kore_logs | These dreams are made of the years....

Entry tags:

{ jubilee

These dreams are made of the years....

Who: Jubes + everyone
Where: ~~Willy Wonka’s creepy tunnel~~Her brain
When: Days 83-88
Warnings: Religious imagery, violence, swearing, emotional abuse/torture

1. Jubilee sits in a corner with her hands held captive in front of her in a metal device. The metal device on her head creates a strain on her shoulders, but she refuses to bow her head. Around her, there’s imagery on monitors, the other X-Men, Gen-X, even Excalibur. Times of laughing and light, of people being human despite their appearances.

A man, tall and broad shouldered, blocks out the imagery. All of the monitors shut down except for one:

On it, the X-Men – Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Cannonball, Wolverine – are on hoversleds, being brought into large bay doors. None of them are moving. Wolverine, despite being in heavy cuffs, has moved his hands to touch Phoenix’s. He’s not breathing at all.

“Now, they are mine. Put them in cells, and burn the beast.”

Jubilee flinches, unable to contain it. She’s been here so long, seen so much… she cannot bear the death of her family too.

2. Jubilee struggles against the bonds holding her down. She tries to wiggle an arm loose to get into her coat. If she can just reach a pocket….

The walls around her are sheet metal grey. There aren’t any guards, but there’s a small camera in the corner. Her fingers don’t spark, but the metal collar around her neck tightens, cutting off her air. A small LED flashes red for a few moments until she stops struggling.

Panting, Jubilee starts wiggling again.

“Jubecita?”

“Ange?” Tears prick her eyes. She can hear her best friend. The one that got caught with her in Denver, the one that… She starts working her wrists again, trying to get free. The metal cuffs are over gloves, and if she can just get out of them, she can get free. “Ange, we’re gonna –“

Then, the screaming starts. She can hear the high pitched, unable to be contained scream of a man in pain.

“ANGELO!” Jubilee screeches his name, trying to get free even faster. She has to get to him.

A blank door opens and she ignores it, still trying to get free. Two men walk in, carrying utility belts. Jubilee swallows. They kneel on a wrist each and she can feel the bones grind together. That pain is nothing when she hears the solid thwack of metal on metal and the spikes penetrate her hands.

Jubilee tries to bow up from where she’s secured to, but she can’t. Then comes another blow and another….

3. There are bubble butterflies, and clouds and gumdrops floating in the air. A fluffy pink rabbit explodes into a rainbow and sparkles. Tiny monkeys flap their way lazily through a purple and blue sky filled with green clouds.

Jubilee is on the ground, tossing a sparkling yellow sun between her fingers, it pops and another grows out of her fingers to be batted between her and dark blue monkey hanging upside down from a chocolate tree. His spaded tail bats it back while a cat walks through the tree, then back again. A bright red bird trails fire through the clouds, making interesting shapes. A toad with a giant eye on top of it’s head croaks on a lily pad made of water.

Jubilee moves her head and puts it on the badger that settles behind her with a sigh.

4. Jubilee is walking through the X-Mansion. She’s not wearing anything, and is eating a burrito, reading a book. Everyone else? Is also naked. No one seems worried about that fact.

Wolverine’s clothing is slashed and he’s smoking a cigar. Nightcrawler is hanging from the chandelier in the dining room sharpening one of his swords. Shadowcat is naked, but buried in wires of a computer. Cyclops is playing Risk wearing only his glasses, across the table from Husk, who appears to be made out of metal. Rogue is sitting on the couch wearing only her gloves, her feet propped on the coffee table next to Remy’s.

Typical day at the X-Mansion.

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She remembers this. The pain, the utter agony of having nails pounded into her hands and then her feet. She remembers the drag of her coat against the wood.

Standing there, watching it again, Jubilee listens to the last of the whimpers die from the others. She hears herself screaming for Angelo, for Logan, for Emma, for anyone to get them out.

She stops next to the dark man in the shadows.

"He died." Jubilee offers. "Angelo. He died."

"I saw." It's quiet, somber, but not horrified. The voice of someone who has seen enough pain and death to be numb from it.

"He was your friend? Or family?" It's gentle. Understanding.

She understands that tone. Her own carries the same numbness, if not the weight.

"Yes, he was." Both. They were Generation X, friends and comrades and teammates and family. She'd loved him. Loved him the way she loved all of them.

She turns and they're standing on the lawn of the X-Mansion. No X-Men around, just the marching of the crosses and their mutant burdens. "They all are."

