(Untitled)

[awomanscornd]

“I’m home, everyone! Back from Sydney with the shopping!” Madelyne calls, her words echoing through the dingy rooms, sheets still strewn everywhere from the slow-going renovations. “Hello hello

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[patration]

Zhuge's never been very good at meditating

[awomanscornd]

In her dreams, she flies. Wild and free and beautiful, she soars above everything, to the stars and beyond, just as she was always meant to do. In all her life, she's only ever found one reason to come down, only one love, the piece of her that had always been missing, no matter high she flew. In her joy, she never could have foreseen just how low choosing to embrace that life would bring her. For now, though, she's safe, whole, and fulfilled, with both wings and her newly made family, until-

"Wha-" Madelyne stammers as her eyes open to find an unfamiliar man crouching over her with natural light streaming down around them. Considering her track record with both strangers and waking up in strange places is less than stellar, she can hopefully be forgiven for her reaction. "Who are you? Leave me alone!" she cries, scrambling back as she sits up and lashing blindly out with her foot to keep him at bay. In a dress and high heels, she doesn't cut a particularly imposing figure, but when hasn't that been true? She's no superhero.

[patration]

"Ah," Zhuge breathes, eyes widening in surprise when the woman suddenly wakes, seemingly energetic, if admittedly disoriented- but she has so much reason to be the latter that Zhuge isn't entirely sure that he can attribute it to whatever force rendered her unconscious to begin with. Although he only manages to sound out some of her words, the fact that they ring clear and are delivered with purpose leaves Zhuge hopeful. It'd be a sorry thing indeed if she was grievously injured. (He makes a mental note to try and coax some more medical journals and textbooks out of the bookshelf soon, anything that might better help him, the next time something like this occurs- and he's certain that it will; history does always repeat itself, one way or another

[awomanscornd]

Her heart's hammering in her chest, but even thought the man doesn't seem all that threatening and is keeping his distance, Madelyne doesn't drop her guard, as tempting as it is. Instead, she stays in the awkward position she's landed herself in, arms propping her up in the sand (where the heck is she?), and slowly shakes her head. "No, I- I think I'm okay?" Her hand is sore from striking the screen, but she's been hurt a whole lot worse than this and pulled through it. "What is this place?"

[leftwithmybones]

Good god, he's drank himself into a hallucinatory stupor -- is the very first thing he thinks when he finds her lying prone on the ground. He kneels carefully, sliding his fingers under her head to check for bumps carefully and trying to analyze the woman.

Clones happen all the goddamn time. This is just a real kick in the ass soon after he's been knocked down by life. "Hey," he says quietly. "Can you open your eyes for me?"

[awomanscornd]

She's flying on wings of white miles away from any concern she's ever had, and when she lands, she's still soaring just like she's always dreamed. She's got everything that's ever eluded her, all that she wanted without ever realizing it. But then, a voice is pulling her away from it all, and while it's not entirely unpleasant, she doesn't want to go, even as she knows that, even in her dreams, something bad is waiting just around the corner.

"Wha-" Madelyne says, waking with a start, and even though the man's presence seems reassuring enough, she rolls to the side for a bit of space, her head still swimming from the explosion. "Who are you?" she snaps defensively, trying not to look as helpless as she feels. "Where am I, what happened?"

[leftwithmybones]

Yeah.

He'd figured it would go like this, but that doesn't help the part of McCoy that's genuinely disappointed that it's not Jean (and not just for him). Maybe Rachel could've had her mother back, but instead it's just another goddamn trick. "I'm McCoy, Leonard McCoy," he introduces slowly, making sure to keep his voice gentle as he would with a patient in a bad way. "You're on an island, and it's not gonna make a lot of sense, but you're safe here."

[awomanscornd]

"McCoy," Madelyne repeats slowly, glancing nervously around as she takes in her surroundings. He's probably not lying about the type of locale, at least, so she focuses on the rest of his words. Safe. It sounds practically foreign to her. "What do you want with me?"

[mutant_gi_jesus]

Cable could never say that he'd been happy on this island, far from it, but he'd appreciated that he had so many people here that he cared for and that they, by and large, seemed to be happy. With Theresa and Jean both vanished and Rachel off to drown her grief in solitude, though, even that particular silver lining was currently looking rather less shiny.

