Summary:Cessily, Jonathan Gallow and Rachel Summers arrives at an X-Men safehouse, bearing gifts and with Rachel attempting to help Carin recover some memories…which brings its own remembered traumas. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It has been /days/ since Carin was confined to the safe house….which feels like weeks already for the speedster teen, given she basically can't leave and they don't exactly pay for cable or leave her a computer or anything to focus on. She has books, instead. Like, old romance novel paperbacks, pretty much, that someone left here, and some old pulpy Jon Carter of Mars books that ended up in a box with the other supplies.
Needless to say, by this point Carin is kind of climbing the walls. She at least has been given clothing that fits her a bit better, a tank top and jean shorts, and tolietries and other necessities, meaning she's actually looking better in terms of being groomed, at least. And of course, LOTS of food was brought, which is good, because she was a bit on the starved side.
STill, when she hears the bell ring indicating someone is coming in, she's out of the living room and to the front door in a literal blur of motion, before she steps up on her tip toes to peer out.
Okay, she doesn't know two of them, but she knows Cessily, so it's more of these….X-Men?…they were telling her about. She opens the door, stepping back. "Um, hey…" she says, not quite sure what you say when people come to the safe house you're being stashed in. Welcome home? Mi casa is (seriously) tu casa?
"Hey, Carin. This is Rachel, and Jon," Cessily greets Carin, warmly, moving forward to give the speedster a quick arm squeeze of warmth and affirmation. "They're here to further help, like Doug and Kitty did. Also, I brought you this." She holds out a medium-sized box, wrapped in plain blue wrapping paper. It's clearly not food. "Can we come in?"
Jonathan Gallo is dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans, chucks, and a worn old black hoodie which only makes his stark white hair stand out a bit more. He has his hands in his pockets and gives Carin a nod of greeting with an easy smile when he is introduced by Cessily. He'd been around at the institute when the others were heading out to visit Carin, and he's welcomed a lot of young mutants to the Institute, helping them out, tutoring, and so he comes along as a sort of fellow Welcome Wagon. Plus, it's always good to deal with unknowns in a group rather than one on one. "Hey," he says.
Rachel Summers was rather new still herself to the institute, as well as this world. Having a chance to do something other than just situate herself was a welcome change of pace she'd quickly agreed to. When the door opens, and Cessily introduces them, she dips her head in a nod toward her. "Yo. That's me. Rachel." No surname. No need right now after all.
Her own attire was toned down a bit from her usual 'gear' she'd come in. She still wore her leather boots but the rest of her leather jumpsuit had been swapped out for jeans, and a simple tanktop. It was almost Summer. It was hot. This worked.
From the slight widening of her eyes, Carin is a bit suprised to have her arm squeezed, but smiles a bit shyly at Cessily all the same. "Hey, it's your house, you know…" she says. She peers over at Jonathan, slightly wary, but smiles back back a little. "Um, hi, good to, um, meet you both?" she says tenatively, making room so everyone can get inside before shutting the door again. "Soooooo….what brings you by?" she says curiously, starting to pad barefoot back towards the living room where people won't be crammed into the entrance hall. She flops down on the couch, pulling alabaster pale legs up to sit crosslegged on one end. "I mean, like I said, your house, so I guess you can come over whenever you want but I figured you might haveareasonwhyyouwantedtoand…" She catches herself, taking a deep breath. "Um, so…what's up, doc?"
Cessily walks in, and sits on the couch near Carin, sets the blue-wrapped package in her lap as she answers, "Well." She looks at Rachel, since telepathy is her thing, and Cessily isn't one to give a lot of details on other people if she can help it, instead choosing to honor their privacy like she'd want her own honored. "I thought I'd come over and say hi. Since we're friends, and all. And I figured you were probably bored."
She taps the box with a finger, "That's why we got you this." She includes Rachel and Jon in the 'we got you the latest portable gaming system and a couple games that's in the box' group, and gives Carin a grin.
"But I'll let them answer for them."
"I work with kids with abilities," Jon says when Cessily looks over at them, "To kind of help them out. I just figured I'd come over, say hi with the others, see how you were holding up and if we could do anything to help you be less bored while you figure everything out. I heard you don't really remember much about your life? Did you have some kind of an accident?"
