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Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast; 5/23 - Morning - (Nezh, Kitty & Quentin)
Topic Started: Nov 17 2013, 06:54 PM (596 Views)
Kitty Pryde
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Nothing said a job well done like a whiteboard full of half-unintelligible scribbles.

Well, not really unintelligible, it was just a little crowded up there. That was okay, though, crowded meant work and progress and things happening. It looked good. Definitely.

Other than that one bit where they still had some overlap, but they could fix that with some adjustments. Or they could let the computer fix it, and probably should've let it do more of it, but they'd been caught up in and having fun. Because math, no matter what anyone said, was definitely fun.

Nezh made a slight face and Kitty gave him a sympathetic look in return. Yeah, she wasn't crazy about not getting that worked out, either, but sometimes it happened. “Yeah, I think the CAD will be able to figure that out,” he agreed, echoing what she'd been thinking herself. It all made her smile all the same. Because the CAD was just hemming a few loose ends. They'd still done the rest all on their own.

All on their own, other than the work Reed Richards and Forge and Nemesis had done to help lay the groundwork, but still! It counted and it was working, or it should work and it had been fun.

Awesome, definitely fun teamwork. You couldn't beat that. If Nezh was game, they'd have to find another project to work on after this one.

“It was,” he agreed whole-heartedly as he moved back from the whiteboard, too. Kinda like maybe he wanted to keep poking at it anyway and she knew that feeling. Sometimes you really had to make yourself leave it alone.

Soooo tempting to keep poking, but she also knew there was such a thing as too much tweaking until you'd tweaked it right outta working. So, yep, no more poking at things and they'd let the computer design program finish it up.

“Slo-Mo High Five?” Nezh suggested, or asked, or something like that as he held his palm up again. Whichever one it was, she was all for it and Kitty's grin widened as she stepped over closer and raised her hand up.

"Totally a Slo-Mo High Five moment," the brunette agreed, sort of gently rolling her palm carefully against his in a light press. Best high five ever. "We rock," Kitty declared, holding her palm there against his. "I can't wait to get it going and see what Veil thinks."

Or not, she realized a second later as she happened to spy the clock up on the wall. Uh-oh. "Crap," the teenager added, already feeling the edge of disappointment creep in. "Is that the right time?" she asked, hoping it wasn't and it was like most've the clocks in their old hideouts and perpetually wrong.

If it was, then science and math fun was gonna have to wait. Not that Camp breakout wasn't fun, or important. It was, it just sucked to possibly have to run out on Nezh and the project now. Definitely needed to schedule better next time.
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Gentle
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Alright. He really could put the whiteboard marker down and step away from the equations, and avoid any further hand-tweaking of their work. He was capable of that, Nezhno told himself, though it wasn’t the first time he’d resolved that in the last little while, and possibly not even the fifth.

But like Kitty had said, it had been fun. Awesome teamwork, that was what she’d said too, and maybe that meant that hadn’t all been wishful thinking inside his own head when it had felt like it was easy to work with Kitty Pryde. Especially since he didn’t think his imagination was quite good enough to stretch all that way. So all in all, the Wakandan was guessing that maybe, hopefully, he wasn’t totally out of line in suggesting another Slo-Mo High Five was deserved, for the fact they’d finished the calculations (even if technically, they could have been done with them and given them over to the computer a while ago).

“Totally a Slo-Mo High Five moment," Kitty agreed though, and proceeded to do just that, pressing her palm against his with the same gentle rolling motion he’d used earlier till they were flat against each other. “We rock," [she] declared, holding her palm there against his. "I can't wait to get it going and see what Veil thinks.”

“Yeah,” Nezhno agreed, with a small, but earnest smile. “Me either.” The math had been fun, and the working partner awesome, but if they could actually make this work (and he still wasn’t quite sure he was ready to be 100% confident about that), and give Veil this option with her powers, then… well, it would be even better.

“Crap,” was what Kitty said next though, expression folding into something that looked significantly less content than she had a moment ago. Which was definitely not a good sign, but though Nezhno instinctively looked back to the whiteboard, wondering if she’d suddenly struck on something that would make a problem for, or otherwise invalidate something that they’d done, after a moment he looked back, and found her looking instead to the clock on the nearest wall.

“Is that the right time?”

Nezhno glanced up, frowning slightly as he peered at the clockface. “Yes?” he guessed a moment later, though less out of a sense for the the actual time was than a suspicion that the SHIELD helicarrier probably had some central processing that kept all its clocks perfectly synchronized. Was it really that far gone through the morning though? Consulting an internal reference for time it ought to be didn’t work at all: between back and forth between North America and East Africa, most of at least one day in something barely a few steps above a coma, and general difficulties sleeping through what had happened every time he moved accidentally, he wasn’t sure he had any internal frame of reference that wasn’t cracked and skewed at this point.

“I know it’s not the time in Wakanda,” he added though, shifting back to the computer for a second to check the time on the terminal. “Yes. That’s EST,” the tattooed boy confirmed then, doing his best not to sound as disappointed as he might have felt, had he had any right to Kitty Pryde’s time, and turning to look back at her with an only slightly rueful smile. “You’ve got other places you need to be, don’t you?”
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Kitty Pryde
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Yep, time to let the computer take over. Really. She could accept that.

Even if they probably could've let it do that a while back, doing it by hand had still been fun and Kitty definitely understood Nezh looking a little reluctant to step away from the white board. Poking at it more themselves before running it through the design program would just be dragging it out because they wanted.

So, yeah, definitely having willpower here.

Also, definitely a Slo-Mo High Five moment if she ever saw one. Because they rocked and were awesome and things like that. And because this had just been way too much fun. So Kitty very carefully pressed her palm to Nezh's again, the better not to cause any unnecessary ouch.

Man, she couldn't wait to see what Veil thought.

“Yeah,” Nezhno agreed, with a small, but earnest smile. “Me either.” Kitty's smile widened. It was cool to be able to do something for someone you actually kinda knew, too. Nezh knew her way better, of course, but the brunette could definitely sympathize with the horror of the redhead's plight. Their powers might not be all that much alike in some ways, but they were close enough in others she could imagine the total horror and embarrassment of using your powers and having your clothes suddenly be gone.

It was something that'd worried her about her own powers really early on. Thankfully, it'd never actually happened, but falling through walls and floors and people unexpectedly had been bad enough. Doing it without you clothes coming with her would've been a whole other horrific experience. So, solidarity for the part-time incorporeal, or something.

Except then she noticed the stupid clock, and hoped that the time on it was really, really wrong or something. But Kitty had a feeling that it wasn't. Crap. Maybe Nezh would know if that was right? She was really hoping it wasn't, because that was definitely going to put a cramp in her continued fun in the lab time with the Wakandan boy.

Nezh frowned up at the clock, too, which made her a little hopeful. Maybe it was off after all. “Yes?” he guessed a moment later, so okay, uggh. Maybe not. Though he didn't sound all that sure. Considering how much back and forth he'd been doing between here and Wakanda the past few days, maybe that wasn't all that surprising.

“I know it’s not the time in Wakanda,” he added though, shifting back to the computer for a second to check the time on the terminal. Yep, intercontinental teleportation lag. It was kind of surprising he wasn't somewhere sleeping for the next forty eight hours or so, but then again he probably felt like he'd spent more than enough time lying down for a while, especially with the whole discomfort issue, too. “Yes. That’s EST,” the tattooed boy confirmed then, and Kitty sighed in definite disappointment. Crap. Stupid overly-reliable helicarrier time keeping." “You’ve got other places you need to be, don’t you?”

