(no subject)

Entry tags:

elle,
x-23

(no subject)

The world is a very strange place.

Some things even the Marvel universe does not prepare a person for.

Eating dinner and strategizing with a friend is not the time one expects to look up and see their own face across the way.

X certainly didn't.

It is her own face, but -- different. Because the person behind it isn't her.

"Elle? That is you."

If it is not Elle -- where did Elle go?

And why is everything so flat, muffled, and quiet? Her breathing rate speeds up as she looks for sensory inputs that are no longer there.

[ooc: Two pups, two muns, yay bodyswap?]

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"It's me."

She says it quietly at first, delayed like she didn't quite hear X. Though the problem is more one of hearing too much.

Elle leans back in the booth, away from her own face. "It's me," she says, louder this time, the voice even more clearly not hers.

"I am X," X confirms, pulling her knees up against her chest and leaning back into her own seat.

"You are okay? In there. Me. It -- "

Where are the right words?

Why can't she breathe right?

"It is different. I cannot tell -- "

Anything. Nothing. Who is here today, where are they standing, what are they talking about -- it's all gone.

"It's really loud."

She's still speaking loudly now, as though over a crowd. Elle winces as X pulls her knees up, and her eyes snap from X, to the crowd in the bar, and then down to her hands in quick succession.

After a lingering look at her hands, however, she lowers them, palm down, over the edge of the table.

snikt

She takes a sharp breath, but manages not to flinch.

"I am sorry," X says, quickly, not masking her own flinch as the claws come out.

"It hurts. I know."

Her breath is coming even faster now, and it hurts, too.

"I cannot hear you. Your heart."

It's -- is this what being afraid feels like?

A trickle of blood drips down her knuckles. Elle watches it, careful not to move her hands now.

"Your heart's beating fast."

Her voice is still loud, but she doesn't sound afraid.

"My heart's beating fast," she corrects.

"Yes."

X can feel it from the inside.

It is -- strange.

"I do not know why."

"It's because you're scared."

Elle looks up from her hands, back to X. She says again, a little quieter, as though checking whether she'll still hear it. "It's because you're scared."

"Oh."

X blinks, then very slowly lowers her legs down, away from her chest and then back to the floor.

"It is very distracting."

Another, fainter pause, and she looks over at Elle behind her own face.

"It is very quiet. Now. In here. I do not like it. You are -- okay?"

If Elle is, maybe X can be, too.

The claws retract again. Elle lifts her hands, watching the skin weave together again.

Her own heart is beating faster, but it's not out of fear.

Before she can answer, she looks up again, across the barroom.

"X..."

X's gaze follows Elle's, and she tilts her head a little, studying the sign.

"Oh."

Blankly.

"It is a spell."

Is her heartbeat slowing? Can she breathe more easily?

Maybe a little. It is hard to tell just now.

"It'll go away."

She looks back to X. "I'm sorry."

X looks back at her, and maybe it should be strange to see her own face there, and upsetting, but -- it is Elle behind it, so.

That is less terrible.

"I did not know I would not be okay. If I was not -- "

Well.

" -- me."

"You don't like my body."

She has a very un-X-like smile for a moment, but it fades quickly, and she stands up to move to X's side of the table. "No, I'm sorry -"

"It is better when you are in it."

X is just saying.

She might also lean over to rest some of her weight against Elle, reaching up to grab her hand.

"You know what you can do."

In case there is trouble.

"You know what I can do."

She takes X's hand with her free one, moving it down slightly, so that her fingers touch her wrist, pressed against her pulse. Even if X can't hear it anymore.

"It'll go away. It'll be fine."

Oh.

Oh, that is much better. Elle is alive. She can feel it.

It is not the same as hearing, but it is still good.

"I know," X says, after a long moment. "I will be careful."

That is the other worry. X's instincts are not concerned with bodily harm, and -- this is Elle.

"It is still too loud? For you."

She shrugs one shoulder. "It's okay.

"It's hard to know what to - pay attention to first."

More senses than she's used to prioritizing.

"You can listen to your own breathing. Or mine. It -- sometimes I do that. When it is a lot."

It is difficult to remember what it was like just after her powers activated. Or were activated for her, that is.

"It's - not bad."

Just different. Right at this moment, being overwhelmed isn't something Elle minds so much.

"Okay," X says eventually, fingers still resting on Elle's pulse.

"I worry."

"I know."

She does. It's one of the many things she knows more than she thinks she necessarily needs to right now. But loud or not, she stays where she is.

Eventually, X's grip relaxes, and she lets go.

"Okay."

It is going to be fine.

Right?

"Outside might be better. There are fewer people."

And no Loompas in the walls.

Edited 2015-11-11 15:03 (UTC)

"It'll be quieter for you."

