outside as well,” Garnet replied and Jess rolled his eyes. Great a full night together. They were one big cosy family and would have a gay old time singing campfire songs and telling spooky stories. He snickered at the comic imagery. More likely Max would do something to the wimps of their team, he would try to not to talk to anyone and Garnet would have to put on the pleasant face which he was sure would hide a great deal of anger. He wondered to himself if she ever asked 'why me?' like all the team members themselves did. This team had been one cruel joke of the Universe, one worthy of the Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses he thought. Athena and Zeus would enjoy such tests as these.
"Very well, we should get started then. I think distributing tasks would make the most sense… Max, Jess.” Jess was already scowling at this point in time. Two names read in succession. Did that mean he was being placed with Max for whatever undoubtedly pointless task was to come?
"You will fell the trees. We are in need of two tall ones that must not have too many low branches so we can use them with the least effort. Make sure to choose trees that will not be hindered by others when falling and be careful. You will find working gloves and all you need inside the jet.” It was the fact that this was an order set in stone that bugged Jess and his stormy gaze focused on Aurora with an explosion of hatred for the world in their murky depths. He was sorely tempted to show off his powers once more and to watch Max complete this task by himself for the idea of physical labour complete with working gloves was not a pleasant one. Then his dark gaze flickered over to Gypsy. He remembered her words and he just looked at her for a moment before bowing his head in resignation with a barely audible sigh. Jess would do as he was told, just this once.
He barely listened as Garnet addressed the rest of the 'team' yet he did vaguely hear as Casey was addressed and watched as the geek with the strange blue eyes nodded quickly, mutely accepting his task with a nervous look around at the others before his eyes were downcast towards the ground.
As the leader apologised to Jess and Max for the task that they had been afforded and its difficulty Jess was sure Max's ego, which seemed quite large to him, would enjoy this comment.
"My asset is optimism," Jess deadpanned as his eyes met Aurora's. There was something of a challenge hidden in their depths. Something that said he would accept what was handed to him but that he wasn't about to be tamed. Grudgingly he pulled his eyes away and looked to Max coldly. He wondered if the bully was as unhappy with this arrangement as he was before turning back to Aurora and pulling off a mock salute with a smirk crossing his handsome features.
"Shall we?" he said to Max after a moment, voice dripping with unhappiness about their current situation unmasked before the group as he smirked at his teammate.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
What more could Max ask for? Trapped on an island with the new obsession, the new object of his affections, there seemed to be an unusual and rare effort being made by the bully who – struggle though he may – is trying to sway Garnet’s opinion of him for the better. But unlike most of the other woman Max has anything to do with, Aurora was in control of everything, it was very enticing to be around her, the way she was so dominant, beautiful, demanding and yet caring as well, not that these exiled youngsters have yet experienced much of her tender side. However for the moment he wasn’t aware where they were going, like the others lost in the mystery, he became highly unsettled though not even half way through the short trip, constantly shifting about in his seat and tapping the heels of his feet impatiently on the floor while fidgeting with either the seat belt strapped across his chest or the arm rests or anything else his hands could fiddle with. For the last few minutes of the trip he had his feet up on the back of the seat in front of his, which just so happened to have been Paige’s, but she didn’t complain or demand him to stop while he was causing the back of her seat to tremble slightly.
“We have arrived,”
A thud of Max’s feet dropping down from the back of Paige’s seat to the floor followed Garnet’s unneeded statement, a hasty unbuckling of his belt as he joined the rest while they all not very keenly moved to leave the plane, some a little less enthusiastic then other even more unenthusiastic ones. Already Max’s attention was distracted as he studied the area, his thumbs in the pocket of his jeans, his expensive white sneakers making every step feather soft and utterly comfortable. Wearing a red t-shirt only, which sleeves were short, finishing at the edge of the shoulders, revealing the full length of his –often-considered – spectacular arms. There was more pressing issues for Max at the moment though, he had promised his parents he’d find a presentable date for their important social gathering tonight, what happens when he doesn’t appear? He can’t call, he’d had his phone taken off him so he couldn’t use it, and he was being hurried so quickly to get onto the plane and settled that he hadn’t had time to do anything other then ask Mrs. Grey-Summers to call and tell them he was being kept back at the school. There had been a stressed request not to mention WHERE he was, not that he knew where he’d be with the team till he arrived but he didn’t want his parents, more so his father, to discover his connections with an X-men team.
“In fact, I did not have the slightest idea what we were supposed to do here until this morning. I believe this is a part of the concept, they want to confront us with the fact that as a team of X-Men, we are likely to be forced to act quickly without the option of an intense briefing,”
The voice of their leader pulled Max’s attention away from the surroundings around them, he’d been extra impatient then usual since being told to get onto the plane, losing interest in everything since he knew he’d be in serious trouble when he got back home. But was that something he ought to do? Focusing on what was to come instead of enjoying the fact he was on an island with their seductive leader, an image of Garnet in a bikini smoothed his nervousness, unfortunately it gave him a dazed expression while he stared off somewhere behind Garnet, just a little left to where she was standing speaking to them.
“Most teams are located somewhere on this island,”
Would they have to work for the entire two days? He could help Garnet relax a little, she was always so drowned in responsibilities, she was still a kid, despite her maturity and the fact she was an adult, she was still young and shouldn’t be weighing herself down all the time with all this stuff. A faint smile crept into his expression while he thought of different ways he could help her ‘relax’. The sound of her voice washed over him in his daydreams but he wasn’t really paying any attention to what she was actually saying, only vaguely picking up some words here and there.
“Our target location, or meeting point if you will, is on there as well and while three other teams - the Blue Strike Force, Green Strike Force and X-Force – are having the same mission as we have, namely getting there, the rest is to stop us from completing it,”
The fingers that weren’t in his pockets but hanging out, supported there by his thumbs, began to tap his thighs to an unheard rhythm, maybe tonight, or tomorrow night, they wouldn’t work every moment of every day, surely he could spend some time with her, even if he was just hovering around enough to get her attention, he didn’t mind being patient when it came to women. Sadly for Max, patience was no more then a week and that was if he really, really liked the girl. The following thoughts where devoted to practicing things that he could talk with her about.
“There will be points granted for reaching the meeting point, taken for cooperating with other teams. The list is longer but those are the most important two. If there are no questions, I would say be begin with building a raft that will take us over there. And before you ask, it appears to be part of the concept as well to let us start here,”
An amused thought soon crossed Max’s mind and he remembered the fun he and Gypsy had back in the Danger Room, sure he was a good fighter, Max had spent every year he’s lived at the school under either Betsy’s or Wolverine’s martial arts program, alright, so he wasn’t the best, but that was just because he didn’t really put a lot of effort into learning any of it, all he needed was a little more focus and he’d do a whole lot more better. But still when he set his mind to it he was quite a decent fighter, but he had a habit of not taking anything seriously and that restricted his potential greatly.
