9338/Where Have You Been

Where Have You Been
Date of Scene:	27 September 2019
Location:	Student Gardens, Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Mason returns from a necessary absence and catches up with Shannon. They each share a little bit about their mutant gifts. Sweetness abounds!
Cast of Characters:	Nightingale, Mason Steele

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Nightingale has posed:
     Chaos has been the order of not just the past couple of days, but the past -week- and some change. And sometimes, one just needed to escape from it all, find a little spot of refuge, and indulge in one's passions rather than study constantly. So it is that Shannon's found a secluded spot in the student gardens, with her laptop bag in tow, to settle down to work on some of her music. But the notes just wouldn't flow from her fingers to the small keyboard that was hooked up to her laptop. The song just wasn't there. She closes her eyes, trying not to think, or to feel too much, a single tear escaping to trickle down her cheek. On top of the events of the past week, she had one worry she had never voiced even to those closest to her--Mason. There had been one afternoon of pure magic, and then... nothing. Gone. No contact, nothing. Perhaps it was something simple, she told herself. These things happen--right?

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason? He's oblivious. He heard something about sentinels, and he found an excuse to make his commercial shoot in California take a little longer. A celebrity endorsement for Yamaha keyboards. But, finally, he's returned. And he's behaving like nothing ever happened, like he was never gone. He's not even looking for Shannon as he enters the garden, and it doesn't seem that he's noticed her immediately. He is looking back up at the Mansion, as if trying to see if he's spotted, and he slowly bends down to pick up a rock from the garden. Limestone. He picks it up to his nose, and takes a big smell of it, as if it were some sort of delectable treat.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon had not expected anybody else to be out here in the gardens, especially not so late in the season. The tears are unguarded ones, the ones she only lets fall freely when she thinks herself alone. With her large, snowy white wings half-wrapped around her, she might easily be mistaken for a statue on the bench, a living sculpture. But sculptures don't speak.

     "Mason...?!"

Mason Steele has posed:
    There is a jump from Mason as he hears his name, and spins around, pulling the small rock away from his mouth. Was he about to eat that? No, of course not. His look of momentary panic fades a little when he spots Shannon. "Oh, hey!" He gives a smile, like nothing's wrong, then processes that she was crying. "Shannon, are you okay?" he asks, seeming to be truly oblivious.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon immediately closes her laptop and sets it down beside her on the bench, disentangling herself from the various cords and accessories. She moves a little stiffly, perhaps a bit more so than he remembered, perhaps as if recovering from a recent injury. Her sneakers thud softly on the path as she makes her way over to him, wrapping arms and wings around him in a massive hug. "Just a lot's happened... and I was really worried about you."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason looks a little lost as Shannon embraces him, happy to receive it, but his posture is as a person that isn't sure what's happening at the moment. He rubs her back between the wings. "Hey, yeah, I'm fine, what happened?" he asks. Asking that question around here, he knows that the answer could be rather interesting.

Nightingale has posed:
     On the other hand, Shannon relaxes into the embrace, one major worry at least taken off her shoulders. Her wings relax visibly as Mason rubs her back, and she rests her head over his chest. "Worried sick about you. Fighting Sentinels. Three major healings in one week... and one of them could easily have killed me. It's been a mess." It's a good thing he was expecting an interesting answer, because one was definitely waiting in the wings, so to speak! "What about you, though? What happened? Where were you?"

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Oh wow," Mason responds with the arch of his brow, "They came here?" If they did, he apparently missed it. "I was in Cali, doing a commercial shoot. Didn't I say that?" he asks. He realizes as he asks, no, he didn't, but doesn't follow up with that. "I'm glad you aren't dead," he adds. "Are you hurt?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head. "No, the Sentinels were on a field trip to Horizon Bio Labs. Lorna took a bit of a beating in the fight, so I needed to heal her. Trip one to the medbay. Kitty was in a coma from it for a couple days. Working with Triage to heal her... trip two to the medbay. Then a stranger calling themselves 'Jeremy' came in here all cut up with some really weird stuff going on... healed him and probably shouldn't have tried to take on that much. Trip three to the medbay. Pretty much healed now, just a little bit stiff." She'd seen the small piece of limestone he was going for, but said nothing about it. Instead, she reaches down and picks it up for him, holding it on the palm of her hand, hoping to bring a smile to his face. "What commercial shoot was it? How did that go?"

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Oh, it went fine, I didn't get stabbed or attacked by robots or anything," Mason says with an attempt at humor. "Just Yamaha doing a commercial for their keyboards. Normal stuff," he gives a shrug, his hand reaching out to take the limestone rock, and it does indeed bring a smile to his face, but it's an embarrassed one, the kind of smile that someone might have if you caught them underdressed. Blushes aren't common for Mason.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon brushes a bit of hair away from Mason's face on the right side, tucking it away behind his ear. There is a smile of relief--and understanding. Understanding of a common point between them. "It's something to do with rocks, isn't it?" she murmurs softly. "You've got a gift, too." Yet she doesn't pull away or look at all disgusted, or even seem to see him any differently than she ever did before.