He sounded kinda disappointed, too, which was nice to know. She'd been having a lot of fun and it was good to know maybe he had been, too. Didn't really help with making her want to leave, though.

"Yeah, probably," she confirmed reluctantly and pulling a slight face. "I'm really sorry," Kitty apologized, hoping she hadn't just screwed up all his plans and teeth pulling briefly at her lower lip. "It totally slipped my mind, but I'm supposed to go on a Camp raid in Wyoming." Which wouldn't have been a big deal to blow off - and she was still kinda tempted to try anyway - except for one thing. "Actually, I'm kinda supposed to lead it," the brunette added with a slightly self-conscious half smile.

So yeah, a little harder to beg off. Though Bobby would've probably been happier if she did. He'd been good and hadn't said anything, but she suspected he wasn't really thrilled about her doing it and not taking him along. Even though she'd have Yana and Sam and Gloria, who didn't seem all that thrilled about it, either.

"I might be able to cancel, though," she added, thinking that over for a second, "or get Sam to take over. I really don't want to mess up the rest of your day and leave you without any help. Plus, I've had a lot of fun," she admitted with a more natural smile.

It might be a little weird to cancel your own mission, or turn it over to somebody else, because you wanted to play in the lab. But it's not like she hadn't done weirder.
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Gentle
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Yes, that was the correct time for EST, according to the computer terminal which Nezhno - though disappointed with its answer - could think of no reason to doubt. He did try to keep that disappointment from sounding too obviously in his voice, because even if Kitty Pryde was audibly sighing at the information, it didn’t seem quite appropriate for him.

Though as to how successful he really was at that, Nezhno wasn’t quite sure. Not as much as he should maybe have been, he suspected.

She had somewhere else to be, didn’t she? Which was okay, and completely understandable. He hadn’t expected that even in Wakanda, she’d have had even the time she had given to spend helping this idea of his actually go somewhere. Back here, with her friends, her team, and everything else that was going on? That she’d been able to spare this much this morning had been… well, amazing. And awesome. Though how to say those words out loud kind of froze his tongue up entirely, and in the end, the tattooed boy didn’t get anything out at all before Kitty Pryde had answered his question.

“Yeah, probably," she confirmed reluctantly and pulling a slight face. "I'm really sorry,” she apologized, completely unnecessarily from Nezhno’s perspective. The Wakandan boy shook his head sincerely, meeting the uncertain lip-worrying expression she had with a small smile that would hopefully be a little reassuring. Sorry was something she really didn’t need to be.

“It totally slipped my mind, but I'm supposed to go on a Camp raid in Wyoming,” she continued, making Nezhno’s eyebrows lift for multiple reasons. Starting with how a Camp raid could slip anyone’s mind, let alone Kitty’s - though math, he supposed, could definitely explain that, or at least it could have for him - then moving quickly through to a series of increasingly uneasy guesses about the odds of whether the Camp raid she was talking about was the same one that had had Gloria chewing nails (well, chewing nails more than usual) when he’d seen her earlier this morning.

What were the odds of Wyoming having two Camps? Probably not very good, Nezhno decided quickly, and then tried to put that aside as Kitty smiled a little self-consciously. “Actually, I'm kinda supposed to lead it," the brunette added.

“And it slipped your mind?” Nezhno asked quietly, lips twitching just a little despite his resolve to be serious. It probably wasn’t really right to be amused by that (especially not with the stress implosions he could just about already hear coming if Gloria ever found out), and even less to be a little pleased at the idea that math and science had contrived to take over, even for a little while, but he couldn’t quite shake that feeling either.

“I might be able to cancel, though," she added, thinking that over for a second, "or get Sam to take over. I really don't want to mess up the rest of your day and leave you without any help. Plus, I've had a lot of fun," she admitted.

And she smiled again. And that one was, definitely, the very most amazing smile Nezhno had ever seen in his life, completely outdoing all his efforts not to think about that aspect. “I’ve had a lot of fun too,” he agreed though, telling himself that smiling back was only polite, and wasn’t actually the same as being the obvious idiot that Quentin had warned him about. Though that smile did fade a little too quickly as the rest of Kitty Pryde’s words and suggestions filtered through after his brain had recovered from her smile enough to process again.“But don’t let Sam lead it,” Nezhno suggested hurriedly. Maybe too hurriedly, because that had to sound strange, didn’t it?

“If that’s Sam Guthrie, I mean,” he continued, realizing that very well might not help his chances of sounding like anything other than a very strange person. “This raid… it’s the thing Gloria inserted herself on, isn’t it?” Kitty Pryde, Illyana, and a version of her old friend who hadn’t seemed to trust her at all - Nezhno thought he could kind of guess how it was that Risque had ended up on the mission, and it definitely did not involve her being asked to join.

“Please,” he added seriously. “Umm. I don’t think…” but the task of trying to explain Gloria, and her essential… Gloria-ness, and why Cannonball leading this was something to be avoided if at all possible, without sounding hopelessly confused or an unforgiveably bad friend proved to be well beyond Nezhno’s capabilities, and after holding his mouth open for long enough to probably make himself look like an utter idiot, he did his best to shrug and change tacks. “I can’t imagine you really want to miss your chance at putting down a Camp,” he suggested, then wondered if he actually had any grounds to assume he knew that about Kitty Pryde, and frowned slightly, looking at her. “Do you?”

He’d got the impression… but… well, maybe it would be better to stop wondering, and just to focus on the part of what she’d said that he did actually have some cause to speak to. “And you’ve definitely done anything but mess up the rest of the day,” he assured her seriously. As far as they’d gotten already, the rest… well, it should probably just be engineering, and that was much farther than he’d ever expected to be by this point. As for the remark about help… well, that maybe deserved another small, but slightly amused smile, “But maybe I’ll still have Quentin,” Nezhno pointed out drily, “if the joy of squeezing bits of leftover goo into bio-analyzers wears off for him.”

And that might be okay. He couldn’t really be anywhere near as annoying as the first impression had sort of seemed, could he?
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Kitty Pryde
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Oh man. Seriously, how had it managed to get that late without her noticing?

Well, okay, Kitty knew how. She was having fun and they were busy number crunching and figuring things out and the time had just flown by. Like it always used to do in the lab, back when she'd actually still had time to do that. Nezh was easy and fun to work with. Not to mention brilliant.

So, yeah, that's how that had happened and how she'd completely forgotten she was supposed to go on a Camp raid in Wyoming this afternoon. Which she really was sorry for, even if he was shaking his head like he thought she shouldn't be.

Actually, she was supposed to be leading the Camp raid, which made it even more embarrassing that she hadn't thought about it in hours.

“And it slipped your mind?” Nezhno asked quietly, but not like he was so much wondering what crazy person let her lead any kind of mission again ever as much as like he was kinda trying not to grin. The lip twitching thing was a dead giveaway and she grinned sheepishly, but not all that sheepishly, as she grinned a little and nodded.

Yep, that was her. Stuff in science and it went right outta her head.

After another second or two thought, though, she decided she might be able to cancel it. Or maybe get Sam to lead it, instead. It sucked that she needed to take off and she didn't wanna ruin the rest of Nexh's day by leaving him without any help. And, well, she really had had a lot of fun, and still was and would've rather stayed and finished the project.