Gypsy and Max don’t have any offensive flashy powers like Garnet or Racheal, and either did Paige or Jess, but in truth since he was rarely participating in anything it was hard to tell if he had flashy powers and just wasn’t using them or was as useless as he really looked – in Max’s opinion anyway. Max muched about with Gypsy at one point, commenting on saving the other poor souls of the team from having to suffer the threat of hell by taking on her himself. Only they were playing around the entire time, not really hitting each other but every time his female classmate touched him – or brushed against him – Max would exaggerate and get all-dramatic or he’d pretend he could feel her heightening one of the sins inside him. While he was avoiding having to face a large black kitty-cat – and even worse, Paige – Max blurted out his undying love for Gypsy and that he wanted to whisk her away to a paradise untouched by geekiness. It was around that disturbance that Garnet had insisted they stop playing around, Max had grumbled a little to Gypsy about Garnet seriously wanting him to fight the demonically powered girl, everyone knew he was lustful and he joked that he’d be running after all the pretty girls on the team, and maybe even Paige, by the end of the session, it wasn’t the fact he didn’t enjoy the thought, but it felt as if Garnet wasn’t really considering most of them couldn’t incinerate targets while waving their fingers about… Maybe it just felt like that because she was being all showy about her own powers, she was one of the lucky ones that got fantastic abilities, all Max could do was turn to stone… yay… He knew Gypsy couldn’t use her powers on the team, but still she had an awesome gift, even if she wasn’t born with it, he was a student of Xavier’s long enough to know that once she had been a fire mutant, he wondered how it made her feel to have Garnet taking such pride in a power Gypsy once had, but was now without.
But Max hadn’t gotten into too much trouble in the Danger Room with his mucking around, he did prove he could at least do hand to hand combat despite his lack of extraordinary abilities. That and, he had given her one of the most adorable smiles possibly ever to grace the world, avoiding further trouble by deciding to go pummel Jess, making the mistake of asking if Jess wanted to get thrashed while Garnet had her attention elsewhere, a simple ‘no’ in reply had Max cheerfully heading off again, though, thinking of that now, Max wondered why on Earth he didn’t stay and fight with Jess… After all, Max had every intention of hurting the other if he could, teach Jess to disrespect him! But for the life of Max, the bully couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t gone through with it, sure he wouldn’t have THRASHED the guy, but at least given him a few aches and possibly light bruises.
A handsome smile was being directed towards Garnet as Max watched her, not really making any effort to show he actually heard anything since he was just standing there, doing what he does best, being utterly handsome with little to no effort. His mind wandered off once again, though he gave a scolding glance towards Jess when he said no to Garnet’s request for them to work together. It wasn’t like he cared about wasting away on this stupid island, but he was damn well not going to sulk about it childishly and tolerate Jess’s attitude on top of this all. Max would do what was needed, and he would groan and moan, but to himself, snapping at the weaker ones of the group if they invaded his personal space while he was suffering. Every part of Max wanted to go up to Jess, grab that bloody damn book and throw it as far as possible into the salty waters around them, contempt settled in Max’s eyes as he decided to do just that, but not even taking a step forward before Gypsy made her way to the sitting boy. A look of surprise shone on Max’s features, an astonished smirk and then a look of grumpy agreement followed it as she talked to them about the logic of getting this all over with.
"Very well, we should get started then. I think distributing tasks would make the most sense… Max, Jess.”
By now Max had completely lost track of the last few things being discussed, it was mostly between Garnet and Rachael anyway, a sour look hit Max as he lifted his eyes from the tips of his shoes that he had been staring at. The expression on his face momentarily screamed out ‘Are you serious?’, but settled into a grouchy look of grudgingly annoyed proportions.
"You will fell the trees. We are in need of two tall ones that must not have too many low branches so we can use them with the least effort. Make sure to choose trees that will not be hindered by others when falling and be careful. You will find working gloves and all you need inside the jet.”
Admittedly the way she said ‘You will fell the trees.’ sounded bizarre, Max shiftily glanced around to see if anyone else might comment on it but no one did, and not being stupid, Max could assess what she wanted him to do… she just said it in a funny way. It didn’t register that by ‘Fell’ Garnet was saying chop down, a legitimate word in the English language, he was he thinking along the lines of falling down, like ‘he fell down the other day, it’s why he’s limping’ Max just assumed she was using a poor form of English, maybe it was her second language? Or maybe she was just talking poshly, god knows he barely understands half of what his parents ‘friends’ say when they babble on endlessly with each other. To him, she basically just said he needs to make the trees fall down, it would have been humorous if it wasn’t Garnet who had spoken, and quite embarrassing since he might have made a fool of himself by commenting rather rudely on the stupid sounding sentence. She continued to give everyone something to do, Max bit his lower lip a little, it didn’t bother him the job she gave him, in fact he preferred it, he gets to bash things with an axe!! The thought caused a side glance towards Jess, a soft smirk creeping into the corners of his lips as he plotted the things that could happen if Jess blew Max’s currently short fuse.
“After the plan is ready, all that are done with their other jobs will help cutting the stems to the size needed respectively tie them together… I am sorry but the hardest part will probably be yours since you are the physically strongest of us,” The fact Max momentarily had her attention lightened his mood a little more as well, Max throwing her a charming grin, almost as if she was sending him off to the candy store instead of hacking down trees. He was going to be useful, she would see, she was the kind of girl that needed someone who could help her out, and that’s what he’d be, he’d show her a good time, even if he had to force her to have fun and enjoy herself, maybe this wasn’t the best enviroment, but he can still try! “I assure you, after those two days, everything will be equalized again. For effectiveness’ sake, however, it is necessary to use everyone’s assets to the fullest where fitting,” He had an asset! Max felt all giddy at that, it was rare to be complimented, despite what Jess thought, Max took mostly everything in his stride, sure he was loud and loved being the center of attention, but he didn’t let anything go to his head, after all, he knew he was a good lover in bed, praise was just another way for them to say they enjoyed it and for him to know that they did if the two are ever together again – in his mind anyway. After all, he has rarely been congratulated on much by his parents, and the teachers don’t get enough effort from him to comment positively, most of the ego boosting comments given to Max were given at times that just felt as if it was for their own future benefits.
A girl will tell him what she liked best so he can do it again to her later, his father would – on the rarest of occasions – commend him behaving himself and then demand he do it again or ask why he hadn’t acted like that at the previous gathering or outing, true praise was as rare for Max as it was for Jess to lovingly give a helping hand to those around him for no reason other then he would have wanted to help! But again, that’s how it felt to Max, sometimes teachers would comment on something he did or a talent they saw in him, but Max didn’t take their word and just automatically assumed they wanted him to try harder and put more effort… as if they were saying ‘We like the way you did this… but could you do it better next time?’ He couldn’t entirely be blamed for the sour look on positive comments, it’s exactly how his parents worked, they’d comment on him, then complain he should have done better for whatever reasons they could come up with.