Normally, Raphael wouldn't intervene. But this is profane and insults him. "I can fix this." At least in this dream. And he was willing to, but he wanted to know what happened.

"No. You can't." Jubilee ghosts between the crosses, looking up at the faces that aren't there. She doesn't know where everyone was. But Angelo's face is in stark relief, his skin sagging and his fingers long. Not far from him, her own body hangs, her yellow coat in tatters.

"It's done. Over. And I've time traveled enough to know that it shouldn't be dicked with." Jubilee stands in front of her own cross looking up at herself, knowing that Bobby is the one that finds her... eventually.

Raphael stays close, wanting to reach out and fix it as he passes them. "It's different if my brothers or I do it. This is a dream. I could change it to something else."

He was uncomfortable with the dream, but it was more about the girl - no one should have to carry this.

"This isn't a dream." Jubilee wanders past the crucifixes to look at the mansion in the distance. The sun is just rising in the east. "This is a memory. The only scars I carry are from this."

Birds begin to chitter and then go still. There are people coming up the hill, racing toward the forest of profane trees. "You can't hide from your past. It always comes back to haunt you."

She stops, watching the swift efficiency of the soldiers removing them from their crosses. She watches Logan race for her, Bobby holding up her face. "It's better to face it, than to let it fester. But the offer's appreciated."

"Dreams, memories, it doesn't make much difference in this case." His body doesn't move, his eyes stay focused on her, but his head turns towards the sound, head cocking slightly. He's listening to what's happening, including things Jubilee isn't even aware of, the benefit of being able to look at her memories as well.

"Being given a break from a painful memory isn't hiding."

The scene is ordered chaos. Everyone is slowly removing everyone from their crosses. Jean uses her telekinesis to carry bodies toward the medical bay. Everyone performs a slight bit of triage, trying to see if anyone's alive.

Logan can tell some of them are, but his focus is on Jubilee.

"I... it isn't painful. Not really."

They're suddenly in the medical bay surrounded by equipment that humans shouldn't have. Warren lies in the middle, tubes running from him. The injured and dying lay on tables. Everyone is talking over everyone else.

"This isn't the painful part. I lost Ange. that hurts. It hurts so much I can't breathe. But what is painful... is that they took my home. They defiled it and made the kids that thought this a safe place scared. They took this refuge and destroyed it." That's what hurts.

He's used to this kind of scene, both the dream and the medical scene, and where this real, he'd be reaching out, drifting between them, to ease pain, speed healing, and reduce the trauma. As much as it was possible to, anyway.

"And for that, I am deeply sorry. No one should have done that."

"Shouldn't have, but they did. They even believed they had the right." Jubilee leans back against a wall, watching what is happening. "God doesn't like evolution after all." A little bitter? Yes, she is.

Her fingers curl into fists, staring at where Logan is standing over her body.

"I know there's no leaving the life, but just once I'd like to see a mutant graduate high school without having to fight for their lives." It's a wish she's muttered time and time again.

"On the contrary, He's quite fond of evolution. He's equally fond saying it's not His problem, unfortunately." He's quite bitter.

"That would be good for all of you. It's not just the children who need to be protected - those caring for them need a break."

She snorts and just watches. Her body wakes up and then... Logan's gone. She's left alone with Angelo's body. She watches the scene, knowing what happened.

"Some of us thrive on the breakneck speed. I mean, I got kicked out because things were too boring for me." She shrugs. "I just want the kids to have it easy. No reason for them to bury family, or themselves before they learn to drive."

"Everyone needs a break now and then. You might not feel it now, but eventually, you will need it." He knew. Even the angels in constant motion need stillness once and a while.

"That would be preferable, yes."

"God, you sound like Scott. I take my breaks. I go clubbing, or I go shopping. Sometimes, I bury myself in classical music and tumbling runs. Others I lay in the sun naked, soaking up the rays." She shakes her head. "Just because I don't walk away, don't do something that looks relaxing to everyone else doesn't mean that I don't take care of myself."

Jubilee closes her eyes, watching Paige come in and see their best friend's body.

"So long as it's a break, I don't much care what kind of break it is." There were some things he would object to, but overall, her idea of 'break' didn't seem much a concern. However he well knew how trauma stacked up and he doubted that she really could see it in herself.

"It is a break. Just... different from what most people think of." She turns away from herself crying over Angelo's body. She can't. She just can't any more.

Her fingers shimmer against the walls as they walk along the corridors. She stops and looks at the closed doors in the hallway, turning away from them. She knows where she is, and has no desire to explore down that corridor.