She didn't want to be the one to suggest it.

X bites her lip, considering.

Then --

"I will be able to see people coming. Out there. More than in here."

If she can't smell and hear them, it's something, at least.

"Okay."

Beat.

"We can go when you want to."

"Now is acceptable," X offers.

Carefully.

In the absence of scent it's -- hard to tell how other people feel. Is Elle really okay? Is she pretending for X?

Nothing.

"If it is okay for you. Too."

"Okay."

Elle slides on the bench, away from X, but she does it slowly, making sure X follows her.

"Okay," X echoes, and slides out of the booth after Elle.

She stays a little closer than usual.

(Okay, maybe a lot closer. Just for a little while longer.)

Elle walks slowly, so as not to move beyond X's reach.

It's louder, as they're walking. But she's starting to recognize quiet patches in what she sees, and what she feels, and uses them to navigate their way toward the back door.

X appreciates it. Or she will, later. Right now she's almost like a tourist in a big city, eyes wider than usual and trying to take in everything. It's -- different, navigating the world by sight.

And it takes her a little longer to react to things. Like people moving toward her. Air currents are -- harder to read, when you are not a mutant with superhuman senses.

"I do not know if white noise will help," she says, once they are outside. "But the inlet is quiet. And stones block people's view."

Edited 2015-11-12 17:38 (UTC)

"Let's go near the lake."

The forest is louder. A tangle of bird song and rustling sulfur, all more information than she feels she needs.

"Okay," X says, almost immediately upon Elle speaking.

"Good."

X keeps moving a little in front of Elle, then stopping and letting her take the lead again. But once at the inlet she drops down to sit in the sand, because it is warm.

And picking it up and letting it dribble out gives her something to do with her hands.

Elle stays standing.

She's looking out onto the lake. It's almost an aside when she tells X, "Don't go near the water, okay?"

There's a moment where X looks extremely puzzled --- well, for X. Even with Elle's face, all that happens is a slight furrow between her brows that clears after a few seconds.

"Oh."

Because of electricity.

"I will not."

A pause.

"You can. If you want to."

"Yeah. I know."

Elle does look down at her now.

"Do you mind?"

"No."

X's response is immediate.

"And people are used to seeing me swim. Here."

Elle will not have to worry about doing anything out of character. If that is a concern.

Elle looks back down at herself, hesitating.

Everything she knows about swimming is - well, nothing. She knows really nothing about swimming.

As a first guess, she leans down, and starts to take off X's shoes.

"The tank top is acceptable. The pants will be too heavy."

In case Elle wondered.

"Wading is okay, too."

She glances back at X, visibly uncertain.

But eventually, her hesitation gives way, and she finishes taking off X's shoes, and slips out of her jeans. Elle leaves both in a slightly crumpled pile on the sand, and steps out, closer to the water.

"- it's freaking freezing."

"You will adjust. Quickly."

Well, X's body will, anyway.

"It will not hurt you. Hypothermia happens to other people."

After a few seconds, her shoulders relax, and her breathing steadies.

Slowly, she steps farther out. With each step, she waits for her skin to adjust again, and the continues, until the water is up to her knees.

Edited 2015-11-15 17:50 (UTC)

"People tell me splashing is fun," X offers, once Elle has stopped walking.

"I do not understand."

Maybe Elle will!

Elle takes another step, so that the depth of the water starts to edge toward her thighs.

She hesitates again, and now tries X's suggestions, albeit cautiously. She leans down, and runs her fingers quickly over the surface of the lake, feeling the pressure against them, watching the ripples and the small spray of water that followed them.

She does get another, rather un-X-ish smile.

X does not smile, but she does relax, settling more of her weight into the sand and moving to cross her legs.

It's not exactly like meditation, but it's a pose she can hold for hours without needing to rely on her healing factor to let her get up. It seems like the safest way to sit in Elle's body.

"I like the water."

She dips her hand down into the water and then brings it up, fast, creating a large splash that falls back over her.

The weird noise she makes is something between a shriek and a burst of laughter.

X toes off her boots and digs her toes into the sand.

It's -- nice.

She's watching Elle become acquainted with the water, and that is nice, too.

Maybe the fun in splashing is starting to make a little bit of sense.

Edited 2015-11-20 01:22 (UTC)

Elle keeps wading in, only stopping when the water reaches her waist.

She waits for a moment, then turns back, calling across to the shore -

"I'm sorry."

Beat.

"You can't come in, too."

X can do this any day; she's more disappointed that it has to be either/or.

"It is better to be careful," X responds, pitching her voice to be heard, then pitching it a little bit softer so as not seem like she is screaming. To Elle. In her body.

Anyway.

"I know."

Beat.

"Watching is good, too. This time."

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