At the moment though Max tried to push aside the nagging feeling that she was just stroking their ego so they’d work harder and put more effort into it, admittedly it was hard but he did feel she had truth to those words… who else would make trees ‘fall down’? Casey? Paige? He almost burst out into laughter right then, the grin brightened his expression before he could subdue it, a glance at the more pathetic members causing a smirk and more urges to laugh. Ha… they’d probably faint at the sight of an axe… and he couldn’t really see them hacking away at anything. Did that mean he was one of the strongest on the team? In truth he hadn’t really thought of it, judging himself against the others seemed ridiculous, in his mind he was undoubtedly up there, but now he realized he was probably the most physically strongest of the group, and he got even stronger in his stone form. Not that he’s actually realized that himself, he only uses his ability really when he gets angry, and people always feel stronger when their tempers flare. It was another good thing about him being on this team, it will finally force him to better develop his powers, they may not be phenomenal, but he’d gain certain abilities when he finally can turn his whole body into solid rock, like for one example, other then being stronger, he’d not need to breath, that alone could be a life saver if he ever gets trapped in certain fatal situations due to lack of air. Honestly if he had just worked harder he would be able to shift entirely into stone by now, he could just walk from here to the other island since he’d be heavy enough to tread along the ocean floor and with no need to breath he’d just have to worry about not falling down any deep abyss’s or getting trapped in anything!
"My asset is optimism,"
A slight roll of Max’s eyes followed the salute, but admittedly it was a little amusing, Max would had smirked if it was from Gypsy, but there was something that annoyed Max regarding Jess’s attitude, probably because it had been so alike Max’s old one that had been whipped into shape by father, quite literally in many occasions. Why could Jess act like that and not get punished, whereas Max would and he’d feel as if a house collapsed on him the next day, a four-story bloody house!
"Shall we?"
There was a uncertain glance towards Gypsy, Max hadn’t been too happy with Garnet not verbally putting Jess in his place, but Gypsy had, that sorta pushed her status in his mind without him really realizing the fact. If she wanted to get off the island and willing to put in her share of work, then Max would be fine helping out, even if it involved working with… him. Eyes turned towards Jess at the thought, but then back to Gypsy, his eyes lifting to stare at the sky in ‘God help me’ kind of glance, with a sigh barely heard escaping his lips, followed by a contemptuous smile and a rather mocking form of body language as well as heavy sarcasm simmering in his words.
“Why yes, let’s shall, for we are—” A dramatic pause in which he struck mocking pose of a superhero, which was merely having his hands on his hips and his eyes looking skywards while expanding his chest with an intake of air, “—Super teacher-pet wonnabees!” Each word was stressed slightly, after a moments pause Max then turned around, his arms flopping down to his side as he moved back to the plane. Mumbles could be heard from him but it was hard to tell what exactly he was saying, it didn’t take a genius to figure out whatever it was wasn’t exactly in the realm of politeness.
It wasn’t long before Max and Jess managed to actually find the gloves and such that Garnet had been on about; Max gave the gloves a single disgruntled glare, and then scoffed in a repulsed resentment at the safety gloves. He didn’t need them, besides, if they were suddenly stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, what was the likelihood they’d have protective gloves at hand, or axes for that matter? It was all humorous in his mind, they were being tested to see how they’d manage and survive yet at the same time they were being given what they needed to work with, he could almost see a four course meal being served later – almost – he knew even the teachers at the school weren’t *THAT* stupid… were they?
Pulling off his shirt, Max then grabbed his axe, tossed the shirt onto the seat he had sat in and then emerged out of the jet, the light catching every contour of his near perfect frame. Nearly perfect because there was a purple mark around the rim of his jeans, a bruise from where he had hit one of the tables after his father expressed just how he felt about having some stranger hanging up on him. The temper had dimmed a little when Max had blurted out that it was Garnet and she just wanted him to focus, his father assumed she was wanting Max to focus on her for sexual reasons, and Max made no attempt to correct the assumption since saying he was on a team would cause his father to really become angry. Steven hated Xavier’s, he hated that his son had to go to a school with foolish assumptions that they were equal to humans, THEM, powerful all mighty mutants, on the same level as those pathetic weaklings. But it was the only decent mutant school around, Steven hated the thought of his son studying with humans even more, so he tolerated the blasphemous teachings of equality, just as long as they didn’t fill his sons head up with that ‘crap’ to a point where Max believes those ridiculous notions.
The bruise was only half seen, the rim of his jeans covered the lower part of it, sitting just to the right of his spine and being about ten centimeters in length, gradually fading from there. He was tanned so it wasn’t as obtrusive as it would have been if the skin were pale, at the moment no one would see it since he was facing everyone, unless of course Jess was studying his lower back at the close distance… for some reason…
“Because when I leave home, I always have a trusty pocket axe, just for those emergency ‘getting-stranded-on-paradise-island-needing-to-build-a-raft’ situations.” Sounding like someone on a commercial advertising the usefulness of the axe, though sarcasm was obvious, he was also being a little playful, which was easy to tell by his tone and body language. Max spoke loud enough to gain everyone’s attention without having to raise his voice, though, admittedly, he hadn’t intended to be showing off his well defined form when removing his short, but not he flashed the girls a rather wicked grin. Granted Max had ‘a little’ to drink the previous night before clonking out, which tended to either make him nasty or hyper the following day, he also got out of a boring get-together, or dinning party… or whatever it was that his parents thought important for him to attend for publicity sake. Since he hated that lifestyle, he was going to try and enjoy himself before he heads back home, likely he was going to get grounded for missing the gathering, and it would be even worse if he can’t find a good excuse to replace the truth, and even worse for him if his father tries to find out if whatever Max says is true or not by calling around and beyond worse if he finds out Max participated in ‘school team’ activities…
Both the boys moved off into the trees, Max had no idea what he was looking for… nothing with low branches, but what width? What height? Tall.. well, at least that was helpful a little, now they just had to decided what kind of tall ones, thick one or thin ones… Logically thicker ones couldn’t float they’d be too heavy, most of them where thinner though, but if they cut the wrong ones? Max groaned at the flurry of confused thoughts, his laziness not wanting to have to do more then he had to.
“Couldn’t she point to a stupid tree and say ‘fell that one’ instead?” The grip on the handle tightened as he spoke with annoyance, displeased sapphire eyes glancing around and then settling on Jess, “Fõck it,” A flare of anger erupted, he didn’t handle making decisions very well, because if he made the wrong choice it either meant more work, or a grounding, another form of punishment, or some other less then pleasant result. While still facing the other, he raised the axe, ready to strike despite the fact he was still staring at Jess, it could have been considered quite threatening, since by all accounts there was a moment in which it looked as if Max was about to go homicidal on the object of his annoyance – being Jess.
The attractive mutant’s skin began to lose its hue, becoming faintly rough in texture as it hardened, a temperamental swing of his axe had the sharp blade slamming into one of the trunks he had picked, luckily for him, it was of the right dimensions, completely by chance of luck, since he just picked the tree next to where the two boys where standing. His body had turned right around to increase the axes momentum, impressively dangerous with Jess there but Max did at all seem ready to listen to any comments on Negative’s safety. If Garnet wanted another group of trees, she can just burn them down, hell, she ought to be here doing this if she wanted proficiency, in fact she could probably do most of this on her own, at least that’s what Max thought at this precise moment during his outburst. Ok… so Max was a little tense at the fact he was missing an important event that had his parents in an uproar all week, he couldn’t be blamed, but he did try hard to lie to himself about not caring that he was missing it… admittedly he was a little scared of going home after all this, maybe he ought to leave the team, this was starting to interfere with his family’s lifestyle, and that was dangerous, quite literally for Max.