"Anything else you'd like to see?" Jubilee looks up at him.

"My brothers and I all have different ideas on what constituted a break." Well. The Four anyway.

He walks with her, matching her pace with ease.

"Is there anything else you'd like to show me?" He doesn't need to be shown anything, but it's always interesting what people think of.

Dirk isn't a stranger to the strange, but suddenly arriving in what appears to be some sort of twisted candyland isn't exactly his idea of a good time. The most human shape around seems like the best place to start asking questions, so he heads that way. If the chocolate tree has anything to do with that decision, it's entirely coincidental.

"Miss?" He holds up a hand, shielding his eyes from the bright light of whatever it is she's tossing around. "Can you tell me where I am?"

The badger under her head growls, puffing up. She strings the sunlight between her fingers, spreading it into radiant bands between the tips. The glow sinks into her skin, illuminating it from the inside out.

The phoenix settles onto a branch, dropping a feather on the toad below. Marshmallow bunnies dance a two-step around a tree.

Another sun appears between her hands, growing and molding with each flick of her fingers.

"Dunno." Jubilee isn't concerned. She reaches up and scritches the badger under his chin. "We're here. Wherever that is. Pop a squat and don't eat the berries."

Dirk very carefully steps over the line of marshmallow bunnies and sits down next to the woman. He's not going to sit too close to that badger or that glowy sun thing. He doesn't feel like being burnt up or clawed at. "Do you know who you are?"

The badger grumbles something that sounds like 'beer' before wandering off. He reaches up and grabs the blue monkey's tail in his mouth, dragging it with him.

Jubilee giggles and the sun turns pink between her fingers. She twists the light into a braid and then flicks her fingers upwards, watching the phoenix take off after it.

"I'm Jubilee. I don't know who you are, though."

"I'd hope so, seeing as we haven't met before now." He holds out his hand to her, then seems to think better of it and pulls his hand back into an awkward wave. "My name is Dirk. Dirk Gently."

He casts his eyes up warily into the canopy of the tree. "I don't suppose this has something to do with that town? A fresh laboratory experiment?"

Jubilee builds another sun between her hands. This one pops into a rainbow of confetti that shoots into the sky, coating the pink clouds.

"Town? Probably. I haven't seen the Prof, so... yeah, probably."

She doesn't seem concerned about it at all. "Pop a squat, dude. No where to go here. Just a hang out, and whatever weird things my brain brings along."

Like the lion-rabbit chasing the badger and the blue monkey, shooting green lightning from its ears. Jubilee doesn't even move.

Well, Dirk has no idea what popping a squat is, but he has managed to sit.

He's really not sure where to start with this one. He's not sure what she means by her brain bringing this along, or who her Professor is. He's not sure if he's completely sane at the moment.

"Are you creating all of this?" Yeah, he hasn't caught on to this being a dream quite yet.

She grins and closes her eyes. The grass changes from a vibrant green to a deep purple. The clouds change to a brilliant gold, against a twilight sky. The marshmallow bunnies stop dancing and explode into cotton candy butterflies that take to the sky.

When she opens them again, the badger is back, carrying a six pack of beer.

"It's my head, dude."

"And it's...very nice. Here in your head. Very colorful." Yeah, he's still not entirely getting it, sorry.

But he can roll with it. Once the badger settles in, he carefully picks out one of the beers and cracks it open. It's pretty excellent, actually.

"Sometimes." The badger extends silver claws that crack open a beer for her. It takes a cigar and goes to sit at a toadstool table to play poker with the monkey and the toad.

"Your first time?" Jubilee asks. She knows this is a dream. She also knows, thanks to the Professor, how to control them to a certain extent. She's never had anyone else there, though.

"In your head? I'd hope so. Otherwise my memory should not be trusted." He takes another sip from the beer bottle and raises his eyebrows at her in question. "I don't suppose you can tell me why I've arrived here? That seems like a difficult question these days."

Jubilee laughs, creating ripples of color in the sky and in the grass. The butterflies swirl together, becoming a huge insect before exploding into iridescent bubbles that float in the air.

"No, in someone's dreams." She finally pushes herself up, her clothing flowing into a neon blue tunic that falls to her feet. Jubilee rolls to her feet, ignoring the purple dragon that drapes itself around her shoulders and croons in her ear. "Want to explore?"

"Dreams!" Oh. OH. That makes so much sense, now that she's said it. He clears his throat, momentarily embarrassed by his outburst, then stands to follow her. "Of course. Do hide anything you'd rather me not see, if you can. I had a problem with a mind reading device once. I know how invasive that sort of thing can be." Well, it had mostly involved informing his partner that he was trying not to think of sex. But, yknow. Fair warning.