“I’ve had a lot of fun too,” he agreed though, with a smile that said he meant it and wasn't just saying that to be polite. “But don’t let Sam lead it,” Nezhno suggested hurriedly and umm...okay? Kitty frowned a little in confusion. Sure, he wasn't their Sam, but he seemed okay... “If that’s Sam Guthrie, I mean,” he continued and she nodded, still kinda confused feeling. “This raid… it’s the thing Gloria inserted herself on, isn’t it?”

That she knew at least and Kitty nodded. "Yeah, that's the one. Or, I mean I'm not sure she really inserted herself, exactly." Actually, maybe she kinda had, now that she thought about it. The older girl had seemed really determined about going and she hadn't seen any reason for her not to. "Yeah, okay maybe she did, but I didn't notice that much," the slender girl settled on with a wry grin and a shrug. "I figured she was just eager or something."

Even if 'eager' weren't exactly a word she'd use for Risque. Yeah, she'd just go back to determined. Very, very determined. “Please,” he added seriously. “Umm. I don’t think…” Whatever he didn't think didn't materialize, and he seemed to get kinda stuck there. After a few seconds he shrugged while she kept trying to figure out what the deal was about Gloria and going on the mission and Other World Sam and possibly leading it. It wasn't like she should have an issue with him leading, she'd been on their Sam's team. “I can’t imagine you really want to miss your chance at putting down a Camp,” the Wakandan boy suggested next, apparently deciding to just do a quick swerve onto a subject side road. “Do you?”

Back to science vs stomp a Camp into the ground. Man, that was a hard question. Harder than it probably should've been. "No," she finally admitted, but tacked on a, "mostly." right after that. "But I don't want to miss all the science fun, either."

“And you’ve definitely done anything but mess up the rest of the day,” he assured her seriously, dragging her outta the further musings of Risque and Sam and whatever the heck was happening there. Kitty smiled back, even if she still felt a little like she had. Or at least inconvenienced his day, “But maybe I’ll still have Quentin,” Nezhno pointed out drily, “if the joy of squeezing bits of leftover goo into bio-analyzers wears off for him.”

Kitty's eyebrows shot up her forehead. "Oh man, now I feel really bad," she teased, because she couldn't help it. Or grinning while she was doing it. "Good luck with that and don't let him try to stuff you into the goo analyzer. Or cover himself in Pym Particles or something." Even if she'd just kinda met him (and the Aunt things was still really confusing her a lot), that was all it really took to make her suspect Quentin might actually think something like that was a great idea.

Meanwhile, whatever was going on with Gloria and Sam that she hadn't quite figured out and Nezh was having a hard time explaining, she probably should go soon, so she could get changed and round everyone up. "No worries, though," she assured him a lot more seriously, "Not sure what Gloria's thing would be with Sam maybe leading, but if it's an issue then we'll stick with the original plan." No point stressing him out and, even if she really didn't know Gloria, she seemed, well...yeah, let's go with really determined about things again.

Maybe it was some leftover thing from the New Mutants team or-

"Wait, she's afraid this one's gonna go out and get himself killed, isn't she?" Kitty asked Nezh in a moment of clarity. Yeah, okay. She could understand that. She'd felt a little like that about the Logan that was here and that she'd been completely avoiding because she wasn't sure she could really deal with that. "Gloria, I mean. After what happened to our Sam."

And maybe afraid that she, Kitty, was gonna send him out to get killed, too, now that she thought about it. Even if that was true, though, she was pretty sure Nezh wouldn't say it and she wouldn't ask. Really, she couldn't even blame the other girl all that much for thinking that way.
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Gentle
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Yes, it had sounded strange. He could tell, even as he was hurriedly scrambling to try to find a way to dig himself back out of the mess that opening his mouth about why the idea of Sam Guthrie taking over that mission so that Kitty could stay here, while appealing, was an idea that also really, really wasn’t a good one.

There wasn’t one though, or at least not one that Nezhno managed to strike upon in the midst of a few words, and a whole lot more opening and shutting of his mouth. It had sounded strange, and now Kitty Pryde was staring at him in obvious confusion, and maybe also the suggestion of other things that didn’t suit her face at all.

Okay. Alright. Alright. Before he went any further on attempts to dig that had only seemed to make this topic into something resembling a quicksand bog more closely than an actual hole, he should probably check that this was actually the same raid that Gloria had apparently, if you read in between the lines (mostly the heavy Cuban frown lines), inserted herself on this morning, shouldn’t he?

Well, she’d nodded for that, at least. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? Was it? Wasn’t it?

“Yeah, that's the one. Or, I mean I'm not sure she really inserted herself, exactly,” the slender brunette confirmed, maybe a little uncertainly by the end of the sentence. Well, that was polite of her. Probably unnecessarily so, since he knew Gloria, and so had a pretty good idea already of how that it most likely had actually gone down, but-

-yes, that. That look Kitty had now. That was the ‘I survived my first experience with Gloria Munoz when she wants something’ badge of facial expression. “Yeah, okay maybe she did, but I didn't notice that much," the slender girl settled on with a wry grin and a shrug. "I figured she was just eager or something.”

Eager.

Though he probably shouldn’t have, Nezhno blinked owlishly (if owls could be bald, and tattooed, and grey-eyed), taking at least two full seconds before he found words to say that weren’t a complete negative. “I’m not sure I’d put it that way, exactly,” he managed, before succeeding in getting his thoughts out of the wrongness of that statement where it came to Gloria, and especially where it came to Gloria, and this particular mission, and all the things she’d been saying that he really, really, didn’t want to have to try to explain to Kitty Pryde right now. Or ever.

“Please,” he added seriously, instead. And another um, and and I don’t think, just for good measure, though that was as far as he got for trying to find an explanation that wouldn’t be a terrible idea to try to give. Maybe if he just changed the tack, and tried to raise the idea of whether or not Kitty Pryde would want to miss a chance at taking down a Camp? That didn’t seem like her. Did it?

Maybe it did, actually, given the expression on her face as she seemed to take that under consideration. “No,” she finally admitted, but tacked on a, "mostly." right after that. "But I don't want to miss all the science fun, either.”

Oh! Nezhno could almost have sighed in relief, though he did at least keep it to only smiling at her in relief instead. “Well, there’s no reason science fun ought not to be here tomorrow,” he pointed out, tortured grammar or no, then looked carefully toward Kitty again, with the suggestion of a smile. “I hope that’s not true about the Camps.”

Whether or not he would have been allowed to be there on something like that, which he wasn’t, and whether or not he really would have wanted to be (which was a question that Nezhno couldn’t quite see the point of asking himself too closely, given the real answer to that first hypothetical), that was, definitely, something he wanted to be true amidst the rumors that he’d already heard floating around the Helicarrier (mostly carried by Veil, or Molly, or Victor).

But either way, Kitty had definitely done anything but mess up the rest of his day, though telling her as much made her smile, but not really in a way that made him feel like she believed him. He did - or might - still have Quentin though, Nezhno felt obliged to point out, because it could maybe be true, or it might at least stand a chance of raising a genuine smile out of the girl who he’d started to think, somewhere amidst a whiteboard full of math, might actually be able to be called his new friend.

There was always Quentin. At least if the newly pink-haired renamed boy got tired of whatever it was he’d been planning to do with the remnants of Nemesis’ package of restorative goo.