Rachel Summers glances at Cessily when she looks her way. Hands shoved in her pockets she gives a shrug in response unsure of what to say. At least until Jon speaks earning a raise of her eyebrows. "Mutants. You work with mutants. I'm a mutant too," she points out. Glancing back toward Cessily and Carin she can only offer a shrug to the pair. "I never saw the point of fluffy language rather than getting to the point. So to be blunt… I'm a telepath. If you'd like I could look into your mind to try to help you remember, or at least see why you forgot in the first place. I've no intention of doing anything that may cause trauma. If you forget things it's usually for a reason. Your mind trying to protect you from something you aren't ready to deal with. But…" she adds with a shrug. "It may help to at least convince others you're telling the truth."
The red-headed speedster perks. "Really?!? Oh my GOD thank you it's sooooo boring in here just reading!" Cessily gets a firm hug from the other girl, who then leans back a bit, blinking. "..we're…friends?" she says, the tone in her voice a little fragile at that. "R-really? I mean..I know I'm weird and I don't remember anything and I'm kinda being hunted by techno losers and I'm making a lot of trouble for you guys-"
Luckily Jonathan's explanation heads off more explanations of why she's a problem and makes Carin actually take a breath again, fidgting as she releases Cessily from the hug and leans back against the back cushion of the couch. "W-well. I don't…know." Her brow furrows. "I was this facility with these beekeeper guys…AIM, I guess? And they put some sort of Brain Box thing in my head that was designed to wipe my memories and make it so they could totes brainwash me into a cyborg killer commando terminator thing. But I guess one of the scientist's hearts grew three sizes or something, and she shorted that part out and the tracker and arranged so I could get out of the facility."
Her nose wrinkles. "But…but I can't remember more than fragments. Bits and pieces. The time in the facility, I can remember, but not the stuff before they installed the brainbox. The scientist lady said that the memories were sorta still there, but all…disrupted? And that I might not get all of them back, but I'd get some of them at least. Maybe." She fidgets a bit more. "I…I don't know if I'm a mutant. I don't remember. I think I always looked like this though? Kinda mega goth pale, tanned by moonbeams, that sorta thing." She holds up her hands, wiggling pale fingers, before she focuses on Rachel, listening, then looks down at her lap, hands rubbing together a bit, before she takes a deep breath, looking back up to the telepath. "O-okay…if…if it'll help. I don't want to hurt anyone, and I don't wanna go all murderbot if I've got, like, secret phrases or something that make me go ballistic too."
"We -are- friends," Cessily agrees, emphatically, gently. "And, I wouldn't have brought them here if they weren't here to help, too. I'll be with you the whole time, okay? And, Rachel's pretty cool. So's Jon. He's been with the team longer than me, so he might be able to help you get - well, fit in more?" She gives a shrug, and an apologetic smile to Jon before nodding to Rachel, and offering Carin her hand while Rachel does the telepathic mind probe kung-fu.
Jonathan Gallo looks over toward Rachel and says, "Look, I don't know what she does or doesn't know, so I'll do me and you do you, alright?" He does shrug his shoulders then and says, "I'm a mutant, too." Which of course, the others know. He pauses then when Carin starts to talk and listens to what she has to say as it all comes tumbling out. His brows knit just a little bit and he glances to the other two. Clearly he wasn't filled in on all the details of this story, if it was shared before. He nods though, and then settles back, letting Rachel take the lead with Carin for the time being.
Rachel Summers looks just as momentarily surprised as Jonathan does when Carin explains what was going on with her. "Oh." Her expression turns to one of sympathy then. Not just sympathy, but perhaps familiarity as she'd had her own issues with people messing with her mind to make her a weapon. That was in the past now though. Breifly she pauses only to give a half-nod to Jon. "You're right. Sorry. I'm… still getting used to dealing with people I guess." Odd as that may be for a telepath.
Rachel steps forward to crouch down in front of Carin offering her hand out to the other hand along with a smile. "Hey, relax some. You don't have to let me do anything. Honestly I usually prefer to stay out of people's minds. It's entirely up to you. But if you are ready…" she waits for an affirmative before letting her mind stretch out toward Carin's to start sifting through what memories she can to verify her story.
Carin swallows, then reaches out to squeeze Cessily's hand, holding on as she tries to untense…a bit unsucessfully as she meets Rachel's eyes, waiting, her chest rising and falling in slightly quicker breathing. There's a bit of a fawn poised to run in the girl, like she's always a little bit on edge, though she's obviously trying not to be. "R-right…I'll just…do me. When I remember what me is like…" the girl says, a bit of nervous snark coming to the fore. "It's cool." she says to Rachel, summoning a weak little smile. "Um, do that voodoo that you do so well, or stuff."