Mason Steele has posed:
    There's a moment where he doesn't follow her question, until she mentions his 'gift'. "Oh! Yeah," he says, "Yeah it has to do with rocks. I can make rocks move and stuff," He shrugs, "Not a big deal," he adds, as if there was nothing to it. He maybe revealed rather easily considering how embarrassed he was. Maybe there was more to it.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods, and smiles, her eyes actually holding some warmth to them. "How, then? That's a gift I've never heard of." Her voice bore hints of gentle encouragement, rather than outright pressure to allow her to witness something she could tell made him fairly uncomfortable. "It's okay if you don't want to."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah," Mason says, "Um, sure. I don't really like to make a big deal of it, though, y'know. It's not my mutant power that defines me," he contests. "You might want to stand back, though, right? I don't want to get you hurt." He winces a little. "That might have happened before, don't want a repeat."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods, and smiles. "I know it doesn't define you. What's in here does." She very gently taps over his heart, and kisses him on the cheek. "It's still part of you though." She does step back a ways, not sure what's going to happen, but willing to face it. She flutters her wings, and stretches them out to close to their full span. "Don't forget, these aren't for show. I can move if need be."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason takes the rock, and looks at it. He turns it over and drops it, as if he isn't going to follow through. But as it drops to the ground spinning, he suddenly twitches his fingers inward, and it comes back up to his hand, clapping into it as if gravity had directed it toward him instead of toward the ground. "I mean, stuff like that," he says, shrugging. "If I'm not paying attention, it can kinda get out of hand, though."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon tilts her head and just smiles wide, reaching out and lightly touching the rock as it comes back up towards his hand, as if he were a magnet for stone. "I guess that gives a whole new meaning to 'rock 'n roll'. That's pretty amazing." She doesn't seem in the least upset or afraid of his gifts. Rather, there is a look of almost child-like wonder that lights her eyes right up, a pleasant change from the shadows that linger beneath them. "I'm afraid my other gift is a lot less showy than that, and to show it to you... you'd have to be hurt."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason grins a little at her joke. "Yeah, not really useful for music," he admits. "So I don't reall mess with it very much. He points when she mentions her less flashy gift. "Yeah, you said you can heal people, right?" Mason says, referencing her earlier comment. "That's pretty amazing. You'd put doctors out of business," he remarks on it.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shakes her head and smiles ruefully. "Wish it were that easy. The way it works with me, is I absorb other people's injuries. It's landed me in the medbay three times last week." Her voice takes on a very dark tone for just a few moments, her brows furrowing. "And the last one should've killed me." She reaches out to gingerly touch his hand, the one with the rock in it. "See, if you had a cut there right now, I'd be the one winding up with it. Thing is, too, it'd also take a -lot- less time to heal on me than it would most people. So it all works out in the end."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Oh, so...you're like Logan, but you heal people, but since you got regeneration, you can heal it quick. That's pretty nice," he says. "If it shoulda killed you, it woulda killed you. Maybe somebody up there wants you around to keep bein' an angel," he observes.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon turns a little red, ducking her head. However, she does smile. "I don't heal quite as fast as him. More along the lines of Mr. McCoy. Gunshot wound only takes about a day or so on me." She glances up at Mason and chuckles a little bit; plucking one of her own wing feathers, she reaches forward and tickles the end of his nose with it. "I'm no angel. That's your job."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah..." Mason says, "Looks can be deceiving. I don't know I should be compared to an angel, you might get struck by lightning or something," he warns. "Sorry I didn't tell you I was gonna be out of town. I can be kind of a jerk like that sometimes."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods and draws him in for a gentle hug, folding her wings lightly around him as well. "Guess I should've expected it, with you being in the spotlight and all. You do have people here who care about you, though. Just say something if you're going to be away next time?"

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Yeah, sure," Mason says, moving to plant a kiss on her. "If you want we can order some pizza or something to make it up to you." He continues to hold the rock as he hugs back. "Somebody has to be around to sing the praises of your heroic lifesaving deeds," he observes. "I could be the X-men's minstrel," he says with a grin.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon turns flame red, and kisses him sweetly. "More like singing a satire of how I keep winding up in the medbay." She grins, tracing little circles on the chunk of limestone in his hand, resting her head over his heart to listen to it beat. "You know, I'm surprised you're not right out there with us. I bet you'd do well."

Mason Steele has posed:
    Mason shakes his head with an uncomfortable smile. "Yeah...I'm not really the superhero type. I know that's kind of the push for a lot of the mutants that have "combat oriented" powers." He uses air quotes, as if that was a term. "I'm just not really good at wanting to hit people or anything. Dunno if I could bring myself to use them in a fight, not to mention I worry about what would happen if someone knew it was me. It'd be a bit dicey in the publicity world."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods and grins a bit sheepishly, reaching up to trace his smile with the tip of one finger. She nudges the corners of his mouth upwards, quirking her eyebrows, eyes a-twinkle. "My powers aren't exactly meant for combat but I still get out there. But... yeah, I can see about outing yourself, in your position. Not too awkward, right?" Some thought makes her smile, and she peers up at him. "You know, the piano I have is a Yamaha. An older one that my mom passed on to me, but it still works pretty well."

Mason Steele has posed:
    "Oh yeah?" Mason answers. "My keyboard is. I like having something at least a little portable for when the mood strikes me. Way easier to carry around a guitar and all, but," he shrugs. "Y'know, sometimes you just want the keys." He lets the conversation piece drop from the superhero topic without continuing it.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon smiles mischievously, brushing a bit of hair out of Mason's face and tucking it behind his right ear. But she doesn't move her hand away right off the bat, blushing a little bit. "It helps to have the magic touch for it, though. And you are far, far better at it than I will ever be."