“This is definitely not one of your better efforts, but then again even a bad grade can help us learn. And I’m sure you’ve learned a lot from this experience. At least I hope you have.’
And she’d so very much been wondering what would happen if she fused Len into the couch the next time she didn’t let her watch her shows. Looked like that plan would be postponed until finer control over her powers was achieved. Her need for teacher approval had her agreeing, though, nodding with a mental promise to sneak in a lot more practice with less fuzzy things. Opening her small mouth to declare just that, a cry whipped her head around toward the other man.
"Jeeesus!"Only a slight wrinkle of her nose marred her stoic expression. "... Christ, Son of God, please watch our furry friend...s... Amen.
“You’re supposed to pray during the funeral. Or after.” Kiana corrected cheekily. Couldn’t they do this right? And she had older cousins, and lived in a mansion where lots of people were tons older. Her cousin Warren even let her stay up late sometimes to watch whatever adult comedies were on cartoon network. She’d definitely heard worse before, raising an eyebrow in a very adult manner at his hasty correction. What was she, three? She was old enough not to parrot everything said around her. As for religious, well, her uncle and aunt could instill all the good Christian values they wanted on their children, but she was too sensible to turn her back from overanalyzing everything and ignoring scientific possibilities. This all came from the girl who stormed out of her kindergarten classroom rather than play a sheep in the Christmas play.
"Box and shovel, Scott,"
That was for Freud/Wilson. In a snap, her mind reverted back to the disappointment and sorrow as she stared at the gruesome chimera. It would be good to bury her accident, move on. Looking around her, she wondered where they would dig. Of all her mishaps, this one seemed the worse, the most unnatural of them amongst the perfection she tried to achieve. Small things were nothing, but this, it suggested she was flawed. Kiana didn’t like being flawed.
"I see the day's taken an unfortunate turn. How're we doing, young lady?"
”I’m doing perfectly fine, today, thank you,”/b] came her polite reply. Well… ”Except t she finished off, looking down once more. A perfectly fine day was what she wanted. It was a little less than perfect, but hopefully, by stating those words, it couldn’t get any worse. On the Bright side, she still had all her fingers, and the only injuries she had were the minor scratches that she could clean off by herself. She was a big girl, she figured. She didn’t need any more help after this for something as simple as covering wounds with crayon shaped bandages.
”And how are you doing today?” Kiana asked out of habitual politeness around adults. Mr. Summers and me- I,” she corrected herself grammatically, ”Mr. Summers and I were just burying that…thing.’ She doubt Einstein could come up with a definite description of it either. Leaning closer, as if it was a secret, she whispered to Mr. Maddox. “I made a little accident…” As mature as she could be, she was still seven. Pulling back, she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Will you stay and say something to them too?” More than one visitor was needed at a burial. “That’s how these things go, right? People say nice things about the dead and all look sad? We’re missing the people part. So do you want to stay?
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird...”I’m doing perfectly fine, today, thank you,” Kiana carried herself amazingly well for a child. Jamie wondered if that was something her parents had instilled in her. "Well… Except that." It was a sad adendum to her mannered statement, but also gave him a measure of relief. They shared a home with a hundred kids with unique capacities for wrongdoing and harm. Accidents would happen, but still had to be handled. The fact that this little girl was playing with life - even if it did only belong to some stray creatures - gave Jamie the heebie-jeebies. He glanced over to Scott, trying to find the same concerns in his face.
The veteran X-Man either hid it well or simply did not share the same worry. Jamie saw a father figure, coddling his charge after she'd made a boo-boo. The tough field leader Madrox remembered might have handled things differently. They'd have to talk later.
”And how are you doing today?”
The absolute courtesy jarred him. For some reason he kept thinking of Hannibal Lector.
"I am doing quite well, thank you." The dapper, grammatically correct response felt so wrong. She'd have to live with plain ol' Jamie Madrox."I'm a thousand percent."
"Mr. Summers and me- I. Mr. Summers and I were just burying that…thi Apt. "I made a little accident…” Spilling your juice is an accident.[/i] If only he could smart off. Scott was there. He set the tone for this little event. Maybe it was the fact that it was Cyclops and Cyclops leads or maybe it was a bit of hero worship, but if he wanted to spare the girl's feelings, so did Jamie.
"So I see. Don't mind it too much. I had some troubles with my powers when I was younger too. Trick is to learn from it." "Troubles" for Jamie included going on a rampage in downtown New York while his inhibitor suit ran amok, draining the city's power and making him a serious threat to that era's X-Men. He had to pull a lot from that experience in order to legitimize it.