"Like I said. I'll be here. You're okay," Cessily encourages. She gives both Jon and Rachel a grateful look, before quieting and simply holding Carin's hand to help the other girl relax a little, and given Rachel some quiet to do her thing. Curiously enough, Cessily doesn't look all that concerned that this girl could be some kind of plant, or spy.
"No worries," Jon says to Rachel, apparently easily shrugging it off, giving her a bit of a smile. Though Carin's story seems to leave him a little perplexed. "That's some fucked up shit, right there." He shakes his head slowly, just taking all of that in. He watches Rachel approach Carin, and then glances back to the girl to see how she's taking it all. "It's going to be okay. She's just going to see what she can see. Maybe she can figure out if those memories you're missing are there." He's not entirely sure. Brain fiddly things are not his area of expertise. He's more of a physical guy.
"Already doing it," Rachel explains as she continues to stare at Carin. Except her eyes didn't seem to be focusing on HER at this point. More through her. Past her. Inside her? Either way whatever she was doing there was no pain felt by Carin. Rachel was exceptionally skilled at doing this without causing discomfort. Like a surgeon she sifts through memories with a quiet reassurance offered into Carin's mind. *Relax. You're among friends. You won't be alone.*
It's not just Carin that can 'hear' those words whispering in their mind though: It's Carin and Jon as well. In the next blink of their eyes the room around them has vanished as she draws them into the memory-scape of Carin's mind linking all four of them mentally for the time being.
Carin closes her eyes, squeezing Cessily's hand a little tighter before she relaxes again, lips parted slightly. Her mind is easy to sense, the tingle of fear running through it along with tentative trust for those around her…she can't remember when she last had people who cared what happened to her as more than a science project.
But her memories are scattered. Damaged. Like a puzzle with missing pieces, save in this case the pieces that aren't missing are sometimes unconnected, floating free. Some are back in place, the few she's remembered. Some seems to be locked away, scarred over by trauma. Those are easy to spot….they apepar to have not been disrupted because they're central to her personality. There are lots of images of her being forced through training programs, having to fight or be hurt. Being tested on her speed on an advanced treadmill thing underground. AIM scientists in those yellow beekeeper style uniforms poking and prodding her. Waking up with a deep pain in her head and panicking when she can't remember anything the first time. Images of Cessily, Noriko and Rahne saving her from an AIM guy in a rain slicker and weird spray canister weapon.
The trauma memories are most obvious as psychic scars, but probably not the most fun to remember either. Then again, they're probably important. <Um…this is totes weird, and I'm sure you get told that a lot.> Carin answers after a moment. <Wait, you're all here? Uh…hey. Welcome to my…brain?>
Wait. Cessily didn't ask to go on Ms. Telepaht's Wild Ride! … But she's here, now. And so, as awkward as it is for her (which is very) she only says, <Yes. I'm here too.> And that's it. Though, through the shared experience, she can see experience what Carin is, what Rachel sifts through and allows her to see. Some of it she'd guessed, or known. Others, not so much, and it causes her to frown some at what Carin was subjected to.
Jonathan Gallo is distinctly uncomfortable about this sudden mental ride he had not purchased a ticket for. He reels a little when he's suddenly in someone else's memories and there's a muttered mental <fuck> that can be heard by those other minds, all networked together.