Well, her eyebrows had nearly hit her hairline at that, which wasn’t exactly a real smile, but still felt quite a lot better than the awkward, less than comfortable one she’d been giving him before that. “Oh man, now I feel really bad," she teased, and then there was a smile, and it was just as good as he could have hoped for. “Good luck with that and don't let him try to stuff you into the goo analyzer. Or cover himself in Pym Particles or something.”

Pym Particles? “Oh man,” Nezhno exclaimed, torn neatly halfway between playing on with the obvious exaggeration and wondering whether he actually shouldn’t be a little worried about the New Nate with access to those. “Larger or smaller, that might be terrifying.”

“No worries, though," [Kitty] assured him a lot more seriously, just after, “Not sure what Gloria's thing would be with Sam maybe leading, but if it's an issue then we'll stick with the original plan.” Which was really nice of her, especially since she didn’t seem to have any clue at all why-

-no, alright. There it was. You could see it in the sudden shift in the weather of her expressions. “Wait, she's afraid this one's gonna go out and get himself killed, isn't she?” she asked Nezhno, who couldn’t help but frown a little in a way that she must have interpreted as confusion, because she added quickly, “Gloria, I mean. After what happened to our Sam.”

Afraid that Sum Guthrie would get himself killed? Well, on brief consideration, Nezhno had to admit that that was definitely a part of what had been driving Gloria’s (what was Angel’s term? Rage underwear?) this morning, albeit not a part that had ever been directly put into words. Possibly because it was obvious to anyone who paid any attention at all. There had also been other parts of those rants too, but the Wakandan couldn’t see any benefit for anyone to even think about relating those, so he nodded instead, before pausing.

It wasn’t exactly that. Or it was, but there was a different way of wording it that he felt like might, maybe, capture a little more of the essential Glorianess of the matter. “I think she’s afraid she won’t be able to do anything to stop it. Again,” Nezhno suggested, pursing his lips and drawing his brows down as he tried to find the way to explain it. “Or she’s angry in advance about that possibility. It’s a little hard to tell the difference with Gloria.”

But this time, at least, he thought he might have it close to right.
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Kitty Pryde
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Well, okay, she had to admit that she probably couldn't, or at least shouldn't, blow off the Wyoming mission to stay and play in the lab. Even if it wasn't really playing, they were actually doing something that was important, at least to Veil.

She could even admit she really didn't want to miss the chance to take down a Camp, either. Even if it wasn't the Bronx, it was still a place like the Bronx and they all needed to go. Still, she didn't want to miss all the fun science, either.

At least there wasn't any eyerolling or anything from Nezh (not that she'd have expected that, but she wouldn't have blamed him, either), since Kitty knew she was being a little silly. He just kept smiling at her. Maybe looking a little relieved? “Well, there’s no reason science fun ought not to be here tomorrow,” he pointed out, and that was true enough. It just wouldn't be this science fun, but they could probably manage to find something else to work on, if he was game. “I hope that’s not true about the Camps.”

Looking up at Nezh, the brunette smiled a little in return. "Yeah, me too." That'd be something, wouldn't it? They'd managed to do a lot this week, but that...that'd be a big thing. A huge thing. If she could've taken him with her on this one, she would've, but he couldn't go. T'Challa would kill her, for one thing, and she wouldn't want to risk him getting hurt.

Maybe she hadn't messed up the rest of this day, though, or maybe she had and he was just being Nezh and really nice the way he was always really nice. Either way, the idea of leaving him to get help from Quentin and his apparent obsession with analyzing Nemesis' blue goo? Yeah, she wasn't sure that made her feel a lot better about not hanging around. If the Wakandan boy was gonna get him in to help, she couldn't really do anything but wish him luck and tell him not to let Quentin try to stuff him into the goo analyzer. Or douse himself with Pym Particles or who knew what.

It wasn't like she really knew the pink haired boy with the sort of mohawk - even if he apparently thought she was his aunt or something - but yeah. Call it a hunch, but she wouldn't swear trying to resize himself was out of the question for the other boy.

“Oh man,” Nezhno exclaimed, because that was definitely worthy of an oh man when you really thought about it. “Larger or smaller, that might be terrifying.”

"Especially since he's already a little terrifying all normal sized," Kitty pointed out with a grin, before steering herself, or them, back to the original topic. Or something related to the original topic. Whatever was with Gloria and their borrowed Sam, if the idea of him leading was that big a deal, they'd just stick to the original plan.

Why it would be a big deal for Sam to lead, Kitty wasn't sure, but Gloria reminded her a little of Dani and she'd never had a lot of luck figuring her out, either.

Or, okay, crap. Maybe she could figure this one out, the brunette realized, when she put it together with the fact that Gloria had been part of their Sam's team. And what happened to their Sam. The other girl had been there for that, hadn't she? So, maybe she was afraid this Cannonball was gonna run out and get vaporized, too.

Also possibly that she was going to drag him out to get vaporized, but she didn't say that part. No point going there, especially with somebody that was Nezh's friend. Also because Kitty couldn't have entirely blamed her if that was part of it.

Or maybe it wasn't that at all. Nezhno seemed to be thinking all that over and she didn't really know Gloria at all, so maybe she was completely off base. “I think she’s afraid she won’t be able to do anything to stop it. Again,” Nezhno suggested, pursing his lips and drawing his brows down and Kitty nodded slowly. That...yeah, that was a thing she could understand. Feeling helpless when it came to saving your friends, the people you considered your family. Wanting to do anything you could to keep it from happening. “Or she’s angry in advance about that possibility. It’s a little hard to tell the difference with Gloria.”

Definitely a little like Dani. She kinda tended to sometimes anticipate things to be annoyed about, too. Not saying that, either, though.

"I think she's probably allowed," Kitty said instead, mouth tipping up at one corner a little. "Not being able to save people sucks. Some people get pissed off ahead of time, some run off and tilt at windmills. I guess everybody kinda deals with it their own way." Hopefully the getting pissed off would somehow work better for Gloria than the windmill tilting had for her. Pretty sure it couldn't work out much worse. "I get that, and it's not like having her along is a problem or anything."

She'd just...keep her away from Yana, since something told her those two needed to stay on opposite corners of the team or something.
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Gentle
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Quentin, the New Nate, with Pym Particles.

Well, that was definitely a mental image that had taken a bite out of even the feeling that had come from sharing a smile with Kitty Pryde over the idea of the end of the Camps. Whether the boy with the newly pink-mohawk and powers that could look right into thoughts you’d done your best to keep private would use them to grow or shrink, that could be terrifying, Nezhno had to think.

“Especially since he's already a little terrifying all normal sized," Kitty pointed out with a grin that Nezhno had to make an effort not to automatically return with too much of a smile of his own. Nate had, after all, been someone whom the Maker had taken an interest in, even if he’d never been part of the Dance itself. And he wouldn’t have been the first abrasive, and possibly a little terrifying person that was true for.

Like Gloria, to whom Kitty turned back to next, assuring him that she wouldn’t change their plan even before she seemed to realize (you could see that happen in real time in her expression) where the Cuban member of the Ghost Dance was coming from where it came to the other world’s Cannonball.

Afraid he’d get himself killed all over again. Which was definitely close, but as Nezhno considered it for himself, he felt obliged to add a little qualification to that. If he was right in what he’d taken from Gloria’s ranting here there and everywhere that wasn’t actually directly addressing the topic this morning, it might be more accurate to say that she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to stop another friend dying, all over again.