“Will you stay and say something to them too? That’s how these things go, right? People say nice things about the dead and all look sad? We’re missing the people part. So do you want to stay? "
Jamie felt like running for his life. It was clear to him that Kiana was not simply demonstrating maturity or a dignified sadness. Something in her head was screwed up. Her emotions not properly developed, perhaps, if not completely absent. Her sense of right and wrong seemed intact, it was part of her refined behavior no doubt. But if she didn't have an emotional maturity to operate with rather than just the rules of good and bad... that could be trouble. He'd be reading up on her.
"If you hadn't invited me, I'd have insisted. I didn't know them personally, I'm afraid, but life is life." He made certain he was smiling as he said those words. "Certainly don't have to know them to respect that."
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird...
Jamie was losing it in the face of Kiara’s disturbing personality and while that was perfectly understandable, from Scott’s point of view it was far from being helpful. Not that the child herself had exactly been reassuring in her responses. Correcting grammar was one thing. Referring to two creatures she had recently killed as ‘that thing ‘ was entirely another. And as for dismissing the whole affair as a little accident….
Cyclops was walking a tightrope here and no mistake. And if he put a foot wrong it could be catastrophic for all concerned. Come down on Kiara too hard and he risked either to traumatise her to such an extent that that those dangerous powers of hers would be suppressed, until, that was, the time when they would, as they always did, burst forth uncontrolled and misunderstood to the dismay and suffering of all those around her , or to have her turn away from teachers altogether and continue such illicit and unacceptable experiments in secret ,with god knows what results.
Treat her like a freak and she would become one, that much was certain. It was what the brotherhood counted on as they picked up the rejected and scorned and turned them to their own dark purpose. But let her think what had happened here counted for naught. That was almost as dangerous.
Scott had thought that he had steered a path between the two, making her aware of the seriousness of what she had done today while offering her a way to avoid such things in the future. Now though he wasn’t sure. And he had to be sure if this was going to have a happy ending. So he was willing to hear the sometimes offputting innocence of a child in her voice as she asked “Will you stay and say something to them too?” But what followed next gave him, just as it had apparently given Jaimie cause for concern.
“That’s how these things go, right? Kiara continued People say nice things about the dead and all look sad? We’re missing the people part. So do you want to stay?Scott drew a breath , forcing himself to look for an answer to this question that was at one and the same time diplomatic enough not to lose her and yet firm enough to let her know she was on the wrong path. And in the end Jaimie swallowed his obvious misgiving long enough at least to help him do so.
"If you hadn't invited me, I'd have insisted. he told Kiara with a smile that Scott was sure cost him dear. I didn't know them personally, I'm afraid, but life is life. Certainly don't have to know them to respect that."
“Thats right Kiara” Scott went on. And that is what we’re supposed to be remembering here. If you’re just intending to look sad then there’s no point in continuing. And while this was an accident in so far as you didn’t mean to kill either Freud or Wilson the fact still remains that if you hadn’t tried to change them they would still be alive.”
Scott was still far from being the stern tactician Multiple Man had encountered in battle. But then again Kiara was far from being an X man. She was a seven year old child, albeit one with extraordinary powers. Powers that had been thrust upon her before she had the maturity, if not the intelligence to deal with them! And without help they could very well overwhelm her. But that help was here, provided they didn’t alienate her. And that was perhaps where the knowledge of what it actually was to be a father of a ‘gifted’ child came into play.
You could guide without repelling, be strict without being severe. And that was what Scott tried to do now, counting on past compassion and understanding, even if only recent, to add weight to his words. Hoping that the fragile debut of a relationship would hold under this necessary criticism, for if it didn’t…. then Kiara could be lost in more ways than one. And that would be a tragedy for all concerned.
All the possibilities I’ve spoken to you about aren’t a reward for what you did here” he told her seriously. “They are a way of assuring this wont ever happen again. Of making these deaths count for something. And this ceremony…. Scott paused letting his voice drop back into its previous gentle tone. It is a way of saying you’re sorry Kiara. And a promise that you will never again take it upon yourself to play god! To think that you have the right to put other living things at risk simply to see what happens. Now I believe that you understand that. But its up to you now to prove me right! "
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird..."I'm a thousand percent."
Silly man. Kiana cracked a smile, adding in a giggle as if she enjoyed the little joke more than she really did. She knew her fractions. You couldn’t be more than a hundred percent unless there were more than one of you. If only she knew…
"So I see. Don't mind it too much. I had some troubles with my powers when I was younger too. Trick is to learn from it."