Not that anyone was aware how twisted his ‘picture perfect’ family was, the fact that Max was spoken of so fondly and positively in papers ought to fit to some falsehood, since many people who knew Max found it hard to tolerate his demanding nature for long. The media loved his parents, they were always so positively spoken about in any spotlight sections they got, mainly because anyone wanting to do anything negative was either assaulted with bribes, threats or some other form of control to stop them from publishing any damaging information. On a few occasions when things did slip out, the Chadstone’s were able to fabricate a complicated and deceitful web of twisted half truths and whole lies that was such a perfectly woven masterpiece it was nearly impossible for anyone to prove otherwise, because Steven had his hand in so many things that he could manipulate nearly anything he set his mind to, in many cases all it took was the right figures to sway people to give into his demands.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
(OOC: Angie nice touch with the Danger room detail and Max and Jess' anticlimactic confrontation, made me grin reading it )
Truth be told Jess still couldn't put a finger on why it was that he was actually making an effort to be a part of this farce they called a team. He wasn't stupid, far from it despite how he came across, and he knew that it was the logical thing to do but that was the thing about him. Jess knew what the right choice was most of the time but he took the less travelled path, the one that spiralled towards doom and a future at a Walmart cash register. He had always been intelligent with his nose in a book but Jess' childhood hadn't been great as he was faced with his mom's new boyfriend sand 'dads' every year it seemed. Thinking back on it Jess nearly smirked. Any shrink would have a field day with him but luckily he had his powers for just that reason. There was no way in Hell he'd let someone like that near him and he could always just say no. He gave that phrase so commonly used to warn against drugs or other teen 'issues' a whole new meaning.
There was silence for a moment after he had questionned Max. Half of him wondered if the school bully would actually act civil or if he would actually have to get into the ring this time. In the danger room he'd prevented a fight and somehow managed to check his fiery temper. The short fuse he had was at its end yet Jess had said no and avoided the bruises, even though he knew he could at the very least give Max a run for his money.
Jess watched Max's shifting eyes and considered the idea of creating his own silent commentary. To go along with or not to go along with, that is the question. He heard the sigh escape Max's lips and had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. He himself had managed to agree to go along with this stupid game even with Max alongside him so surely it wouldn't kill the bully to play nice and tag along. Like this was really a big hardship for him.
The dark haired mutant's less than complimentry opinion of Max rose somewhat as he pulled off a heavily sarcastic and borderline cheesy superhero impression. It had comic appeal though and he raised one eyebrow and smirked slightly, some part of him relieved that he wasn't the only one to mock the preceedings. With that behind him he headed for the plane and Jess, an air of 'don't piss me off' around him as he trudges along after the other boy. Jess' ears heard faint mumbles of things that their 'team' leader would probably hate to hear and the smirk that so often lingered on his lips reappeared in all its glory. Maybe this wouldn't be quite as bad as he had previously thought.
They found the gloves rather quickly but Jess felt as though the Gods were mocking him and laughing by setting these gloves in front of him. What kind of a man chops down trees in gloves? he wondered and no person came to mind. Max was already glaring at the devices in disgust and Jess' face echoed that sentiment. Max stalked off and Jess joined him. Everything seemed so planned here and none of the spontaneity and think on your feet attitude that were required for real survival were present. It was almost like an episode of that old tv show where they stranded people on an island for a game show. Was it really surviving if there were stupid challenges and crap along the way? Not in his mind. In his mind surviving on the streets of New York City and surviving a hippie mother who cared more about the boyfriend of the month was truly surviving and he doubted anyone here had gone through something like that.
“Because when I leave home, I always have a trusty pocket axe, just for those emergency ‘getting-stranded-on-paradise-island-needing-to-build-a-raft’ situations.”
Jess couldn't help a full grin at this. Annoying as he was Max had a point.
"Most of the time the stranded at least make their axes and homes out of island objects however unlikely it is," Jess added with a smirk, emphasising the setup of this farce that annoyed him so.
The slight respect that Jess had been beginning to feel against his will towards Max declined somewhat since Max had taken his shirt of in what Jess figured could only be some attend to show off to the girls on their team and particularly to Barbie.
“Couldn’t she point to a stupid tree and say ‘fell that one’ instead? Fõck it,” was heard from Max and Jess looked at him in slight confusion. Sure it was stupid and neither one of them had any idea what they were looking for but Jess had planned on cutting down anything that came into his path and on dragging it back to Barbie and the others. It was her fault for not telling them what to do, not his and he didn't plan on letting it get to him too much. Afterall his temper had a very shortfuse and this would be a long couple of days. He could only blow up so many times and there was no use having a hissyfit over something stupid. He was used to being wrong and to getting told off for it and perhaps Jess had just gotten to the point where it was easier to be wrong, to give the people what they wanted. If they wanted him or expected him to ask this way then that was what he would do. His dark eyes met those of Max who looked momentarily like he was homocidal and the thought flashed across Jess' mind that it had been beyong idiotic to give this guy an axe on an island where there was no one around to help.
He watched skeptically as Max' powers came into play and he became increasingly more dangerous and agitated. Perfect he thought to himself. I'm trapped on an island with a living barbie doll who gave a guy who hates me an axe and we're suposed to not only survive but to actually work together. He was usually skeptic and pessimistic but this went beyond that. There was absolutely no hope for this so called 'team' so aptly named. Maybe, no scratch that definetly, it would have been better if they had stayed in their own modes of exile away from society. Society didn't want them and they certainly didn't want eachother.
Jess picked up his own axe and with this added bit of malice that stemmed from Max's outburst Jess swung hard, throwing all his power into the swing in order to knock down whatever it was in his way. He hadn't even looked at the target to be honest, he just needed to let loose and since he thought screaming at the top of his lungs or verbally attacking their leader while on an island that he couldn't get off of by himself was potentially not a smart plan he chose the alternative, agression. He took it out on the tree and somehow it well under Jess' wrath. It was a decent sized tree, maybe even useful not that Jess knew what exactly would be useful to them. It fell with a loud thud and Jess stared at it thinking to himself that this was catharsis or something. He certainly felt better after this stress relief.
The thing that dampenned his spirits came upon him quickly though. What the hell was he suposed to do with the thing? He didn't have powers enough to drag a full tree back to their camp area. At this the dark scowl returned and Jess dropped the axe recklessly beside him. Again the one sarcastic word that was lately his favourite came back to him and he said aloud in a tone dripping with sarcasm, "Well this is just perfect."
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command”Today and tomorrow… so we will have to spend a night outside as well,” The feral mutant simply nodded at the reply, though within she fought to contain a sigh of dispair. How did they expect these guys to survive a night? It wasn't that she didn't think that they would, it was just she hated the ideas of people moaning about the cold, being hungry and so on. Well, at least there shouldn't be too many predators on the island. Maybe reptiles and snakes, but no large mammals and such. Proberbly.