Though of course it might just be angry in advance about that, rather than anything you could call ‘afraid’ by conventional standards. But that was Gloria, whose entire emotional range often seemed to be composed of varying states of anger.

Kitty Pryde seemed to understand that though, nodding carefully as he tried to explain, then not-quite smiling in a way that said she was too polite to actually smile at his description of the difficulties of telling which emotion Gloria’s anger was supposed to be standing in for at any particular moment.

“I think she's probably allowed," Kitty said instead, mouth tipping up at one corner a little. "Not being able to save people sucks. Some people get pissed off ahead of time, some run off and tilt at windmills. I guess everybody kinda deals with it their own way.”

Tilting at windmills? That… hadn’t exactly sounded like an abstract example. Nezhno glanced back at the slender dark-haired girl, trying to gauge her expression without being too obvious or making her uncomfortable about it. It had definitely sounded as though she might be talking about herself, and something about the look in her eyes made him more convinced of that idea, but she was speaking again already. “I get that, and it's not like having her along is a problem or anything.”

“She does know what she’s doing,” Nezhno agreed, as tactfully as he could, with regard to both Kitty and Gloria herself, which meant leaving out the half of that sentence that could easily have ended as ‘she just tends to act like she can’t be convinced that anyone else knows the same.’

“I don’t think you were tilting at windmills, for what it’s worth,” the Wakandan said instead, after another moment’s silence, thinking over what he remembered about the story that had come from, and what he’d always understood about what Kitty had been trying to do when she and her friends had died (or… disappeared, as it had turned out to be instead) outside the camp. Head tilted to one side, he looked back her way again. “The Bronx was definitely a real monster.” That was perfectly in earnest, though after that, Nezhno did let his own lips tilt upwards a little too. “Tilting at a Panzer tank, maybe.”

Maybe still not exactly a good idea - alright, definitely not any kind of good idea - but at the very least, he didn’t think it had been something that had been important only inside her own imagination.
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Kitty Pryde
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Gloria had lost friends, too. Just like they all had. Some of them, like Sam and Dani, were years ago. Some of them, like her and Nezhno's friends that'd died in the Camp, that loss was a lot newer. They all handled that stuff in their own ways. Good or bad, or sometimes both.

So yeah, as far as she was concerned, Gloria was entitled. The Cuban girl might be a little, erm, intense, but that was okay, too. Losing people sucked and trying to get used to losing them, well, that wasn't a thing she'd ever been able to do. It wasn't a thing anybody should have to get used to.

Gloria maybe handled it by getting angry in advance of a possible loss, and apparently doing what she felt like she needed to to try to make sure it didn't happen again. Kitty, well, she knew she handled it by trying to bury it out of sight while she ran out and tilted at windmills.

Big, awful, Sentinel having windmills.

Nezh looked like he might be trying to figure out what the heck she was talking about, but that was okay. Just like it was okay for Risque to come along. It wasn't like having her along was an issue and she got the reason the older girl felt like she needed to. Even if Gloria did probably figure she was gonna take Sam out and get him blown up by Sentinels.

Maybe especially because of that.

“She does know what she’s doing,” Nezhno agreed and she couldn't help but smile a little at that.

"I get that, too." If she didn't, the Cuban girl probably couldn't get away with being quite so...Dani-like. That was a nice enough way to think of it, right? Dani-like?

“I don’t think you were tilting at windmills, for what it’s worth,” Nezh added, because he really was nice that way. “The Bronx was definitely a real monster.” Yeah, it was. In every way that anything qualified to be a monster. A horrible one that she'd wondered sometimes if anybody would ever be able to really stop. “Tilting at a Panzer tank, maybe.”

That had her grinning up at the tall boy. "Pfft, Panzers are easy. Short out their control systems, or phase their tracks into the ground, or stuff a big hunk of rock into their gun barrels, poof. Useless. Big hunk of abstract lawn art." Sometimes big, explode-y piece of abstract lawn art, but sometimes art was transient that way.

"You guys did good, though," Kitty added more soberly as the grin died down. "In case I haven't said that already. Taking down the Bronx," the brunette clarified, in case he thought she still might mean Panzer tanks. "That was one big, Godzilla sized monster that was way past needing to be gone."

And if she hadn't been able to be part of it, then she was glad that it had been the people on the inside who had been. Who'd been the ones to slay that dragon. As far as she was concerned, that was the most fitting thing of all.
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Gloria did know what she was doing. Nezhno felt like he should probably mention that, and then stop there.

There was definitely a lot more that could be said about Gloria, but none of those things seemed like ones that would be helpful for either the Cuban member of the Ghost Dance, or Kitty Pryde, so perhaps he could stop while he was still within bounds in terms of tact, and while the slender brunette beside him was smiling like she could maybe see some of the rest that he’d left out. “I get that, too.”

That was good. That was definitely good to hear, and Nezhno smiled back briefly, before the moment of quiet that followed brought what Kitty had mentioned about herself back to the front of his mind. Don Quixote? Was that how she saw what she’d tried to do at the Bronx now?

He thought that was what she’d been alluding to, and if he was right about that… well, it didn’t seem fair to herself to call that tilting at windmills. The Bronx hadn’t been some sort of harmless thing she’d imagined into a monster in her head. It had been a real monster, definitely. So if she wanted to use the analogy, it did seem - at least to the Wakandan - like it would be more fair to call it tilting at a Panzer tank.

Which had her grinning broadly, in the way Nezhno was starting to learn to associate with something that had caught her sense of amusement. “Pfft, Panzers are easy. Short out their control systems, or phase their tracks into the ground, or stuff a big hunk of rock into their gun barrels, poof. Useless. Big hunk of abstract lawn art,” she proclaimed confidently, with all the assurance of someone who sounded like they’d probably done at least one, if not all three of those things, possibly multiple times each.

Nezhno lifted an eyebrow all the same though, with a small smile of his own. “Well, if we’re letting your powers into this, I’m pretty sure you could take down a windmill too,” he felt obliged by a certain degree of natural pedantry to point out. “They don’t even move.”

“You guys did good, though," Kitty added more soberly as the grin died down. "In case I haven't said that already. Taking down the Bronx," the brunette clarified, which eased the semi-confused frown that Nezhno had been sliding toward after that first compliment. It still was hard to connect what he remembered from the start of that evening with the fact that had come afterward, that the others had taken that place down from the inside out. “That was one big, Godzilla sized monster that was way past needing to be gone.”

“Long past,” Nezhno agreed quietly, before falling into silence as he tried, yet again, to make all the pieces of that night that he remembered, and the ones he’d learned after, fit together into something that felt like it really had happened. Mel, and Angelo, and the end of Munitions. Julian’s hands, and the way Brian had said the Maker’s friends had torn even the admin buildings down to rubble. The Camp gone. The Bronx Camp gone.

Try as he could to put it together, the pieces didn’t feel like they joined up properly, or lay flat on the surface of his mind. “I wish I’d got to see it. The end of it, I mean,” Nezhno heard his own voice saying, before he’d lifted his eyes back toward Kitty Pryde. From some of what she’d said in Wakanda, he couldn’t help but think she’d maybe understand what he meant as well, if not better, than any of the Dance who’d been conscious for it. “The last thing I remember was trying to get rid of a gas cannister that Gloria had imploded before it exploded back on us,” Nezhno continued, picking his words carefully as he tried to explain what he’d meant a little better. “But then I woke up in Wakanda, and they told me the Camp was all gone.”