There's a little mental 'feel' of amusement from the telepath currently in Carin's mind at the surprise of the others. *I should have warned. Sorry. Got ahead of myself. Try to remember something, Carin. It will help pull things in focus more.*
<Um…anything? Ah…let's see.> The scene blurs a bit, before suddenly you're seeing things from the perspective of a younger girl. Shorter. Panting as she runs. Her mind has one thing running through it. "Oh god oh god mom, Cass, have to get the police, gotta get the police, run FASTER RUN FASTER!" And then suddenly the terrain blurs as she abruptly speeds up..and stops when she smacks right into the glass door of what looks like a police station, startling the hell out of a pair of officers as she goes ass over teakettle, her forehead starting to bleed and her skin look windburned in places. "H-help…" She tries to remember why she was running…and her brain flinches away from one of the traumas. Younger memories. It's there, but she subconsciously keeps avoiding pulling it up, remembering back further…
*Ah. That was before… You are a mutant then. Your speed is your own. It belongs to you, and not to the people who hurt you,* Rachel mentally assures as she works to soothe the woman that the girl now was. There's a moment or two of indecision on Rachel's part before she makes a few mental tweaks. Not to alter memories, but to take away the ache of emotions that comes with it. To let them soften, and become easier to handle. She doesn't force the forgotten memories though. That could still come in time even if she could just as easily reach through that self-imposed darkness of forgetfulness to pull them into the light. For that, she asks. *Do you want me to help you remember more? It may be painful. Emotionally. I can help take the edge off though.*
<I…guess so. Um…> Carin quiets for a moment, turning that idea over in her mind, a complex back and forth of emotions coming through her, fear warring with a desire to know who she is. <…yeah. I mean…it doesn't help if I don't remember anything new. And you haven't seen any weird command words or anything, right? So…I'm at least safe to you guys.>
*There's no underlying programming to make you do anything. If it was there at one point, it's not evident now. I'd knowI had some to deal with myself once.* Deeper it is then. There's a feeling almost in Carin's mind almost like a flicker of flame, a warmth filling the darkness of her thoughts to shed light on what was hidden. The past. The truth. Even if it's all illuminated though not all memories hit at onceIt's more a feeling that one might simply know what they choose to think about.
Carin's mind actually shudders a bit as the warmth pushes into it…and slowly, memories break loose. Suddenly the memory rewinds…and Carin is crying, clutching at a pillow, as a man with bloody knuckles carrying a thick stick towers over her, his eyes bugging out with anger practically. A woman's voice, pained, says. "She didn't mean anything!" The man snarls. "Caught her lookin' through my /things/! Im' gonna learn her…." THe first blow hits as Carin squeals in pain, then the woman is grabbing at the man, jerking him back as he whips around and swings the thick rod down, again and again…and there's an older girl there. Blonde. She pulls at Carin, jerking her to her feet and practically dragging her quickly down the hall away from the fight. "C, you go, you g-get the police…run, really quick! Go!" She practically shoves her out the door as the man turns from the now limp body on the floor, snarling as he charges at the older girl. And CArin, terrified, runs out the door. And again replays running. Running so fast and ending up at the police station. The police deciphering her blubbering explanation and driving her back in a squad car. Then a pair of bodies coming out under white sheets, and her sister in handcuffs, looking bruised and bloodied, dazed, like she's not really seeing things around her…
In the real world, Carin starts to breathe quicker. <Oh god, that's…what…C-Cass…>
The memory causes Rachel's own heart to wrench. The thing about telepaths, or at least HER sort of telepath, was that when you were looking at anothers' memories in this way you also felt them. It wasn't HER though. She knew that. It was like watching a very emotional movie. One she was familiar with dealing with, sadly enough. *Hey. You did good. You survived. So did she, in the only way she knew how. It sucks, but sometimes that's the best thing any of us can do. Just… get through it.*
<…I guess…yeah. I have a sister. An older sister.> Carin thinks after a moment. <I've remembered some things like…living in different houses with people I don't remember. With lots of kids. I think…maybe a foster home? But she wasn't there. Cass.> she notes softly.
*Kids are often split up when moved to foster homes. Given the severity of what happened, your sister may have been put in the mental health system.* Or jail. Rachel let's that go unsaid. There was already a lot of revelations going on here for poor Carin at the moment. Let her take it slow if she needed to, let her have some hope. *We can continue this later if you need some time to process what you've already remembered.*
<If…if that's okay? I mean…yeah. If you don't mind coming back?> There's a slightly hopeful edge to the thought, along with a tinge of loneliness. <Or just to, like, talk if you want. I'm still figuring stuff out…even outside of remembering my dad or whatever was an asshole and my sister…killed him.> She sighs in reality, then opens her eyes, smiling weakly at Rachel. "Thanks…" she says, outloud.
"Of course it's okay," Rachel assures as she speaks aloud again, slowly withdrawing from Carin's mind to ease back into the 'real world.' Reaching out she places a hand on the girl's shoulder giving a little squeeze. "Hey. Whatever happened, it was clearly self-defense. For all we know he may have tripped and fallen while chasing her. She clearly loved you though. Remember that. She wanted you to be safe." Smiling, she nods toward Carin as she eases back to her feet. "Of course. I'm still new to this place myself. I can always use more friends. Take care for now, relax, and enjoy your video games."