Racheal's gaze turned to the group as Aurora began assigning tasks to each of them. ”Feral, I want you to gather anything that can serve as ropes to tie the stems together. I think I have seen ivy and other plants with ranks in this region… Paige, Casey, please prepare what Racheal brings you for later use..." The feline mutant couldn't help but smile again. Well, at least she got to work primarly alone. And she had already worked out that it meant she would be able to use her morphs without freaking anyone out. Her green eyes turned to the pair she was suppose to bring these vines to, nodding automatically as she registered the words. A simple enough task. Collect anything rope like. Bring it to these two. She made a mental note not to appear in morph in front of them. It had been bad enough yesterday in the training room. As little stress as possible would be good, and although if this team were to stick together they would have to get used to seeing her shift, perhaps it would be best to introduce it gradually.
It still felt weird to Racheal to have people call her by what had once been her 'pet' name. Before arriving at the institute, it had only been her twin who had called her that, and it still stirred some faded memories. Sometimes she would even try and wonder if he was still alive. Impossible, she believes, but still, many people wonder What If?
Racheal would have been the first to admit that, in her mind, she had been given a fairly simple task. After all, how difficult was it to collect vines? Without thinking, the feral had already started into the forest, though she made sure she headed away from where the boys were felling the trees. After all, the last thing she wanted was for one of them to take a swing at the tree she was in. Not that she thought that she would get hurt, just that she didn't want to cause too much friction. Which meant she didn't want to get annoyed at anyone. Her eyes turned automatically skywards, searching the tree branches for the longer vines. Something relatively strong would be best, otherwise they would have to be weaved in order to give them enough strength to hold anything together. Leaving the remaining team members out of earshot, she started to hum softly to herself.
When she was younger, before she had gained her powers and before the fire which had killed her older brother and seperating her from her parents, her mother had created the twin's room to be a sort of playroom as well as their bedroom. Although Racheal's memories of the time were faded, she could remember songs from around then. Her mother had loved Disney animation movies, and used to let the twins watch them as often as they pleased. Many of them were up to ten years old, and could be a little jumpy on the old VCR player. But not only did she love the films, but their mother would get the soundtracks from them and play them almost constantly through the day, using them to send the twins to sleep as well. This pattern slowly imprinted many of the songs into the twin's minds, and although they did not necessarly know which film it was from, Racheal knew many of the songs off by heart.
Maybe walking through the forest humming wasn't exactly normal (especially as the song was Great Spirits from disney's Brother Bear), but Feral didn't really care. Even as she morphed into a jaguar in order to climb one of the trees and work the bunch of vines loose, she was humming it in her mind. One ear remained focused upon the sound of ax hitting tree. After all, it was round now that it would be typical if one of them decided to not look before they chopped.
The jaguar purred softly to it's self as the vines came loose and fell to the forest floor beneath her. Keeping to the trees, Feral lept to the next branch, preforming the same operation of a bunch of ivy which had wrapped it's self around the tree. Pausing, Racheal demorphed, balancing herself on the large branch. So a cat is good for climbing, but her own fingers were better for untangling this mess of vines. Slowly, she gradually managed to untangle a piece at a time, not only from the tree but also from it's self, letting a long but thin vine of it snake it's way to the ground. She stretched, eyes turning to the sky for a moment in thought, before continuing her humming and untangling. Inaudibly, she softly murmered the words of the song to herself. Although the vines were strongly tangled, it didn't take too long to start pulling down the vines.
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command"Whatever," A victorious smile crept onto the former mutants face as Jess gave into her wise words, well it was probably the best way that he could give in Gypsy thought. Even though he still seemed somewhat reluctant he was at least going to help out. She looked over to Aurora, some leader she was! She just let Jess not participate in this while Gypsy had to go out of her way to convince him to lend a hand. She’d better not do it again, the part demon didn’t want to have do the convincing stuff that leaders do again. She was always the one pestering leaders not ever once being one.
After Racheal asked her question, Gypsy handed Jess back his book with teasing ‘good boy’ as he took it from her hands as if rewarding a little child for behaving well. It was soon after that that Garnet began giving out the orders. At least now she was beginning to take her leader role properly.
“Morticia, you and I will get the felled trees to the shore for further processing… your job will mainly be to push them in the right direction while I will let them hover.” There was a bit of annoyed sigh as Circe began. She had a real name in Gypsy, so she didn’t need to be referred to as Morticia all the time. Though, truth be told, the part demon didn’t mind her nickname which had stuck with her to become her codename, but she couldn’t let everyone know that she would take to it so kindly.
The idea of having to work with Aurora wasn’t too encouraging to make her want to participate but she always took her own advice and words she had said, if they didn’t do anything they’d have to stay stuck together on this island instead of being in much better places. So she was ready to do as their leader says. Anyway, she wasn’t stuck in the worst of situations. While Gypsy may actually get along with both Jess and Max, they could not get along with each other and now they had to work together.
She had to try and conceal an amused smile at the look Max gave to the sky. It seemed as if they both were unknowingly trying to outdo each other on who wanted to be paired up less, however, both Jess and Max went back to the jet together, indicating that they’d at least work together which was a good thing as they would get off this island much quicker… only to get to another island…
“Because when I leave home, I always have a trusty pocket axe, just for those emergency ‘getting-stranded-on-paradise-island-needing-to-build-a-raft’ situations.” There was a laugh from the demonic girl. She had used to laugh heaps when she was younger, when she was a mutant, at almost anything and everything. That was when she had friends and lived like a normal teenager does, well, one that lives in a school full of mutants does anyway. But once her life had changed, she had changed. Gypsy grew to adjust to her life, grew to get along without her friends who had feared that she would hurt them and got a tough skin. Peoples words don’t bother her nor do they mean much to her. She had drifted away from the girl she had used to be so much, but Gypsy felt that it was for the better and the person who she had been was lost in the past, the only thing that mattered was the present.
Her eyes followed the two boys as they left the jet with their axes, ready to chop down some trees that would be suitable to build a raft. After all, Aurora and her would be the ones collecting the chopped down trees and bringing them back and all Gypsy had to do was make sure they floated in the right direction. Like that would be a hard task.
Anyway, both Max and Jess were able to put their attitudes to good use in making it motivation for chopping down trees. Max was first to bring a tree down. Gypsy’s gaze turned over to Garnet for a moment as she was about to ask if they were to collect that tree but her answer had already been answered before she could open her mouth as the Exiles leader had just begun to make her way towards the teams very own loggers. Gypsy followed after her, though she walked in her own casual pace. Sure, she may want to get this over and done with as quick as possible, but she wasn’t going to run and rush around. She was too smart for that; she’d only get tired quickly and get all sweaty and those feelings combined just weren’t comfortable to live with for a span of two days. Besides, she still wasn’t happy with how Aurora had just acted as if it was alright that Jess refused to participate, so her slower pace, opposed to the more rushed strides of the leader, were more to show that she still disrespected Aurora.
It was as the two girls made their way to the fallen tree that Jess’ came down. Now they each had one to their name.
"Great personalities and the ability to chop down trees, what more could a girl want!?" she dreamily mocked upon looking at the chopped down trees more closely. "Aren’t they impressive?" she asked looking over to Aurora. Of course, she didn’t actually find this attractive, it seemed as if the ‘typical teenage girl longing for a boyfriend’ attitude had gone about the same time as her mutant power as guys just didn't seem to interest her in that way.
