kore_logs | liar liar pants on fire

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liar liar pants on fire

Who: Charlie and Logan
What: Charlie has a nightmare and is finally caught lying about her name
Where: House 10
When: forward dated to very, very late day 40
Warnings: Swearing. Possible mentions of her parents murder.

The hallucinogens weren't done with Charlie, apparently. Seeing Rainbird and Hollister and thinking she was in her room at the Shop once or twice was enough to jog things loose that she didn't want loose. Memories she wanted to ignore, even if she knew that wasn't healthy at all.

It never worked and Charlie knew it wouldn't work for long. She just wasn't expecting a nightmare so soon.

She wouldn't be able to explain what her nightmare was about. It just seemed like a cluster of everything that had happened, made worse and exacerbated by being trapped once again. Images were more grotesque, sounds were louder and emotions were running higher than they usually did in her dreams and at one point, Charlie'd woken up with a faint yell.

It took her a few minutes to remember where she was and while it didn't help entirely, she calmed some. And she refused to let herself go back to sleep so, after pulling on her clothes again, she went to sit in her living room for a bit.

It's likely she'll just sit here until morning before wandering out of the house because going back to sleep is just not an option.

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Logan was up, hadn't slept in days. He knew it was bad for him, it slowed down his healing, which could be troublesome, but ever since he'd seen Laura out of the corner of his eye a few days ago he'd started searching again. He'd tried to sleep, even crawled into bed and tried to get comfortable, but he couldn't. He just kept thinking of places he hadn't looked, things he needed to check.

When he heard the faint scream, he'd been behind his adopted house, sniffing around close to the woods. It hadn't sounded like Laura, but it piqued his attention. He jogged back around the side of the house, turning his focus in the direction he was fairly sure the yell had come from. Bobbi's house. That made him break into a sprint. He'd practically promised to keep her safe and now she was... well, he wasn't sure, but possibly in trouble.

He quickly made his way to the front door, giving it a curt knock and telling himself to at least wait half a minute to see if she'd answer before barging in through a window and assuming the worst.

"Bobbi. It's me, Logan. Y'know, the one staying in the house across the street. We've talked once or twice. You alright?"

She jumped at the knock on the door, head turned to look towards the sound. Who would be coming over at this late hour? Shit. Did someone hear her? Oh, fuck everything. Charlie stood, walking cautiously towards the door. For a brief moment, she wondered if it was one of her captors but that thought vanished entirely when she heard Logan.

That was almost a relief. She actually liked Logan and even trusted him some.

"Hang on. One second." The door opened a moment later and Charlie looked at Logan, a bit surprised by the concern.

"Yeah...I'm..." Lying. "Fine. I'm alright. Is everything okay?"

Logan felt himself immediately relax when he heard Bobbi answer. At least she wasn't being attacked.

He tried to offer up a forced smile when the door opened, squinting at the light filtering out. Searching for Laura, his eyes had long ago adjusted to the darkness of the woods.

"Everything's fine. Just heard a scream... a yell really. I thought for a second..." He paused and shook his head as if clearing the clutter in his mind. "Anyway. It came from here... yer house. At least, I thought it did. An' I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Oh. That's actually new. She looked surprised when he told her why he was here, eyes widening briefly before she mentally shook that off. He did say he'd look out for her, she just wasn't expecting him to actually follow through. People usually don't.

"Yeah, uh...that was me." And this was suddenly very awkward. "I think I was still tripping out on whatever the fuck was going on around here. Had a nightmare. It's..nothing, really."

That'd be another lie. It's actually something. A big something. She's gonna attempt to change the subject, now.

"How'd you hear me? I didn't scream that loudly, did I?"

"Seems t'be goin' around. I can't sleep either. Bad dreams," He admitted, and if he noticed her anxiousness about the slightly awkward situation, he didn't show it.

When she calls him out on being able to hear her, he gives her a bit of a sheepish smile, looking reluctant at first. He wasn't ashamed at all of his powers, but he also didn't want to frighten her away or alienate her with what he could do. In the end he decided one of them should at least be truthful, since he could hear the variations in her pulse as she lied. She was good at it, but not good enough to fool his senses.

"Well, I've got a few abilities that come in handy. Some heightened senses would be one of those," He explained. "I'm sure you weren't that loud, but everything else is so calm and quiet, it was easy to hear."

"You have abilities, too?" Oh, oops. That was spoken a little too quickly, wasn't it? She calmed herself some, trying to not look too excited. But, she really couldn't help the twitch of a smile that appeared at the news.

"That sounds useful. Heightened senses, and all," Charlie said. She stepped back from the doorway, gesturing for Logan to come inside.

"I feel stupid having a conversation in the doorway," she explained with a sheepish smirk. "Hey, I can't remember clearly. I blame the last couple of days. We've never met in person before, have we? Just over the things on our wrists?"

Logan immediately tilted his head to the side, giving her an inquisitive look. An interesting choice of words for sure. He couldn't help return her slight smile with a warm one of his own. He knew that look, he'd seen it on a multitude of young mutants' faces every time they found out their were people like them around to help if they needed it.

