[ video ; open ] ⚡

[geomagnetically]

[The woman on this video transmission has green hair everywhere -- on the top of her head, her eyebrows, her eyelashes -- and green eyes to match. She's wearing all green, too; in addition, her lips are green -- but that's just because she has green lipstick on, not because her lips are naturally green.

She's levitating her device by way of creative use of her mutant powers, so at least people aren't getting an extreme close up of her face.]

Sooo, I guess I'm doing the multiverse and-slash-or space thing again. Cool. I mean, new places and worlds are kind of par for the course for me at this point, so I'm more fascinated than disturbed -- at least for the moment. I'll see how this shakes out.

[A beat. She is super chill right now.]

Anyway -- name's Lorna Dane, AKA Polaris, also on and off member of teams of the likes of X-Men and X-Factor.

[She says all of that in hopes that someone here will know at least one of those names. If not, oh...well?]

I've been poking around and seeing what I can, but if anyone wants to tell the newbie here the less obvious do-'s and dont'-s' of this place, I would be much obliged before I make a dumbass out of myself.

[Or, you know, people can start taking bets on how long it is before she gets in trouble, some way, some how.]

Comments

[geomagnetically]

Sure. I'll be there a-s-a-p.

[And she is. About an hour later she's there, where she goes looking for him.]

[frankensteinian]

[He's, surprisingly, not that hard to find. He's expecting her, so he's waiting in the day room. A little uncertainly, because what do you say in a situation like this?]

[geomagnetically]

[She's just going to flop down on a chair or couch -- whatever's closest when she gets there.]

Hey.

[That's a good as place as any to start, right?]

I didn't get lost, go me.

[Small joke.]

[frankensteinian]

Hello.

[It works for him.]

That's important, given how confusing this place can be.

[geomagnetically]

[A smirk at the corner of her lip for a moment.]

So, we were somewhere around 'I know at least some version of you'?

[Might as well get right to it.]

[frankensteinian]

Yes, we were. I don't know exactly how it all works, but there are several of us here from different times.

[geomagnetically]

Some multiverse something or other that I won't bother losing sleep over yet, I don't think. Do you know some version of me too or is this just super awkward on my end?

[frankensteinian]

I know who you are. [Because she mentioned her name.] That is the extent of my knowledge at the moment.

[geomagnetically]

[That she did.] You mean just as in my name? [lalala as she continues dancing around the issue but also kind of closing in on it.]

[frankensteinian]

Who you are. [She's going to make him say it, isn't she.]

[geomagnetically]

[Probably. Well. Not unless she says it first.]

So, assuming you're from a different universe altogether, we are still related there?

[Aaaand there she goes.]

[frankensteinian]

Yes. We are.

[Erik Lehnsherr has secrets he's never told anyone. News at ten.]

[geomagnetically]

I guess some things never change. [Or lots of things, as it were.

She lets out a small breath, feeling like she's been doing more of the talking, so she'll take a second and see if he wants to chime in with more.]

[frankensteinian]

I suppose not.

[True, he's not especially talkative, unless it's about a particular issue he feels passionate about, but he supposes he should fill the silence. And maybe there are a few things he should know.]

What's life like in your universe?

[How do they even establish differences?]

[geomagnetically]

Mine specifically, or in general? Because in general there's the alien invasion of the week -- [well, not QUITE that often, but close] -- or the newest conflict between super-teams -- or conflicts between different species. [The last thing she remembers from home is inhumans and mutants in a clash; mutants were dying because of an inhumans thing.]

Mine specifically ... involves a lot of helping to deal with those things. I don't have a lot of free time there.

[frankensteinian]

Different species? [Technically, following his line of reasoning, mutants and humans are two different species. But she didn't put it that way, so it has him curious.] How many different species are conflicting with each other?

[geomagnetically]

You'd be surprised. But, I last left off with the mutants and inhumans. Inhumans are powered, except they go through these mists that sort of... trigger their DNA changes. [There's a short pause, almost like she's unsure if she should continue, but she decides to go ahead.] Anyway, a lot of their mist got in the whole entire atmosphere, and while new inhumans were popping up everywhere, it was toxic to mutants. Like, deadly. Not anything someone can shake off with lots of fluids and vitamins. [A sadder expression appears on her face, but she forces it away.]

[frankensteinian]

So they're like mutants, but only if they're exposed to this mist? Mist which will kill actual mutants?

[She can probably tell how he feels about that.]

[geomagnetically]

Yeah -- that's the summary of it.

[Yes, she can. It's as terrible as it sounds, though. He's probably seen some pretty Bad Stuff happen to mutants in his universe, so she's sure the general fact of mutants being screwed isn't, unfortunately, a surprising one.]

We kinda get the shit end of the stick way too much. [we = mutants, obviously.]

[frankensteinian]

Yes. We do.

[Getting someone to realize that is half the battle.

But of course he can't resist championing his cause a bit.]

That doesn't mean we have to sit there and accept it.

[geomagnetically]

No, but it does feel at times rather endless. [She might not be down with 100% of his methods, but that statement he's sure not wrong about.

Why Is It So Hard To Protect People No Matter How Hard I Try, an autobiography by Lorna Dane.]

I'm hoping things are at least somewhat better here.

[frankensteinian]

Welcome to my life.

[He expects that she knows at least something about it, but then, he doesn't know what this older version of him that she knows might have told her, or anyone.

Forward, afterword, and chapter intros by Erik Lehnsherr. Teamwork!]

There haven't been any problems yet. Peter did warn me though about some method they have of nullifying powers if someone causes trouble.

[Guess why Peter had warned him about it.]

[geomagnetically]

[She makes a face, but she probably doesn't have to ask what classifies as "trouble" in the eyes of whomever has that power.] I've kind of had enough of power loss -- either my own, or just seeing it with others -- to last a hundred multiverses and lifetimes. When you put it like that, it kind of sounds like we should be lucky 'they' didn't take them away as soon as we got here. [As much of an issue with that wording as she has.]

[frankensteinian]

I don't know details of what happened, but he made it sound like if someone without powers did something like kill someone, there would be some form of punishment -- a day or two locked up somewhere -- but that if someone with powers did it, the punishment would be a day or two locked up somewhere and the implantation of a chip that nullifies their ability to use their powers.

[Which is also something he, unsurprisingly, doesn't care for either.]

He didn't seem to think it was very fair.

[geomagnetically]

Well he's not wrong. [About it seeming unfair, she means.] But I don't think I'll be testing that soon. I'm hoping he didn't have that happen to himself and isn't speaking from experience.