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(ooc- Sorry for the dodge ending, writers block with Gyps snuck up on me as I went on with the post... x_X)
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
Jess’ unspoken challenge Aurora had returned with a smile, remaining fully unaware of what had happened to her and thus unable to see the real reason for those unbelieving looks some of the Exiles gave her. Everyone eventually began to do as she had ordered though and so feeble hopes of at least getting the whole group over to the main island dared to arise within her. Especially Gypsy’s sudden commitment raised her mood a little – the true reasons Circe decided to ignore for the time being to not spoil this one uplifting moment.
*There are a lot of reproaches one can make those guys…*, she thought with a cynical yet somewhat appreciative smile at Max’s comments before they disappeared farther into the woods which – probably to everyone’s advantage – let her miss the less comical but rather aggressive lines. *… but they are right, in a way…,* It was indeed improbable they’d ever have to spontaneously fell trees and happen to have axes and everything needed ready to use safely stored away in their jet but then again, they were already almost overtaxed with this neatly prepared setting… chances were they’d have been completely lost facing a more realistic scenario. No, time was long not ready for that.
Not long after the two boys had left, the typical noise of something fairly large crashing onto the ground announced their success and so she directed her steps towards where they had disappeared, assuming Morticia would follow… which she actually did judging from the sound of – slow – footsteps trailing after her. They soon came into sight, both standing next to their felled victims looking a little uncertain about what to do. Well, she had clearly informed them about that part, hadn’t she?
"Great personalities and the ability to chop down trees, what more could a girl want!? Aren’t they impressive?" , she heard the sin-enhancing mutant who had caught up to her when Aurora had stopped to inspect the boys’ work with folded arms. Every now and then, the fiery team leader found her eyes drifting off towards Max’s muscular torso but still managed to hide the impression this at least was making at her. This was definitely not the time to drool over Mr Mutated America though – something the girly part of her felt was her fate, duty and privilege – and so Garnet’s gaze casually wandered over to Gypsy, an ironic smile gracing her lips.
”Yes, especially the way they did this hard work without gloves, so manly,” Though not strikingly obvious, Gypsy would easily have picked up Aurora’s opinion about that detail. There were actual reasons why professional woodcutters and construction site workers hardly ever used tools like axes or spades with uncovered hands. A slightly sadistic part inside her was already anticipating the close time when they’d have their hands blistered and hurting… yet the rest of her agreed in rolling its imaginary eyes at such unnecessary childish pride.
However, they had completed their task quickly and in an effective way and so she kept herself from commenting on this positive aspect only. ”Good job, guys,” the ebony haired beauty said upon coming close enough to be easily understood. Passing the chopped trees, Aurora considered to move one after the other for a moment but decided against it. The sooner they left this place the better… winning wasn’t her first priority but that didn’t mean she wanted to lose.
Causing simultaneous strategically placed explosions underneath the trunks projected them a few inches upwards which gave Aurora the chance to establish a field of hot air below the wood that made it hover. It was a simple enough thing to do for the well-trained mutant who didn’t even need to focus on the two motionlessly floating objects once they were in midair. Searching Gypsy’s eyes, Circe gave a nod signaling that she was ready. For a moment, the team leader considered telling the girl to push one of the trunks close to the other so that she could direct them together in an easier way but decided against it. Morticia seemed to be the kind of person being proud of and insisting on her ability to think for herself. And this was something Aurora respected highly.
"Being my own sensible and grown-up self I will go and make a stand saying that we are SO going to lose... starting farther off than anyone else, being a bunch of loners and all. Yet looking at the upside, at least we will never have points taken for cooperating with other teams."
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
Hanging back behind the others was the smaller figure of Paige, her hands clasping hold of the bag she’d brought with her, holding the thing slightly up in front of her stomach as if would protect her from this alien environment she suddenly found herself in. She still wasn’t entirely sure why they were here, she was supposed to be helping Dr McCoy in the medical bay this morning and then later she had assignments that she was meant to be working on. There was an uncomfortable look as she glanced around at her team mates, she might not really understand why they were out here in the first place but she did know that she didn’t want to be here. She sneaked a sideways look at Max, feeling a mixture of emotions, she wanted to spend some time around him, but at the same time she realised that he probably was going to make the next couple of days very hard on her.
She wasn’t really dressed to go out on exercises, wearing a pair of black trousers with simple shoes on her feet. On her top she was only wearing a thin light jumper, it had been nice and warm back at the school and she hadn’t imagined she was going to be dragged out to an island in the middle of nowhere. There was a slightly chilly look to her as she looked over at Garnet. She didn’t think she was cut out for climbing around in the wilderness, she’d never even been camping before, since she was home schooled she hadn’t been to the summer schools most kids seemed to go on.
It was hard not to forget the training exercises they’d had the other day, she’d spent the whole time cowering at the back of the others, they’d been paired off but seven was an odd number, not that she’d been at all put out at not being paired off with someone. When Rachael had decided to transform into a black panther Paige had been quite terrified of her, she was afraid of animals like dogs so it was horrible for her to suddenly be confronted with a panther. Before the training exercises she’d thought Rachael looked rather nice but now she’d been careful to stand as far away from her as possible. The only person she didn’t feel threatened by one way or another on the team was Casey, the rest of them she was intimidated by. She hadn’t enjoyed herself at all, she’d have quit the team if she could pluck up the courage to actually talk to anyone about it. But Riley seemed to spend every second of every day with his girlfriend now they’d got back together again and she didn’t want to bother Jean. She’d heard by now of the fact that Scott was dying. Paige was determined that she wasn’t going to go and confront their team leader on the matter, she’d managed not to say a word to Garnet yet and was quite happy to keep it that way. She wished she’d been put on another team, one that didn’t contain Garnet or Max, she found it hard to be around the pair of them after everything they’d put her through, even though poor Garnet had done nothing wrong.
”Feral, I want you to gather anything that can serve as ropes to tie the stems together. I think I have seen ivy and other plants with ranks in this region… Paige, Casey, please prepare what Racheal brings you for later use. Think about how to construct the raft, what length and width et cetera. Paige’s eyes dropped to her arm which was still supported in a sling… prepare vines? What did that mean? Could she do that with one arm? There was a little look thrown over towards Casey, at least she got to work with him and not one of the others. No one seemed overly thrilled by their jobs, at least she hadn’t been asked to cut down trees. She kept quiet, listening to the others bickering amongst themselves, wondering if anyone would miss her if she just sneaked back on board the blackbird. She’d been most unwilling to leave the plane in the first place.
Her eyes followed Max as he strode off towards the plane, vanishing inside and re appearing a moment later with a small axe, there was a red blush to her cheeks as the object of her affection reappeared from the blackbird without his top on. She looked away quickly, trying not to look over at Garnet, she didn’t want to see if the fire mutant was impressed with what she saw or not. Max at least didn’t seem too pleased with the whole cutting trees down idea, he vanished off between the trees followed by Jess.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
Her legs wrapped around the sturdy branch to prevent herself from slipping, the Feral mutant continued to softly sing to herself as the ivy untangled. Other than the tangled vines, this was much more than just easy. And it was nice to be on her own with something to do for a change. She sighed mid-song as she remembered her new, silent oath to get more involved with the school. This wasn't exactly what she had had in mind, but hey, she had decided to turn her back on her brother...