"Very handy," He agreed and stepped inside, getting the door behind him. "Wasn't sure if I was welcome, didn't wanna invite myself in y'know."

He glanced around, her house looked just like his. No surprise there. "Nah, just over the communicators. Um. I'm Logan," He offered despite the fact that she knew his name, and offered her a hand to shake.

It was a pretty nondescript, boring house. It was just her and with the way she kept things, it probably didn't look like anyone lived there. There was a reason for it, even if people would just think she was neat an organized.

"Well, you did think I was in danger. Inviting yourself in is kind of a given in that situation, isn't it?" She extends her hand, grinning a bit more.

"Still Bobbi." Lying again. "It's nice to meet you in person."

At least she means the last part.

Logan's house had had the same non-lived in appearance, in fact he'd had two or three of the other residents 'break in' to gather extra supplies, thinking the place was empty. Now, however, Jubilee had moved in with him and the place looked significantly more... 'lived in', which mostly meant chaotic.

"I'da only invited myself in if you hadn't answered. Don't want anyone else disappearing around here, not if it can be helped," He explained, giving her hand a light shake.

He started to nod when she restated her name, but ended up once again cocking his head to the side in curiosity. "Nickname?"

He was being so nice. This was unfair. She didn't have that same feeling of 'run get the fuck out' that some people usually gave off. She didn't know if this meant he was safe or not, but it was enough to make her feel a bit guilty.

"No. Uh...assumed name. False identity. My middle name is Roberta. It's...there are reasons for using a different name that I don't...want to get into right now."

That was as much as she could do at the moment. One small step at a time. "It's Charlene, actually. I prefer Charlie."

Logan nodded, trying to stifle the little half smile that kept creeping in. He wouldn't have pushed much more about her lying about her name, it just wasn't that important, but it was nice that she'd decided to tell the truth.

"Back home we all kinda assume these nicknames. I dunno who started it, but I've only met a handful of mutants who didn't have, or go by, some kinda code name. It can be a lot safer that way," He said in agreement. They were a lot more alike than Charlie probably knew.

"Charlie. I like it better. Can I call you that, or do you wanna stick with Bobbi?"

"...call me Charlie? I haven't heard it in a while." That might possibly be a telling statement, right there. She's used so many names to hide behind, it was sort of ridiculous. But that was her life. Full of so much bull, that the only thing she had left to do was add to it.

"You said there were others like you back home? What can they do?" Because there's no one like her back home anywhere. At all.

Logan nods and casually makes his way to one of the couches, half sitting, half leaning on the armrest.

"Yea, humans have started evolving. A gene gets mutated, resulting in powers basically. All kindsa things telepathy, control of ice, fire, weather, metal; we got shapeshifters, people that can heal other folks. You name it..." He said, crossing his arms.

"So back home, why do you use a fake name? On the run?" He asked, his curiosity piqued at this point.

"There's nothing like that back home. No one but me." Charlie stays in the doorway of the living room, arms crossed over her chest. Her shoulder leans on the doorframe but other than that, she looks relatively at ease.

"Unfortunately, this makes me a person of interest to some people I'd rather leave me alone. So, yeah. On the run." She holds her hand out, palm up and fingers curled into a small fist. It's a moment of concentration before something glows in her hand and her fingers extend to reveal a small flame. It's not harming Charlie and vanishes a second later, just before her arms cross again.

And then she shrugs, as if it's no big deal. "There's that. I also know when they're coming somehow. And I used to be able to read my dads thoughts. I can also move stuff, but it's easier to do when I've set it on fire. I'm not sure why. Probably because I'm already moving the molecules of an object fast enough to get it burning that moving the entire thing is just the next step."

As reluctant as she is to even mention her abilities, she doesn't see much harm in telling about them once she gets started.

"No. Seems my universe, dimension, whatever it is, is one of the only places with mutants or anything like 'em."

Logan went quiet and watched, trying to digest the show and tell of Charlie's powers.

"Huh... y'know, I wondered about that. When you came to the door, you smell like, well, like fire. The smell after you light a lighter. I figured you probably just liked fire a bit too much, but yer really talented," He said honestly with a soft lopsided smile.

"I guess, since you were so honest I should return the favor," He pointed out, balling his hands into fists and popping his claws out with a metallic snikt. "An' I can heal from just about anything you can throw at me."

"Oh, I like fire. It's been quite useful." And caused quite a world of trouble for her. "It's just not something I use very often. Not here, even if I don't think that's why I'm here. I'm just reluctant to tell or show anyone unless I have to."

And she startles at the claws, stepping back some before just...staring. "Holy shit. I'd hope you could heal after something like that. Holy Christ."

That is definitely new.

He blinked, but had to remind himself that she was the only one where she came from with any type of strange powers. He'd been expect a reaction like that from a normal human, but not a fellow mutant, but really she was neither of those things so he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Sorry, darlin', shoulda warned you before popping them out like that," He apologized and slid the blades slowly back into his hands.

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