And that most of his friends were safe, and still in the US. And later, when they’d let him speak to the Maker and the Dance in Florida, he’d learned the rest of exactly what that had meant, but Angelo and Mel had actually been easier to fit into his mind. Maybe because there was a place there, alongside N’Kono and his siblings, and Indra and Sofia and Barney, that you learned to keep there in case it was needed, and he’d never really made one of those spaces for the idea that the Camp really could be gone.

“And it was good,” Nezhno added then, feeling like that might be belated. It had been good news. It was good news. It was a good thing, that the Camp was gone, and he knew intellectually that it really had happened. “But being told about it wasn’t the same as getting to see that it really is gone,” he finished, still looking to Kitty, before lapsing back into a not quite comfortable silence.
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He was right, the Bronx Camp hadn't really been a windmill, exactly. It wasn't just some imaginary threat, it'd been a very real one. It wasn't exactly a Panzer, either, though. Those, at least, were pretty easy to take out. Short them out, phase the tracks into the ground, stuff something into their gun barrel, they were pretty much done for.

Kitty couldn't help grinning as she listed all that off as Nezh lifted a brow at her, but smiled, too. Yeah, it'd been a long fight, the government had tried throwing all sorts of things at them. Especially early on. Tanks were a lot more fun than Sentinels, too. She kind of missed them.

“Well, if we’re letting your powers into this, I’m pretty sure you could take down a windmill too,” he felt obliged by a certain degree of natural pedantry to point out. “They don’t even move.” Okay, he maybe had a point with that and the slender girl let out an appreciative laugh.

"Yeah, but they have those big, ominous spinning parts," she couldn't stop herself from countering, "They've always looked a little ominous."

Windmills and tanks and monsters aside, though, they'd done good. Nezh, and Forge and Kurt. The Dance, Calvin Rankin, everybody involved in bringing the Bronx down. In case she hadn't gotten around to saying that in the middle of all the other stuff. It seemed to confuse Nezh a little, but she said it all the same. Because that was one, big, horrible monster than had needed to be gone.

“Long past,” Nezhno agreed quietly and she nodded, going quiet for a little bit, too. Way long past. She'd tried, even if she'd failed. Maybe it was a monster that had never been meant to be killed from the outside. It hadn't come without a price - to Nezh, to his friends, to a lot of other people - but nothing worth having ever really did, did it?

“I wish I’d got to see it. The end of it, I mean,” the Wakandan boy said, looking back up at her. Man, there was a feeling she understood way too well and hopefully the small little 'I know exactly what you mean' smile she sent back to him said that. She'd have given almost anything to have been here for that. “The last thing I remember was trying to get rid of a gas canister that Gloria had imploded before it exploded back on us,” Nezhno continued, and it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him how brave, how amazing, that had been. For him to do that, knowing the probably consequences. It'd just embarrass him, though, she was pretty sure. “But then I woke up in Wakanda, and they told me the Camp was all gone.”

Reaching over, she gave one of his hands a light, careful squeeze. "I definitely get that feeling. Or something close to it at least. I felt the same way when I showed back up here and heard it was gone." It'd been amazing news, maybe the best news ever in a lot of ways. But there was still part of her that was a little disappointed she hadn't been here to at least see it, even if she wasn't part of it.

Maybe it was just something hard to fit your head around if you didn't see it with your own eyes.

“And it was good,” Nezhno added then, kinda echoing some of the stuff in her own head. Something she was pretty sure it would be hard for anyone who hadn't been in one've those places to really understand. Not that that was their fault, or that she'd wish that on anybody, but...some things, you really, really couldn't understand completely if you'd never had the experiences behind them. This felt like one've those things. “But being told about it wasn’t the same as getting to see that it really is gone,” he finished, maybe a little awkwardly or self-consciously or...she wasn't sure. Maybe just like he wasn't sure that would make sense or that she'd get it, but she did.

"No it's not," Kitty agreed quietly, falling silent again for a second herself, thinking. Then smiling a little as an idea came to you. "We should, you know," she added, "Go see it, I mean. When things calm down a little." Because now, it seemed like everything was a mile a minute and wandering out into the middle of the city this second, with things ramping up, probably wouldn't be the best idea either. "We should go see it for ourselves. I really kinda want to do that."

Go see the place where it had been, whatever was left of it. See the rubble and know it was gone, once and for all. And she'd like to do that with somebody else who'd really understand why, and who needed or wanted to do that, too.
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Oh man. Mentioning his last memory of the Camp (the one about Gloria, a gas cannister, and Munitions) seemed to have put what Nezhno could only have described as an odd, confusing look on Kitty Pryde’s face. Maybe she was reviewing that in regard to the assurance he’d just made about Gloria knowing what she was doing? In which case, he could only think he definitely shouldn’t have said anything about it at all, because he really was sure the assurance had been true (aside from a few unfortunate oversights where it came to Boyle’s laws).

But it was too late at this point to take it back, and especially when he didn’t know for sure that that was the source of that oddly conflicted look the brunette was wearing, Nezhno decided on the whole it was probably better to just move on and try not to make it worse by dropping his foot into the mud and working it around into a worse quagmire. That had been his last memory of the Camp, and then he’d woken up in Wakanda, and the medics there had told him that it was all gone.

So… yeah. He wished he’d gotten to see more than that of the actual end.

And maybe - alright, almost certainly, from the way she reached over and took his hand gently - he’d been right in guessing that Kitty might have had a similar kind of similar one. “I definitely get that feeling. Or something close to it at least. I felt the same way when I showed back up here and heard it was gone.”[/i]

Nezhno nodded, and focused on carefully returning the light pressure from her squeeze with one of his own. It hurt still, a little, but only a little, and after the last few days, on a relative scale that definitely felt almost equally as good as not hurting at all. Anyway (and in a way that seemed a little more important than paying too much mind to a couple of minor, passing aches), he couldn’t help but think Kitty might have needed a hand squeeze.

However strange it had seemed to him, having blacked out during the breakout, with the confidence that the Maker and his friends would be able to pull off their plan, how much stranger must it be for Kitty, who’d last seen it from the inside of a deadly trap, without any reason to think it might have happened after?

It was good, though. He should definitely put that out there, lest she thought he might be complaining about not having been there. It wasn’t that at all, Nezhno didn’t think, that lay behind why he hadn’t managed to fit it inside his head yet. For Mel, and Angelo, and the others who’d died, he might have wished to have been there longer, if there had been a way to help them. For himself? It wasn’t so much not having been there, as it was a sense that he had nothing tangible in his head to back up the dry intellectual fact they’d told him Wakanda.

Being told about it wasn’t really the same as being there to see it gone.

“No it's not," Kitty agreed quietly, falling silent again for a second herself, thinking. Nezhno was just beginning to wonder if maybe it would be better to let go of her hand now (he didn’t want to, but hers was smaller, and slender, so maybe it would be more awkward for her to try to do it) when she smiled back at him in a way that completely drove that consideration out of his mind entirely. ”We should, you know," she added, "Go see it, I mean. When things calm down a little.” Go back to the Bronx? Nezhno felt his eyes widen, maybe a little hesitantly, but the brown-eyed girl seemed to have got the idea fixed in her head already, and she was pushing on already. “We should go see it for ourselves. I really kinda want to do that.”

Go back to the Bronx. They could go back and see it gone.