She growled softly to herself, a bad habit of hers. She really shouldn't be thinking of that, but as her song re-started, she got to one line which made her pause "... Lived three brothers, bonded by love..." Racheal tried to shake it off, the feeling that she was little more than a traitor. Pausing in her work, her eyes cast in the directions she knew the others were. Okay, so she knew that some people had caught an idea that her background was not exactly ideal... or normal. But she had held close much of the information about herself. Racheal wasn't about to go round singing the 'joys' of her past. One saying she had heard too often was 'Life's Unfair.." Well, that was the understatement of the century. There was nothing fair about life. You played the cards you were dealt, and then suffered the consequences.
Her hands kept working through the ivy's vines as her mind wandered. It wasn't that Racheal was a very negative person, but that she just couldn't really see anything overly positive about her life - except for her powers. That had been her one saving grace through out her life. Sure, she felt... privileged, to actually be able to have somewhere to live. But although not as luxurious, even that old shed had been a home. And could she actually call that place home? Not that she didn't want to be there, but why did she hang around? She couldn't consider any of the other residents - students or otherwise - friends, and she doubt she would actually be missed if she did decide to leave.
Racheal's rather depressive thoughts were broken as she discovered that she had reached the last of the ivy. Letting it drop to the ground below her, her eyes turned to the trees, trying to see a simpler route to the forest floor. She had already morphed once today, and although she wanted to morph more, Racheal did realise that, as she was unaware of the path for the next few days, she needed to reserve her strength for when she actually needed it. Even as one part of her mind discovered that the only route down would be to actually morph, the rest concentrated on her past.
Morphing had always taken energy out of her, and it always would. Even as the dark hairs sprouted, her hands becoming large paws, she felt herself loose some more. She was more than capable of morphing a number of times a day, but several morphs in succession would zap her of her strength. The morph, her black bear (though it had a longer, more supple tail than normal – as she wasn’t concentrating properly, it contained a more feline appearance than normal. As unpredictable as these flaws were, it was unusual for it to be this bad), took over the task of finding it’s way down the large tree, powerful ‘arms’ wrapping around the trunk as it made it’s way down the tree in a less that agile manner. Feral’s mind was still concentrating on the more ugly end of human nature. It was true that she viewed herself as a traitor, and that she dreaded telling the others this, and her past, in a partial fear of being truly outcast, but more over she remembered the numerous times she had witnessed the horrifying acts of other humans. Okay, so she was a thief and a traitor, at least she wasn’t a murderer. Despite the fact she viewed herself as responsible for their deaths, she knew that she hadn’t actually killed her family herself.
Racheal demorphed whilst her mind was still milling over this, and started gathering up the vines, looping them so she could carry them other her shoulder. Although the ivy was long, it was also rather too thin, though her first vine was a decent width – though a little shorter. Picking them up, she tried to clear her head as she made her way towards where Paige and Casey were waiting. Silently, she scorned herself for feeling sorry for herself. She knew better than to dwell on those thoughts for too long.
As she reached the small clearing, she lowered the vines to the ground, glancing over at the pair. Feeling just a little awkward for a moment, not really sure if they would expect her to say something, she pushed away the urge to shrug slightly. ”A present for the two of you..” She said with what could have been the essence of a smile. Not that Racheal didn’t want to seem nicer, just that right there and then, she wasn’t exactly in the mood.
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
As Casey's intensely blue eyes watched the two other guys walk off he couldn't help feeling a twinge of jealousy. It wasn't that he wanted neccessarily to be popular or to have strength or anything like that, he just didn't want to have to deal with the bloody noses and the bruises and black eyes that he always had to lie about. It was difficult enough being a mutant but to be what everyone else dubbed a 'geek' as well was near unbearable. Somehow he had thought that it would be better here, that among others of his kind he might just be alright. Some days he wondered why he had built up that hope since it had been only to get knocked down once more.
His powers kept the physical beatings away now and he didn't have to endure that pain eachday but there was always something. Always a scornful glare or glance or the absence of a glance and the whispered words behind his back or the taunting insults to his face. Always something and no way to escape. And now, now he was stuck on an island with a bunch of people he knew didn't like him and who he didn't particularly care for himself. He was pretty sure that if the watchful eye of Aurora wasn't there he'd be facing insults and worse again. So he looked on and watched the two men who, despite their 'terrific' personalities as his sarcastic mind put it, were popular enough and got by.
Casey wasn't cut out for this sort of thing either. He was full of brain and sadly lacking in brawn or in any sort of physical activity. He could run fast, had learned how to as a kid when running was the only defense mechanism he had, but he had scraped by with only dismal grades in phys-ed each year. Strange that someone should be chastised for not being able to kick a soccer ball right or for never managing to get the ball in the hoop and yet could tell you all the elements of the periodic table easily or could take excellent photographs. Now he was wishing he'd spent a little more time outdoors other than taking landscape photos and collecting samples for class projects. He'd been camping only once and it had been a nightmare. Ever since then he hadn't even thought about spending the night outdoors or about willingly spending extended time there. Now he was stuck here though and he didn't have a choice unless he chose to, for the first time in his life, be disobedient and as much as Casey sometimes wanted to rebel the little voice inside his head said that there was no way he would ever get up the nerve to do anything rebellious, let alone do it now.
So they were suposed to think about how to construct this raft. Sure he knew a little about what would float and whatnot from science but he was no artitect and didn't have much practical knowledge in these matters. Casey snuck a look into the trees where sounds of chopping could be heard. On the otherhand he certainly didn't want to be chopping and this seemed the only other option. Casey's blue eyes glanced over at Paige. At least it was her. The thought of working with anyone else, with sarcastic Gypsy, anti-social Jess or worst of all Max, was unbearable.
He noticed Racheal coming back towards he and Paige and remembered that he was suposed to be doing something now. Momentarily the fear of what would happen if he did something wrong, if he screwed up, ran through his head and he shook it off. Casey Chandler might be terrible at group work, public speaking and anything involving physical activity but he was good at being reliable. No matter what happened he'd do as told, good little obedient Casey.
There was something resembling a smile from the girl and she didn't seem entirely hostile like the others which brought an immediate flood of relief over Casey. He smiled timidly back.
"Thanks," he said even though some work and some vines wasn't exactly a normal sort of thing to thank someone over.
Casey turned his head towards Paige and rose from his sitting position on the ground. "Um I guess we should.." his voice trailed off as he gestured at the vines. They were suposed to do something now but what exactly and how to go about it remained to be seen. His eyes wandered down to look at Paige's arm. Especially with her arm like that. He thought that looking back he'd probably see these as among the most excruciating days of his life.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
She couldn't help but noticing Racheal making her way towards them, she was glad to see that the girl was at least in human form. She shuddered slightly remembering the training session they'd gone through, she was glad at least that she'd been the odd one out so she hadn't been paired up with anyone, she thought that Garnett had probably seen that fact that she couldn't be much use with her arm like that. Paige wasn't sure she could fight someone even when her arm was better again, she didn't like hurting other people, how were her powers supposed to help her during a fight. She secretly thought that she might have been better placed upon a student recovery team, there may have been casualties for her to help then.
