8727/Just Focus

Just Focus
Date of Scene:	10 August 2019
Location:	Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Nightengale gets more practice with her healing from Elixir.
Cast of Characters:	Elixir, Nightingale

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Elixir has posed:
Josh had not been at morning training for a few days, or around the mansion at all really. He showed up briefly the day before and was seen swimming with Jubilee before disappearing again. Rumour was he had turned gold. At any rate, it had been a while since Shannon had seen Josh when she got a text message from him to invite her for training in the gazebo by the lake. It was raining lightly, the first rain in a while, and it made everything in the backyard on the way to the lake smell fresh.

When Shannon approaches, Josh is sitting there under the gazebo, messy hair, sneakers, blue jeans and a black band t-shirt. And yes, he is gold coloured. His skin is a metallic gold that even sparkles just a little when he moves. He is looking out over the lake and the million little splashes made by the rain drops.

Nightingale has posed:
     It was a drizzly, gray sort of day, when most would be staying inside. Shannon had begun to wonder what became of Josh; he had been particularly kind to her, and it was disquieting to consider that someone that nice should come to harm. So it was something of a relief when her phone's text message tone sounded, and she received the message. Not that she was in low spirits, anyways--on the contrary. When she joins Josh out by the gazebo, backwinging to a somewhat more graceful landing than he might have witnessed before, she definitely does not seem inclined to be hanging her head, or hiding behind her wings--despite the raised eyebrow at his altered appearance. "Hi! Ummm... okay, what happened?"

Elixir has posed:
Josh looks over at the rustle of feathers that announces Shannon's arrival. He smiles, not his usual 1000-watt affair, but he is happy to see her.

"Oh, hey Shannon," he greets the young mutant.

"Ah, long story. Did a lot of healing on myself and..." Josh spreads his arms. "Here I am. Can't get it to go back to normal either, so looks like I'm stuck like this."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Well, now the rest of you just matches your heart. Pure gold." Shannon's smile comes much easier than before, a good bit brighter than he might have come to expect from the young mutant. Well, the change didn't seem to be causing him any undue distress, at any rate. It would certainly take getting used to, though. "There aren't going to be any medical type issues to deal with from it, though, are there?"

Elixir has posed:
Josh smirks at bit at Shannon's comment.

"No, I'm fine. Just look funny now," Josh reassures her. He gestures toward the other side of the picnic table he is sitting at. The rain patters gently against the metal roof above. "Believe me, I can sort out any health problems I'll ever have. Wanna sit down?"

"How're you doing? I haven't bumped into you for a while."

Nightingale has posed:
     Half-bemused, half grinning, but definitely holding her head a bit higher than the last time Josh saw her, Shannon slides onto the bench on the other side of the picnic table. The soft tapping of the rain on the roof of the gazebo creates a peaceful atmosphere, the scent of the world around them fresh and new as if just born from the waters of creation. "It's been... interesting. My head's still spinning from it all. If it hasn't been flying through the circus in the danger room, it's been running into folks I never thought I'd be meeting in this lifetime down in Salem Center."

Elixir has posed:
"Sounds awesome," Josh says. His smile is forced.

"I'm stoked things are working out for you here. Can be a great place. Who'd you meet in Salem Centre?" he asks curiously.

Nightingale has posed:
     Something about that smile just didn't sit right. Shannon's brows furrow slightly, but she isn't quite sure how to broach the subject. Maybe more hints would present themselves later, who knows? "Sort of ran into the Captain, pretty literally, when I was coming out of the music store there in town. Then it felt like I got spun around by an oncoming freight train when Tony Stark showed up." She bursts out laughing, shaking her head, with something of a twinkle in her eyes. "Tony thought the Captain was recruiting a new Avenger... that takes the cake. There is no way I'm ready for anything even remotely like that."

Elixir has posed:
"That's hilarious, and not too surprised. Mr. Stark is always looking for top tier talent, it's just what he does. He seems to think that way whenever he meets someone," Josh says and laughs. "It's crazy meeting people like that, you know? They're the real deal. You get any pics with them?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head. "Sadly, no, though the Captain did drop me his card so I could let him know when I had a small research project set for him. Had no idea he had an interest in music." She rests her chin on her forearms atop the table, looking off into space for a moment. "On one hand, I almost went completely fangirl on him. I mean... when I first changed, I felt incredibly alone. As much as my family loved me, it wasn't something they could really understand completely. Then I'd remind myself what he must have felt like, coming out of the ice with everyone he knew either completely changed or just gone. If he had the strength to deal with that, I could get through things, too." She shakes her head slightly. "He's probably dealt with that crap enough, though, so it was just a normal 'Hi, how are you' sort of thing."

Elixir has posed:
"He's pretty inspiring, like, someone you can really look up to and actually is the way you hope he'd be," Josh agrees. "And he has lots of fangirls, so don't worry about that. Just don't go really crazy, Janet kills those ones when nobody's looking," he jokes.