“Could we?” Nezhno asked, as the idea slowly fleshed out into something like an actual possibility inside his mind. “Really actually do that?” If there was a time that was calmer than now, of course, like she’d said, but even with that caveat to make it more solid than an ideal idea thrown out to be forgotten, Nezhno found he had to pause for a moment, lower lip caught between his teeth, before he really felt confident that he hadn’t just misunderstood, or imagined that. “I’d really kind of want to do that too,” he finished, with complete sincerity.

And he squeezed her hand briefly again, or at least he’d started to, when a voice inside his head made him freeze in the midst of it. *Wow, you are really not as smart as people make you sound, are you?* it said. Quentin said, and Nezhno very quickly found that he’d already let go of Kitty’s hand. *What did I tell you about looking obvious and desperate with my Uncle’s girlfriend?*

Aware that he must be looking like a half-stricken, half-idiotic nocturnal animal caught by headlights, Nezhno tried to lift his gaze to meet Kitty’s eyes again. “Quentin,” he mouthed, just before the pink-mohawked boy who had been Nate strolled back through the laboratory door. Or maybe sauntered, which was a word Nezhno had learned a years ago in English, but had never suspected could be applied to anyone but Julian.

Nevertheless, Quentin was sauntering, and even Julian might not have been embarrassed to have owned the scornful look that the telepath cast over the two of them, and the equation-cluttered whiteboard that they’d been standing in front of. “Oh look. The two of you went Beautiful Mind all over the wall,” said Quentin, sounding distinctly unimpressed by this. “The 90s called, they want their cliches back.”

Wasn’t… but… and didn’t… Nezhno glanced Kitty’s way, having a feeling she might be better able (not to mention willing) to do more in answer to that than open her mouth ineffectually and shut it again, like he had.

“You want to electrocute Veil, inside her suit,” Quentin continued, scrutinizing the equations with a very minute look, though Nezhno couldn’t quite get rid of a feeling that there was a pressure on his mind again while the other boy seemed occupied with the board. Then the pink-haired boy sniffed, and rolled his eyes dramatically behind his new glasses. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
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Hearing that the Bronx was gone, that was great. Awesome, even. There wasn't any way she, or anybody else, wouldn't think that was good. Even if she hadn't been there for it, or got to be part of it, what really mattered was that it was gone. Dead and gone and never coming back.

Still, hearing about it wasn't the same as seeing it. Nezh got that, obviously. He'd been there, too, and maybe that's what it took to really understand that feeling. The one that said to really put an end to it, really understand that it was gone, they needed to see it gone. Go and look at it, otherwise it wasn't the same.

Maybe that was silly, but the brunette didn't think so. Maybe it was some kind of closure, but she didn't know about that, either. Without seeing it, how did you process it? Know it was real? Convince yourself that it was.

Slipping her hand into Nezh's, really carefully because she didn't want to chance hurting him (and hoped it didn't hurt him, too, when he returned that with a brief, gentle pressure), Kitty decided that they couldn't. They needed to see it. They should. Go out there, when things calmed down a little, and look at what was left. Get to put that picture in their heads and know it was really true. Really gone. Really over.

See it for themselves. She kinda wanted to do that. She kinda wanted to do that a lot. Maybe Nezh did, too. And she'd rather go with somebody else who'd really understand.

His eyes went a little wide, like that idea was a surprise. Maybe it was. He'd been through a lot in just a few days. The ability to just leave when he wanted, go out and see stuff, probably hadn't really sunk in yet. Or, you know, maybe he thought she was nuts for suggesting they go wandering out to look at rubble.

“Could we?” Nezhno asked, like maybe he didn't think she was nuts after all and that idea was one he might consider. “Really actually do that?” Yeah, maybe a little with the not sure about the ability to roam around relatively freely. When freely at all wasn't a thing you'd had an option for in a long time. But then his teeth were tugging at his lower lip a little, in a way she had to smile at just a bit. Though maybe that meant he wasn't so sure after all? “I’d really kind of want to do that too,” he finished sounding like he really meant it.

Already nodding, and feeling...well, she wasn't sure how to describe it, except as good. The idea of having him as company for this, it was really good. "We can so do that," Kitty assured him, "Maybe in a day or two," she added as she tried to decide if she should let go of his hand before she got carried away and accidentally smushed it or something.

Except then Nezh kind of froze in place and she had no idea what that was about? Had she accidentally squeezed him without realizing it? Because he let go of her hand pretty fast and that was definitely not a happy look he had going. More like a 'I have a gun pointed at me' look.

“Quentin,” he mouthed, though, as he met her eyes and uggh, yeah. That cleared that up. Quentin in his head, probably. Why the hell was Quentin in his head? Had he run out of goo to analyze?

Apparently, she decided, as he came strolling in the door about the same time she was thinking that, focusing his attention directly onto the whiteboard. “Oh look. The two of you went Beautiful Mind all over the wall,” said Quentin, sounding distinctly unimpressed by this. “The 90s called, they want their cliches back.”

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head in, well, a way that said they'd just been inflicted with annoying pink haired boy again as Nezh glanced over, Kitty let out a breath. "Yeah, and half the girls in the Resistance want their pink hair back, too, but what can you do?" the brunette shot back, trying not to roll her eyes again. Just because. "I'm just gonna assume you've never seen a whiteboard before and get on with my life."

Seriously, who was this guy, even? Other than someone who thought she was suddenly his aunt?

“You want to electrocute Veil, inside her suit,” Quentin continued, scrutinizing the equations with a very minute look, because the guy who didn't know how Pym Particles and unstable molecules worked was going to even have a clue what he was looking at. All the same, there was sniffing and eyerolling from the pink haired nerd-boy contingent, "Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

"Or, you know, we could just feed it into the computer to finish crunching the numbers, since that's what we were about to do," the brunette couldn't help pointing out. "But I need to leave for Wyoming." Probably like ten minutes ago, but Wyoming wasn't going anywhere she was pretty sure. She threw Nezh another apologetic look, though. Since now not only was she abandoning ship, she was leaving him stuck with Quentin. "Don't you have some goo you were analyzing or something?"

Turning back to Nezh as she forced herself to take a couple of steps toward the door, Kitty added, "I can phase him down to the deck below us if you want. It won't make him go away permanently, but it'll at least take him a couple of minutes to get back."

Okay, so he probably wouldn't want her to, and she probably wouldn't anyway. Maybe.
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They could, apparently, ‘So’ do that, with all the emphasis that Nezhno thought should have been afforded, had Kitty put it in writing, with some italics and a capital letter. In a day or two, that was the qualifier, but that wasn’t going to dim the smile he had for the idea that a wish he hadn’t even wanted to put into words for himself could apparently be realized not only without too much trouble, but with Kitty Pryde.

Quentin’s voice in his head, and then the other boy’s appearance at the door, though? That wasn’t nearly as welcome (however much he might know that the telepath probably was making a very good point where it came to him and Kitty Pryde), but Nezhno did manage to get his brain together in time to mouth an awkward warning word about Quentin before the boy himself strolled through the door and back into the lab.

Of all the labs, in all of this whole Helicarrier, and he’d not only come once into this one, but he was back again, and looking scornfully over the equations they’d left on the whiteboard with an expression and a couple of sentences that Nezhno didn’t need to follow entirely to feel his back get set on edge by.