Oh, she did learn from mistakes. It was at the cost of several stuffed animals embedded in her closet door that she learned how things embedded into each other and took a lot more practice before she learned how to remove them. And at the risk of fingers, she’d taught herself plenty of other little aspects of her powers. Perhaps she should have learned better, though, from the incident with the knife that still left her hand scarred. All she’d taken from that was to make sure that if she was phased into something, don’t panic and move more than she had to. Death by wall wasn’t something she ever wanted.
What did she learn here? It wasn’t just non-living things that didn’t get along with living things. There was a reason that things were separate. It seemed reasonable, though, that something else could have happened. Somewhere in her mind, Kia marked it as something she’d figure out. Only next time, she’d be a lot more careful.
"If you hadn't invited me, I'd have insisted. I didn't know them personally, I'm afraid, but life is life." He made certain he was smiling as he said those words. "Certainly don't have to know them to respect that."
“Thats right Kiara” Scott went on. And that is what we’re supposed to be remembering here. If you’re just intending to look sad then there’s no point in continuing. And while this was an accident in so far as you didn’t mean to kill either Freud or Wilson the fact still remains that if you hadn’t tried to change them they would still be alive.”
Kia didn’t like to be told she’d done wrong. For that, she liked him less a notch. Eyes darkening with Mr. Summers’s words, the child looked away for a moment, letting a twitch of her lip in a frown pass. An accident was all that this was, she told herself. If she didn’t mean the outcome, then it wasn’t on purpose. Biting her lip, a sad pout formed as she masked her face in the guilty and apologizing look that adults always seemed to look for in these situations.
“But I am sorry, Mr. Summers,” Kiana lowered her head. It was an act that worked well on all her teachers back home. “I am sad. I only wanted to help them be pretty. If I knew what it was going to turn into, I wouldn’t have done it. Really.”
How could they be mad at her then? Peering through her lashes, she searched for disappointment on their faces, her hand reaching behind her and idly playing with her hood on her back in a child’s usual fidgeting. Setting her bottom lip quivering slightly, she rubbed at her eye, as if threatening to cry.
“Freud was a nice kitty. I miss him.” [b[ She spoke quietly, sadly. That part was true. She hadn’t made friends yet since she’d got here, and the little feline had been a lot more amusing than her cousin and whatever she was up to. Her real sadness came from fighting off the fact that she had failed. No, an accident, she reminded herself. An accident.
All the possibilities I’ve spoken to you about aren’t a reward for what you did here” he told her seriously. “They are a way of assuring this wont ever happen again. Of making these deaths count for something. And this ceremony…. Scott paused letting his voice drop back into its previous gentle tone. It is a way of saying you’re sorry Kiara. And a promise that you will never again take it upon yourself to play god! To think that you have the right to put other living things at risk simply to see what happens. Now I believe that you understand that. But its up to you now to prove me right! "
God? The one who wanted Noah to put animals on a boat and prepare for a flood? She’d always found any Bible story a little dull, some of them more improbable than another, but she listened. As far as she could remember, she hadn’t been playing God. More like…scientist.
“I promise, never again. Never eve Well, now that she knew better, she’d think it through a little more before attempting. ”I do understand. And I’ll try really hard to be good! Starting with them, because I need to say sorry and good bye to them.” And then everything from this accident would be all better again.
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird...
Jamie found himself taking in every word and detail with a keen perception he'd only developed after striking out on his own to establish X-Factor Investigations. This was one of his first real encounters with a student since returning to the Institute. It used to be a small school. A tight knit handful with mature and trained members outnumbering the unschooled. Now it seemed an absurd opposite, with a handful of responsible heads training a new generation that far outnumbered them.
The world's a different place now... or maybe it's just my point of view that's changed, he thought.
Suddenly the school seemed like a warzone. Given all the chaos it had seen, that wasn't too far from the truth. There was just a ceasefire at the moment, a lull in the action. It was a tinderbox waiting for just a spark to set it off. Jamie was looking at a spark, a match, and she didn't even come up to his chest. There were dozens more matches in the school. Then again, there were thousands outside the walls as well.
It was disturbing to say the least. Yes, it was a danger. A student could accidentally send a desk into another dimension, throw a hissy and melt a wall, start a schoolyard brawl with more fireworks than any parade, or fly completely off the handle. It'd happened before. Jamie shuddered. But what could they do about it? This was a haven, a refuge. They were supposed to be family. Maybe the hazards were worth it, the atmosphere, the feeling of safety. Maybe.
Anyway, it was good to Scott's firm leadership come into action. It was so incredibly diplomatic - certain in meaning, but rarely offending. Sometimes it was a bitter pill to swallow all the same, but you couldn't get a much more tactful leader than him.