"Make sure you get a pic with him next time, how cool would that be?" Josh asks. He runs a hand through his hair. "So, I've only got a bit before I gotta run but I wanted to make sure we got some work in on your sensing. You up for it?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head and laughs. "Naah, he probably gets enough requests for pictures, why should I add to that? Guy puts his pants on one leg at a time, same as the rest of us. Probably a nice change of pace just being normal for once."

Sitting up and brushing her sleeves off a bit, Shannon nods. "It's worth a shot. What did you have in mind?"

Elixir has posed:
"I was thinking about how to teach you just sensing, but like, without you getting hurt. Cause eventually you're gonna put hurting and healing together and won't be able to focus for practice," Josh explains. "Like Pavlov's dogs kinda thing. So today, you're gonna practice on me. Which is safer and won't end up with some boy chasing after you."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon rolls her eyes, her cheeks and even her ears going flame red. "He didn't chase after me yet, though. Haven't seen hide or hair of him since the hospital. Yeah, what would he say, anyways? 'Oh, I met this girl in the hospital and by the way, she's a mutant'?" She chuckles softly, ducking her head. "Still... it was kind of sweet. Kind of." She tilts her head, looking at Josh and seems to consider this. "Okay, where do we start?"

Elixir has posed:
"I've heard weirder stories," Josh says with a chuckle.

He holds his hands out toward Shannon for her to take. When she does, Josh nods to her and smiles. "Alright, so you're gonna try and feel what's wrong with me. Without healing it. Just sensing it. And if you go too far and take it on, you won't feel a thing. Neither of us will. Okay? You might feel a little giddy for a bit, just take your time and let me know when you're ready to start."

Josh's whole body glows gold, like when he heals. The liquid warmth Shannon has felt from Josh before when he healed her cuts does not pour over her. It flashes through her all at once and she glows as well. Any aches or sore muscles she might have had do not bother her at all right now. In fact, Shannon gets the feeling nothing that happened to her body right now would hurt at all.

The gold skinned mutant watches Shannon with a tilted head and ghost of a smile.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods, closing her eyes as she takes Josh's hands. Okay, this wasn't going to be so bad, was it? He hadn't steered her wrong before, though her track record of being able to control whether or not she took on an injury was spotty at best. Still, as she takes a few deep breaths to calm and focus, the remembered feeling from the training session at the hospital washes over her. It's not at all unpleasant, actually. Rather, it felt as if she could perhaps finally ease someone else's hurt, and not suffer for it.

In this case, she wasn't too far off the mark, for as she cracks open her eyes to see if she can figure out what's going on with her eyes as well as her senses, she sees the gash opening. It's a clean wound, no blood, but its appearance does make her frown a little bit. Had she harmed Josh? When the cut appears on her own arm in kind, though, she barely even notices, not feeling a thing. She watches it with sort of a clinical detachment, both his wound and her own healing over in seconds.

Elixir has posed:
Josh watches carefully as the healing takes place and makes an appreciative face.

"Good, not feeling it didn't stop you. Something to remember," Josh says with an encouraging smile. A nearly exact copy of the gash parts open Josh's arm in the same spot.

"You've got healing down, you're good at it. All you're learning now is control over something you can do already," Josh adds. "Give it another try, just sitting on the edge of taking the wound."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods, tilting her head as she considers this. Where was she going wrong? A pang of worry darkens her expression as she sees a second wound open on his arm, and every instinct she has screams to take on the injury as her own, so he would not have to suffer. Her fingers tense as she fights to hold back her ability, fighting the instinct to heal. It's partially successful. Even knowing that, just as she's not feeling pain from it then neither is he, she can't help a reddened area appearing on her arm in the same location as his cut. However, that's all it becomes, and does not transfer to her any further.

Elixir has posed:
Josh beams when he sees nothing more than the redness appear on Shannon's arm.

"You're doing it! Okay, let it go," he says and grins. "I knew you could do it. How'd that feel?"

Nightingale has posed:
The minute Shannon lets go of the control she'd managed to gain over her ability, she does wind up taking on the wound. However, it still doesn't hurt, as she has not broken the connection between the two. "It didn't feel like anything. I just wanted to scream from not healing you."

Elixir has posed:
"Scream? Did it hurt? Or like, you just wanted to fix it so bad?" Josh asks curiously. The wound on Shannon's arm quickly knits together and disappears.

Nightingale has posed:
"The second one. It didn't actually hurt me at all." Shannon sighs a little bit, shaking her head. "I'm really going to have to get over that, or this gift could wind up doing more harm than good."

Elixir has posed:
"I'm glad you see the danger," Josh says more soberly. "You need to know what you're dealing with before you heal. Cause like Scott says, you can't help anyone if you're dead, right?"

