cycleofages | And there's a storm you're starting now... [OPEN]

Who; Rogue (from the movieverse) and YOU!
What; After hiding out for a few days after the Big Important Meeting, Rogue's out wandering. Come meet her or catch up?
Where; Various locations
When; August 5th - 10th
Warnings; Mentions of imprisonment and torture, but nothing graphic. Will update as needed.

Being stuck underground was starting to take its toll on Rogue. It wasn't quite as bad when she was out and about, like in the cafeteria for her sorry excuse for meals, but when she was in her room... It was too much like being in the lab, where there had been no windows and nothing personal to remind her that she was still a human being.

With each night that passed, her nightmares grew worse and she found herself spending more time just walking around HQ, settling in one place for a few hours before moving to another. Being around people helped sometimes, but nighttime was the worst, when everyone seemed to settle and there was no one left to remind her that this world was still alive.

OOC; Starter posts/locations in the comments. Feel free to propose others, Rogue will be doing quite a bit of wandering.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pulse nodded. "Me either. I'm used to traveling a lot, being on the move. Being holed up feels a whole lot like a trap."

He shivered a little without realizing it. "I'm going to clear and head out to the city some day soon, maybe get a job out there. If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know. Us transplantees and mutants should stick together." Things had not worked out with his Rogue, and that life was gone, but he did feel fondness for that other woman, and he felt like he owed her something. Paying it forward seemed a good way to pay down that debt. Besides, getting to know her would be fun.

His offer made her smile, because it was kind of him, and reminded her a little of the way Erik thought. Which was a good thing, in her mind - they did need to stick together, look after one another, if they were going to make it in this strange place.

"I appreciate the offer," she said with sincerity. "I can't really think of anything I need though. I've done without for so long, not much seems all that important anymore." The result of almost a decade of war.

Pulse nodded. "Sounds like you had a rough time back in your world." He nibbled some on his food as he regarded her.

"My name is Pulse, and I..." He paused. "I don't want to sound like I am hitting on you, because I'm not. That said, my power is such that you can touch me if you ever want human contact. Your power can't touch me unless I want it to."

He spoke softly, eyes down at first, then lifted them to hers, unsure if he was doing the right thing to tell her.

A rough time. That was one way of putting it.

Rogue stared at Pulse for a long moment, digesting what he'd just told and trying to understand what it meant to her. Did she care that someone could touch her without being hurt? Did she deserve that sort of gift? Her gaze stayed fixed on his expression as the seconds stretched between them, and finally she sighed, feeling more tired than she had before this revelation.

"Thank you for telling me," she said just as softly, a deep sadness creeping into the words and thickening her accent. "If I'd known you a few years ago, I would have..." She shook her head dismissively. "It doesn't matter. Thank you."

Pulse winced at the look and sound of her and he swore to himself. Well done, Pulse. You dumbass.

"Rogue, I... I didn't... damn. I'm sorry."

He rubbed his face. "I just figured you could use a real hug. God knows I could sometimes." He shook his head. "But, ah, anyway. We should hang out sometime. When you feel up to outsideness, or activity." Now he felt awkward.

Lord, could she make things any worse? She'd known how to talk to people once upon a time, but apparently those days were long gone.

"That'd be nice," she said quietly, then shifted in her seat. "I didn't mean- I didn't think you meant... It's just that, I don't know that I could even hold someone's hand right now. I think if you hugged me, I'd end up crying all over you." And then things would be really awkward.

"No, I just... realized I had been a little insensitive. I'm not really a people person." He offered her a light grin.

"There are worse things than crying over someone. If you ever felt like you needed to, I wouldn't object." He paused. "One time I would have thought worse of you, but a lot has changed in my life. Hell, I cry often enough myself."

her waved around them, then nodded. "Losing a world seems like a good reason, for one."

Rogue wondered briefly at what might have caused such a profound change in this man she had just met, but his guess at her troubles changed her train of thought. Sighing heavily, she shook her head and told him, "My world was lost before I got here."

She smoothed her hands over her hair, tucking the signature white strands back behind her ears in a nervous gesture. "There was a war. We... We lost. There was maybe a tenth of the population left."

"Ouch." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Rogue, that has to be rough to deal with, even now." he rubbed his face and blinked at that.

"I hope you can stay here permanently then." Because why would you want to go back?

Even now. Glancing at the other people in the room, she could imagine them all being marched into camps, then dumped outside the perimeter when they were of no more use. She could see them being strapped to a table in the lab, feel their life draining into her...

Shifting again in her seat, she shook her head again. "We fixed it. We sent Logan, Wolverine, back in time and we stopped the war before it happened. I could feel the timeline changing and that's... that's when I ended up here. If I go back, I don't know what I'd be going back to, but I wouldn't remember anything of the life I've lived." Another sigh. "I hope I can stay here, too."

Pulse blinked some more. "Time travel. Wow." He shook his head. Okay. That was a new one. But as he glanced around the place, he chuckled to himself. So was dimensional travel, right?

"Well, I'll do my best to keep us all here, then." And he would. He wasn't sure what he could do, but first he would create an infrastructure to get himself resources. And that meant hitting New York. He nodded to himself.

"When you feel like heading to New York, let me know. I'm probably headed there as soon as I can."

Maybe one day she would tell him the specifics of how they had managed time travel, of how she had gotten to be part of it all. But that would mean telling him about the lab, about the mansion, and... Well. She wasn't quite ready for people to know about that. She wasn't ready to see that look in their eyes.

"I will, thank you," she replied with a soft smile. She was quiet for a moment, pondering the things he'd said thus far, before carefully, curiously asking, "Sugar, how did you know me in your world?" Because he hadn't really said anything about being with the X-Men, but he knew about her powers, and knew how his worked with them. He had made the effort to approach her here about that fact, so there had to be something behind it all, especially with what he'd said about the man he used to be.

'Well, I was a thief and an art collector and critic. I'd worked with Mystique, who, in that world, raised that version of you for some of her childhood. You were growing closer to Remy, who had not... been completely forthcoming on certain things. And who had pissed off Mystique. So she hired-slash-blackmailed me to come to the mansion and show you that there were others who could be as slick and as charming as Remy, without the baggage."

he sighed and rubbed his face. "It was a dumb idea, but challenges have never been things I backed down from well. So I came, and I romanced you. And first thing, I told you the truth. We argued, and fought, and then Apocalypse attacked."

He shuddered, remembering that. "An ancient mutant of power, he was trying to kill the X-Men and... that was so far out of my league all i wanted to do was run. But there you were, in the heart of it. And some part of me ran the wrong damn way. Suddenly, I was there, and holding on to the bastard. And using my powers to negate his. The good guys won, and we started talking and sitting together... but... truth to tell, I'd been shown I wasn't an X-man, and my presence was making things touchy for a number of people, so, after a long goodbye weekend, I left. That was several years ago."

he nodded, leaving none of it out, not putting himself in any better light than it had been. "I watched you in the news, and in newspapers, wondering what might have been and moving on with my life."

And there's a storm you're starting now... [OPEN]

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