Pushing aside his inner running commentary, Jamie decided it was indeed time to attend to the funeral.
"Yes, let's do something for these guys." Jamie had the box and shovel still, it only made sense that he start the process. Jamming the spade into the ground, he adopted a solemn demeanor as he knelt down. Yes, part of the point (if he was reading Scott right) was to impress the sanctity of life on Kiana, make her participate and appreciate. But she had touched the cat and bird enough. Making her do so again seemed like a morbid punishment. Damaging. If she really wanted she could take a couple scoops with the shovel or pick some flowers from the garden.
"C'mere, pretty baby..." he muttered quietly, cooing at the lump of fur and feathers like it needed coaxing.
He wanted to wince as he took the carcass in his bare hands. He could've slipped the shovel underneath it, but that would've shattered the respectful fascade. He'd just be scrubbing off a layer or two of skin later. The body was limp, save for a perhaps imagined touch of rigor mortis. Carefully, he folded the body and it almost looked natural, like flying cats were normal and this one just happened to run into a bigger, meaner flying cat. The box fit it well.
He left the box open for the moment. Whether this was an open or closed-casket ordeal was not going to be his decision. He was just there to put in some work and pay his respects. If Scott and Kiana were satisfied with things, he'd close the box and they'd move on.
He looked expectantly from Kiana to Scott.
Edited by: FLCosmos at: 6/20/07 6:53 pm
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird...
'Since firefly dissapeared i have god modded at the end of this post just so that we can have an end to the thread'.
“I promise, never again. Never ever “ Kiara told him , as sincere at that moment as any seven year old could ever be. Or so Scott hoped. ”I do understand.” she assured him earnestly” And I’ll try really hard to be good!” Starting with them, because I need to say sorry and good bye to them.”
Her eyes dropped again to the stiffening corpse that still lay pathetically on the grass beside them, a tragic reminder of what could happen if this particular little girl didn’t manage to keep her word.“Well we shall just have to help her keep it that’s al Scott told himself resignedly. *And if we can make training with supervision more interesting than any experiment she can come up with on her own then maybe we’ll have a chance. *
That was only one of the problems where Kiara and the other children were concerned though. Scott sighed. There had to be a happy medium between making them feel as if they were in a prison and letting them run around doing whatever they liked all the time, as they all to often seemed to be doing at the moment, but as of yet Scott wasn’t convinced that they Institute had managed to reach it.
Something else that needed to be looked into and fast! Yet another concern to add to his ever lengthening list! No wonder Jean was always so busy. Given everything that there was to come to grips with it was a miracle she had managed so well for so long. Well at least this was one particular problem he could take off her hands and he would start tackling it as soon as they got this little ceremony over and done with.
Jamie was getting ready to do just that. Already he had prepared the ‘grave’ choosing by happy coincidence a particularly beautiful rosebush to bury the little creatures under. Now he tackled the more bitter task.. that of actually putting the mangled body into its makeshift coffin. "Yes, let's do something for these guys." he said seriously as he bent down over the deformed corpse, his voice as gentle as his hands when he picked it up, saying "C'mere, pretty baby..." to them as if the animals were merely sleeping instead of dead.
Scott was infinitely grateful to him for doing so. These were the duties he himself could no longer perform, not with one arm aching and useless, unable to move let alone cradle the sad results of Kiara’s experiment with the compassion that Jaimie offered it. It was at moments like these, every bit as much as in the heat of battle that having a team mate you could count on meant so much and Scott was certainly glad that this particular team mate was back at the Institute where his contribution was so badly needed.
And speaking of contributions….. Scott may not have been able to carry out the physical side of the funeral but that didn’t stop him from making a gesture all the same. Carefully he unhooked the sling from his shoulder, making sure that he moved his right arm as little as possibly during the proceedings, slipping it inside his shirt for support as he untied the knot with his teeth and laid the fine materiel over the body, the black silk lining this coffin as white would line his.
“There” he said quietly, his voice carrying a hint of the pain that the movement had cost him “I think that’s the best we can do for them. Is there anything you’d like to put in with them Kiara or shall I ask Jaimie to close the lid?” The girl shook her head, simply watching as the remains of the mangled creature disapeared from view and the rest of the solemn little ceremony came to an end. It was closure of a sort, a lesson learned, Scott hoped rather than a problem swept under the carpet. But that was something only time would tell. And it was certain that Kiara would prove full of surprises in the future. They could only pray that they would be more pleasant than this one. But that was a risk they would just have to take.
Re: Bird + Cat = Bat? Or maybe cird...
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