Josh focuses for a moment. "Okay, try again, take it really slow. If you can't do it or you get scared, let go of the heal but not my hands, alright?" Josh holds Shannon's a little more tightly. Nothing changes on the surface. When Shannon opens her senses, she can feel something below surface. A cancerous mass near Josh's heart is growing rapidly.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon frowns deeply when she closes her eyes, the sense of something wrong with Josh's heart echoed in her sharp intake of breath. "The hell...?" The danger of taking on an illness like the cancer so dangerously close to his heart is enough to stop her healing dead in its tracks. "There's something with your heart... something growing there. I'm not sure what, but it's growing fast." She glances up at him, very worried and not at all sure what to do now. If she took this on, it could very well be fatal to her, and she knew it. But could she even do it to begin with, even with his help? "What do we do about this one?"

Elixir has posed:
"It's fine. It's an aggressive cancer. I tweaked a few cells just a little, and now they're growing unchecked. And you did the right thing, you stopped," Josh says, pleased despite Shannon's concern. "This isn't something you'd want to take on"

Josh closes his eyes for a moment. He opens them again and smiles. "Check again," the young man suggests.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods slowly. "Even a fast healer would have a hard time recovering from that one. If they did at all." Still, at least she had managed to stop herself, without so much as a hint of transfer. And if she did it once, she could do it again, with enough practice and time. She closes her eyes, and reaches out with her inner senses again, brows furrowing. "How did you... never mind. Part of your gift?" Just how, she didn't quite understand, but no doubt that too, would come with time.

Elixir has posed:
"Hmm, I'm not exactly a healer," Josh says with a nod. "I mean, I can heal. But it's more like, dunno. Controlling or shaping. Like why you're not feeling any pain from the healing. I'm making your body make a ton of endorphins right now, and feeding it the energy to do it. Doing the same to myself."

"So, you know to be careful. Let's get back to just practice, no pop quizzes," Josh says with a smile. The wound on his arm returns, the skin just unknits itself and parts.

Nightingale has posed:
Once Shannon had managed to completely control her gift one time, it was a little easier to manage it a second time. And a third. By the fourth, though, her instinct to heal has been pushed back enough, and she winds up taking on the wound to her own arm. A colorful metaphor escapes her, with her grumbling softly to herself.

Elixir has posed:
Josh chuckles and heals the wound. He lets go of Shannon's hands and the around the two mutants fades away. "Shannon, language!" Josh teases with a chuckle.

"Seriously, it's okay, you're doing amazing," Josh says with a smile. "It's not like you've had a lot practice at this, and it's hard. You were nailing it though! You learn really fast."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon blushes, grinning sheepishly at Josh. "Sorry. I know... if you look like an angel, there's no reason to swear like a sailor. But it was so frustrating!" Her wings ruffle a little bit, as if she were in flight and just coming in for a landing--which wasn't too far removed from how it felt, coming down from the endorphin high. Her smile fades a little bit and she shrugs. "It's either learn fast, or I could do myself and anyone I try to help a lot more harm than good. And I refuse to sit by the sidelines forever."

Elixir has posed:
"Yeah, it's true. But don't go too fast. You've got like, years ahead of you and you're really young," Josh says seriously. "Try to like, enjoy things before you're right out there. Cause if you're public, it changes everything. Everything."

"Just don't rush it, okay?" Josh asks the young woman. "Especially don't rush doing things that'll make you public."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon chuckles softly, tilting her head. "Well, helping out at the hospital is sort of public. So it'll happen eventually. Hopefully it'll be for the better." She does sober up a bit though, nodding and running her fingers through her hair. "I do plan on enjoying things... but you see, here's the thing. It's going to be really hard for me to really enjoy things, without giving back. I mean... these gifts, they can be rough to handle, and it has been so far, but they're -gifts-. Someone Up There..." She glances briefly heavenwards. "...saw fit to give them, so somewhere along the line, I can't help thinking they're meant to be used. And that's one thing I want to enjoy, too. Making a difference."

Elixir has posed:
"Yeah, that's fair. I felt the same way. Just be really careful cause there are people who'd rather kill us than see us," Josh says with a bit of a grimace. "Wanna make sure you're around for a long time."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon wrinkles her nose and nods. "Yeah... I had it pretty mild, when I was pretty much shunned after changing. It's not a real far cry to imagine the next step up from that." She smiles some, resting her chin on the edge of the table. "There's always the hospital, but sooner or later, there'll be a lot of people who need the help. Hopefully there's time to figure all that out, though."

Elixir has posed:
Josh Foley says, "Yeah, one step at a time," Josh says. "All we can do, you know?"

"My next step is meeting realtor," Josh says, noting the time on phone. "So I gotta go. We'll more training in soon, cool?""

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods and gets up, brushing herself off. "Sounds good. Hey... seriously, thanks. I know you've probably got a lot of other stuff going on, so it means a lot you're helping." She cracks a smile, peeking outside the gazebo. The rain had tapered off, and a ray of sun fights its way through the clouds, refracting into a rainbow that lingers for just a little while in the sky. Yes, indeed, things did seem to be looking up. Perhaps there was hope after all.