So when he approached the compound and saw, what looked like, a young Jean sitting there looking confused, he wasn't inclined to assume the best. A 'clone', as the terminology put it, seemed far more in keeping with the cruelty of the Island.

"Hello," he greeted her warily, in a flat tone and hard face that gave away no emotions but his eyes searched her face as he spoke.

[awomanscornd]

"Hi," Madelyne answers automatically, wide-eyed and just as wary, if not quite so serious about it. At first, there seems to be something almost familiar about him, but she chalks it up to getting her signals crossed. She's already on edge, and whoever he is, he doesn't exactly cut the most unimposing figure. "I, uh- I'm new," she goes on, as if that weren't obvious, offering a small, nervous smile that flits across her face and is gone.

[mutant_gi_jesus]

"Yes," he replied, because she certainly was, whoever she was. And his left eye flashed a yellow light for a moment as he said it.

"It can be somewhat disconcerting, at first," he continued and held out his human right hand to her to take. "You can call me Cable."

[awomanscornd]

"No kidding," Madelyne deadpans, her smile returning for tiny bit longer this time as she reaches up to take his hand. Having known Forge and Longshot, the metal one and the eye thing aren't as off-putting as they probably should be, but there's still something about this guy that makes her... not uneasy, exactly, but more aware. Besides, what kind of nickname is Cable? "I'm Madelyne."

[sciencefact]

Taking note of who is or isn't an island regular is not at the top of Jane's list of priorities. She isn't incapable of recognizing the people she encounters on a regular basis, her mind is just more likely to be concerned with strings of complicated equations or half-naked Norse gods. The woman seated on the front stoop, though, she has that look. The one that Jane knows intimately because she'd so recently worn it herself.

"I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that you haven't been on the island very long," she says as she pauses at the bottom of the steps, brown hair pulled up into a ponytail and mouth pressed into a sympathetic smile.

[awomanscornd]

Madelyne looks surprised for a moment before her features smooth out into a smile, tense but grateful. With the day she's having, a friendly look can go an awful long way. "What gave me away?" she asks, wry but light.

[sciencefact]

"The general look of disbelief," Jane answers, her smile quirking. "I've only been here about a month myself, so I still get that look sometimes." Lately, it's come with the realization that she's teaching basic astronomy to an American Girl and a Shakespearean heroine. Not even her firm belief in quantum physics can help her wrap her brain around that.

[awomanscornd]

"I'll have to watch myself for that one," Madelyne wryly says, smoothing her hair back and taking a breath in an attempt to gather her wits about her. "The idea of being here 'only a month' still seems overwhelming all on its own as far as I'm concerned, so it might take a little while."

[willimprovise]

It wasn't exactly an unusual sight, someone sitting in front of the Compound like that. Sitting around, Sam was learning, tended to be an activity in and of itself here. A month into his stay and he was growing restless, anxious just for something to do. It seemed, though, that looking for something was going to have to wait a while longer; however typical just sitting there was, the look on the woman's face wasn't, and he couldn't help feeling a shred of compassion for it. The least he could do was spare a couple minutes, make sure everything was alright.

"Hey," he said as he took a seat beside her, summoning up a small smile. "You okay? You look a little... shell-shocked."

[awomanscornd]

Madelyne looks over, almost surprised at having her reverie interrupted, but she offers a small, nervous smile a moment later. "That's one way of putting it, I guess," she agrees quietly, nodding. "It's been an interesting day, to say the least."

[willimprovise]

"Yeah?" Sam asked, brows furrowing slightly. Around here, as he was figuring out, that typically meant one thing, but he wasn't in the habit of making such assumptions. He also wasn't in the habit of involving himself in the problems of strangers, but, well, she looked disoriented and it wasn't as if he had anything else he needed to do. "Interesting like how?"

[awomanscornd]

"Interesting like showing up on a supposedly magic island, for starters," Madelyne offers, her smile growing a little lopsided. It's something everyone here has gone through at one point, so she doesn't expect a whole lot in the way of sympathy, but she's grateful for the attention either way. "Not very original, I know."