Another laugh that sends waves of color over every surface. "So you're not a telepath?" She asks, taking his hand and scuffing her bare feet through the grass. "Back home, they'd probably come in and tell me that I'm either dreaming too loudly or need to get up and do something." She smiles slightly. "Both are a possibility."

Her feet stir up the grass, rousing all sorts of things that even she doesn't have names for. A tiny vulture lands on the back of the dragon, peering at the young man walking with her.

"So, this is all new to you? There are ways to control it. And ways to press those that don't belong out. But I don't mind some company."

"Not a telepath, no. I do have a tendancy towards narcoleptic clairvoyance, though, as it's not my dream, I have a feeling that that does not apply in this particular situation."

He takes a look up into the multicolored sky before directing his attention back to her with a smile. "The badger with the beer was also a fairly solid clue that this is not a dream-bound premonition."

"Ah, a clairvoyant. Well, that's not too far off of a telepath in my world. Though how you made it past my brain is anyone's guess." At his mention of the badger, Jubilee looks over her shoulder.

Sunlight and rainbows fall from a cloud and catch in her hair as it grows down to her waist. She smiles warmly. "The best father a girl could ask for." She shrugs her shoulders, dislodging the dragon and vulture. "Go on you two. Go." She flicks her fingers and they flap away. Her feet barely make an impression on the grass.

"But you're not from my world, are you? Or are you a mutant?" She asks. The edges of the dream static for a moment before firming and remaining psychedelic in its color choices.

He's just going to sail right on past that comment about the badger being her father. "Not a mutant." Well, he hasn't been growing tentacles or anything lately. If he knew more about how she defines the word, he might be more inclined to include himself. "And I doubt it. Is your world like this?"

Edited 2013-07-19 22:24 (UTC)

"But if you're a clairvoyant, then you must have powers of some sort, right? Were they given to you by an industrial accident, radioactive animal or explosion? Alien?" All these things are possible in her world.

She looks around, taking a lollipop from a nearby bush and tucking it into her cheek. She scoops up a soda from a flower. "This? No. This is my dream world, where I can be happy, and play, and laugh. My world is nothing like this."

A pair of wings fall from the sky and wrap around her. She smiles and pets the long feathers, rubbing her cheek along the arm.

"I was born with it. Unless there was some event in my childhood which I have heretofore repressed. I suppose that is entirely possible." He takes one last sip from his beer before setting it aside as they walk past a clump of brightly colored toadstools.

"All in all, though, such things are uncommon where I come from." He looks over at her, considering. "You're a telepath?"

"Some of us are born with our mutations active." She ducks under a branch, ignoring the cat weaving in and out of the trunk. "I know of... two? Three? It's not common but it does happen."

Jubilee laughs, creating a cascade of music through the clouds. The static around the dream fizzles for a moment, and then steadies.

"No. I know several, but my mutation is pyrotechnics." She winks and strokes the wings still wrapped around her. A pink, flowing possum drops out of a tree and clings to her hair, nuzzling her ear. "I blow stuff up."

"Pyrotechnics!" He grins at just the idea of it. "What do you blow up?" He likes the idea of it, surely, but he's not sure how he'd deal with it in practice. He chuckles, "Just things that happen to be around?"

Jubilee grins. "I can blow up anything, really." She shrugs and reaches up, plucking a star from the sky. She molds it between her fingers the way that she had done the sun earlier. The possum tries to bat at it and then pulls a card out of it's pouch, studying his poker hand, apparently.

"I can also create a flash-bang that will disorient someone. Or, I can destroy a building. I'm my own flashlight too." She rubs the possum's head. "You're a clairvoyant, though. Shouldn't you know some of this stuff?"

"Narcoleptic clairvoyant. It only works when I'm asleep." Wait, give him a second for this particular revelation.

"So, maybe I should." He laughs at the strangeness of the situation, then shrugs. "But I don't. I don't know anything about you which you have not shared."

"You really should, since you're in my head." Jubilee pulls a card from her pocket and offers it to the possum who slips it into his pouch.

Her fingers mold the star slowly. She stops, studying something in the distance. "This way." There's no reason to slip into her nightmares. "Would you mind explaining how your powers work? I mean, I've known a clairvoyant before, sorta, but never really understood how it worked."

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These dreams are made of the years....

throw whatever at me. I forget what we talked about.

I AM BEING MEAN

Mean is fine!

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three please

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