He… but… and…

“Yeah, and half the girls in the Resistance want their pink hair back, too, but what can you do?” Kitty shot back, not nearly as tongue-tied as he could feel himself getting, even rolling her eyes like it had all slid right off her back. “I’m just gonna assume you've never seen a whiteboard before and get on with my life.”

That seemed like good advice to live by, Nezhno decided, though Quentin did seem to be making a quite impressive attempt to look like he hadn’t heard her say it. He was looking at the whiteboard again, then commenting on their plans in a knowing tone that in some ways Nezhno did kind of wish he believed had come from looking at the math, and not from the pressure he might not really have felt against his mind. A ‘good idea’, Quentin called it, making it extremely obvious he thought it was anything but.

“Or, you know, we could just feed it into the computer to finish crunching the numbers, since that's what we were about to do," the brunette couldn't help pointing out, giving Nezhno a moment of insight into part of why Kitty Pryde might have done some of the things he’d heard about her. Backing down from even a pointlessly stupid challenge wasn’t exactly on her list of things to do, was it? Or maybe it was, given that she was sending him another (very undeservedly) apologetic look, “But I need to leave for Wyoming.”

“I’ve got it,” Nezhno assured her, gesturing without concern in the general direction of the computer. Seeing that (very minor) step done was going to be very simple.

“Don’t you have some goo you were analyzing or something?”

Watching the other boy quite carefully, as he was, Nezhno was just about ready to swear he saw Quentin hesitate, maybe even look uncertain for a moment. Only a very quick moment though, and then the mohawked telepath said, “Pfah,” or moved his mouth in some way that made some other sort of displeased noise before he continued. “There was nothing interesting in it. Probably gatorade and jello.”

He looked challengingly in Nezhno’s direction, as though daring him to dispute that analysis with some comment about the fact that his ‘gatorade and jello’ mixture had worked far better than anything the Wakandan healing team had found so far. The tattooed boy didn’t rise to the bait though, keeping his expression still as he looked away, watching Kitty as she stepped (was he imagining that it was reluctantly?) toward the door, then turned back to meet his eyes.

“I can phase him down to the deck below us if you want. It won't make him go away permanently, but it'll at least take him a couple of minutes to get back.”

In spite of himself, and the effect he had a decent suspicion that doing so would have on Quentin, Nezhno smiled warmly back at her. “It’s okay,” he said, because it was. However determined to out-Julian Julian Quentin might be, he…

“I can kill you both with my brain,” the pink-haired boy in question declared, forcefully enough that Nezhno started, and turned to look at him with a frown. Was that his idea of some kind of (really unpleasant) joke? “I can,” Quentin insisted pettishly. A little like Molly might have when she got frustrated with the fact that no one could really believe half the things she said, except on a boy, his own age, and not that far off his height, it was a whole lot more irritating than on a twelve-year old girl. Especially if that boy was a former Hound.

Except just a second or so after, Quentin gave up whatever look he’d been trying to give them, and put one hand to his temple with an aggrieved expression. “God, could you both at least try to keep your thoughts to yourself?” he demanded.

Not seeing any real way of being able to answer that to the satisfaction of a telepath who he kind of suspected had been skimming through said thoughts at will since he’d first shown up here, Nezhno gave the a tight-lipped, and only semi-apologetic look in answer, before turning his attention back to the person it wanted to be on. “I’ll see you later, Kitty?” he suggested, before smiling quietly, and just for her, as he nodded toward the white board, and the scraps of unstable molecule fabric they’d left on the bench during the depths of equations. “This is going to work,” he told her seriously, with far more certainty than he’d been feeling about that prospect before she arrived again this morning.

She’d definitely made sure of that, and he didn’t think that was the obsession Quentin had accused him of (maybe with some point) talking. With her help, this was going to work for Veil.
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Kitty Pryde
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Unphased
Freedom Fighters - Admin
Yeah, they'd go with that. Never seen a whiteboard before. It seemed completely possible, since he didn't seem to know anything about the stuff they were working with here. So, moving on and Quentin could pretend he was deaf all he wanted.

Or not, since there were more comments from the inaugural entrant in the 'let's give the Resistance guys pink hair, too' category (Also, seriously, what was with all the pink?? Somebody needed to let her in on whatever was going on with that, because she'd missed the two years where that apparently became a thing). Right, sure, electrocute Veil. That was definitely what they were going for.

Except not, since they still had to have the computer crunch the numbers and adjust for them. Which Quentin Quire her randomly acquired pseudo-nephew slash new pain in her butt apparently hadn't thought about. And which they were just about to do except...sigh. She really did need to leave for Wyoming. Which she still felt bad about, since it felt a lot like bailing on Nezh. And leaving him with, well, Quentin.

Nezh, being the really, really nice guy that he was, though, just assured her, “I’ve got it,” gestured toward the computer and seemed to really mean it. She didn't think he'd say it if he didn't. Or, well, maybe he would, because he wanted to be polite, but she didn't think that's what he was doing.

And, wait, didn't Quentin have goo to be analyzing or something?

“Pfah,” was Quentin's brilliant response, which weirdly reminded her of Lockheed, and that was just so many kinds of wrong. “There was nothing interesting in it. Probably gatorade and jello.” Err...yeah, okay. Sure.

The brunette gave him a dubious look, one brow inching up as he looked like he was daring Nezh to say something to the contrary. Well, she'd just say it then. "Be sure and tell Nemesis that when you see him again. He'll get a laugh out of it."

Quentin wouldn't, but she was sure Doctor Nemesis would. Also, if Nezh wanted, she could phase Quentin down through the floor to the next deck before she left. He'd come back, of course, but it'd at least take a few minutes. Give Nezh time to arm himself or whatever.

“It’s okay,” Nezh assured her with another smile as she smiled right back. And sighed inwardly again. He really was too nice for his own good. Also cute, but yeah. Not going there. Especially with the world's weirdest telepath right over there.

“I can kill you both with my brain,” the pink-haired boy in question declared, forcefully enough that Nezhno started, and turned to look at him with a frown. Kitty settled for just staring at him. “I can,” Quentin insisted pettishly, because that was just an awesome thing for a former Hound to be running around telling people, wasn't it?

"I can kill you with a lot more parts of me than that," she muttered, giving him a brief, narrow-eyed look before looking back over at Nezh and shaking her head. The hell?

“God, could you both at least try to keep your thoughts to yourself?” he demanded, looking at them like they were purposely thinking at him on purpose and rubbing his temple. There went her eyes, rolling around in her head again.

"Shields. Figure out how to get some. Seriously," she told him, "then stay out of other people's heads." That being the only advice she was going to bother with, she turned back to Nezh as actually looked kind of apologetic at the kid who was threatening to kill them with his brain powers that he couldn't control.

“I’ll see you later, Kitty?” the Wakandan boy turned back to her with a smile again. He did have a really great smile. It was one that wasn't any trouble at all to return before he looked toward the whiteboard, then their piece of experiment fabric in the vise and added, “This is going to work,” he told her seriously, making it even easier to believe. Even if, yeah. That was her cue to go, wasn't it?

"It absolutely is," she agreed with a parting smile. It was hard to disagree when he sounded that sure, and she didn't want to because she was sure, too. No matter what Mr. I Can Kill You With My Brain over there thought. "I'll see you when I get back. Wish me luck," Kitty told him, turning for the door with a little parting wave and then making herself go out and down the hall.

Okay, time to see what they could do about this Camp in Wyoming.

[cont'd for Kitty in Wyoming and Nezh at the Strip Club Party, I believe]
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