Paige backed a step away from the girl who was approaching her, her eyes flitted over towards Casey for a moment, glad that she wasn't alone here. There was a sllightly intimidated look upon her face as Rachael stopped in front of them, placing the vines upon the floor.
”A present for the two of you..” Was she trying to make fun of them? It felt like it to Paige, her eyes moved in the direction from which she could hear the sound of an axe striking wood.
"Thanks," She heard Casey's reply towards the girl. He sounded nervous but not frightened, Paige suddenly felt a little better about being here with Casey, even if she was scared of Racheal it didn't sound like Casey was that afraid.
"Um I guess we should.." She watched as Casey got to his feet, directing his speech towards her, there was a nervous little not from her, not noticing that he was looking at her arm. She didn't have a clue what they were supposed to be doing with the vines, she'd never done all this outside camping thing before.
'What are we supposed to be doing?' Her voice was low and shy, her eyes looking down at the vines in order to avoid looking at him. There was a sudden thought thrown back to the medical bay and the boy she'd met who was lying there, she'd expected to go and see him today or tomorrow but it didn't seem like she'd have the chance now. Perhaps she could pop down on monday after her lectures.
The pair of them stared rather blankly at the vines that were lying upon the floor, neither of them really sure what Garnet had meant for them to do when she asked them to prepare the vines for the raft.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
I know this is closed , but I did a post before that I didn't get a chance to send so I'll quickly do that since it was a finishing post for Max...*nudges toe in the ground*
Allowing the stone skin to soften back into his usual fleshy exterior, Max merely stared at the tree for a moment, the thudding of Jess’s axe against his own target pounding in the bully’s ears. It wouldn’t be so hard to quit the team, doing it sooner was smarter then later, it was basically impossible for him to even inwardly admit he wouldn’t mind staying on a team. Everyone else got to be on teams, every one else got to do things, got to go places, got to train and get stronger. Not that it was all exactly a dream come true for Max, just the thought of being part of something was nice, it’s not like he’s been able to say he’s every been part of a bigger thing before, aside from being the son of Steven Chadstone.
"Great personalities and the ability to chop down trees, what more could a girl want!?" Words coming from Gypsy pulled Max from his troubled thoughts and he automatically plastered a cheeky grin on his face before even registering what she had said. A basic Chadstone habit, all is well unless there is an advantage to be gained somehow in the show of weakness. The automatic – yet realistic – grin faded into a real smug smile full of cheek while watching Gypsy turning a sour moment of his into one of playful mockery, "Aren’t they impressive?" There is a question Max would not mind to know Garnet’s answer to. Admittedly Max has noticed Gypsy is not the kind to flirt over guys, it made his decision to avoid playing around with her a lot easier, he knew it could be fun to spend a night with someone like her, at least she seemed like the type that wouldn’t make things easy or dull. But the risk of getting on her wrong side like some of the other girls seemed to become sour towards Max was a little worrisome for the bully who did not like to toy with the possibility of taking a prolonged summer holiday down under… and he wasn’t thinking about Australia when pondering that thought!
"Yes, especially the way they did this hard work without gloves, so manly," Assuming she hadn’t noticed Max protect himself with his stone skin, he merely offered a rather ‘all knowing’ little smirk, standing with the axe down at his side while continuing to watch Garnet a little longer then was necessary. "Good job, guys," If only Gypsy could drag Jess off, that way Max would be alone with Garnet, that would definitely help get his mind off the coming trouble he’ll be in upon returning home. Just ten, twenty minutes…or maybe he could manage to coax her away from the group tonight? That would give him more time with her, woman were an unusual lot, they’d want to sleep with a man so badly at times and yet still they felt the need to be held and spoken to, before and after. Sometimes it annoyed Max, having to hang around and talk and be so close yet not be allowed to have any enjoyment until she finally gave into her own desires. However other times he did like it, some woman were better in bed when they had been comforted before or would become more demanding the second time, so it did have its rewards. Max just didn’t realize a lot of the girls did that because of people just like him, guys that seem to be everything they’d want, cute, affectionate, eager to be around them, but then as soon as they get what they want, it wouldn’t be rare for them to grow distant and eventually leave… The longer they’d tolerate a relationship without physical contact sometimes meant the more chance of the person actually being the real deal. Yet at the same time it was so hard for many to tell who was there for love and who was there just to be satisfied by someone new for a short time before going off to find someone else.
Daydreams where interrupted by Garnet’s use of her powers to take control over the tree’s movement’s, Max inwardly sighed a little, somehow doubting Garnet to be the type who would spontaneously pounce and force herself onto him with uncontrolled urges and lust. Admittedly, Max was a little bit of everything, at times he could even appear shy, it really depended on his mood and situation and the attitude/personality of who was with him and of course their location. Another habit of the Chadstone’s was to hide their ailments right in plain sight, usually when on has any sort of visible bruise they’d attempt to cover it up, but when possible the best way to have someone ignore or overlook a problem was to put it right in front of their face. Walking beside the group without a shirt would both gain or avert people’s attention, depending on the person themselves, which could be dangerous if they tried to examine his lower back too carefully and spotted the blemish on his skin. But more often then not, his marks or limps or problems where concealed in open sight, he’d keep himself positioned in a way they’d not notice what was wrong. He would purposefully get into a fight with someone who would undoubtedly put up a good fight and give an excuse as to where the bruises, cuts, limps, or whatever else he wanted to hide could come from.
On the walk back Max spent a long moment simply watching Garnet flaunt her powers for all to see how easily she could handle them. As far as Max was raised to believe, being a moment was everything, having powers made you more then any human could ever possibly hope to be. However, his family did not have anything brilliant worthy of mentioning. His father could sprout an extra twi arms and his mother’s only talent was similar to Amy’s, able to alter the colour of her hair and eyes, it made sneaking around with other men easier for her however. And all Max could do was turn his skin to stone, which up to this point never helped him since when he did need it the most he’d be too terrified to even dare use it – it only made things worse with his father and prolong the punishments or worsened their outcomes.
What sort of power did James have? Was it only the lack of hair colour? Surely a snow white head of hair was not his only gift, but his brother was always so secretive regarding his mutancy, even colouring his hair to hide the white strands that set him apart. Steven says the older son was ashamed of his heritage, but it wasn’t the feeling Max got, James was always talking with his little brother about what sort of powers they’d hope to have. Sometimes Max felt that it wasn’t shame that lead to James hiding his powers but worry, James was always worried about things, always concerning himself with things a young teenager shouldn’t even be aware of.
A smile crept onto Max’s face at the thought of how similar Garnet was with James; she was too focused on problems and possibilities of what may or may not occur. Again he gain the delightful thought of showing Garnet just how reckless teenagers could relax without any care for the otherside world, full of rules and regulations, he could show her if only he got a moment alone with their leader on this seemingly all too crowded island.
Re: A small island closeby: Exiles per vote and command
... RESURRECTION!!
There comes an age when people have to take over responsibility. It remains the question whether there is also a time when they can get rid of it again.
)
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