jade ☃ harley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
basslines) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bakerstreet2016-09-08 02:14 pm
basslines) wrote in bakerstreet2016-09-08 02:14 pm
thursday pic prompt
the picture prompt meme
i. COMMENT WITH CHARACTER
ii. OTHERS LEAVE A PICTURE (OR TWO OR THREE....)
iii. REPLY TO THEM WITH A SETTING BASED ON THE IMAGES.
THIS POST WILL BE IMAGE HEAVY.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Kurt wouldn't disagree with that statement, either. He'd experienced the lackadaisical attitude first hand when they would all gather for Danger Room sessions, but if there was one thing he could admit, it was that Peter knew to shape up when the time came. Ah, the life of a speedster must be a tough one.
Unsure as to what else he could offer to the situation, he shifted to be kneeling on the bed now, flicking his tail around to fidget with the spade while Charles thought about the easiest way for them to do this, yet still be comfortable. He didn't want to think too much about how it was going to work or what they would be doing once they eventually broke into the depths of what had disturbed him in the first place, but he found it hard to simply brush off the nervousness that he was feeling. What if it didn't work? Or on the other hand, what if it made everything worse? Somehow, that seemed unlikely.
His head drew back up at Charles' voice, radiant golden eyes blinking then glancing upward in thought. He averted his gaze to Charles' chair, to his own bed then back to the telepath. "I cannot say that I have a preference. What would be easier for you?"
Re: Kurt and Charles
After pushing himself forward nearly as much as he could against the bed, he reached down and locked the brakes on his chair, still speaking. "It'll be a little difficult at first though, but we can make it easier if we do this together. This bed is a bit higher than mine, so if you'll come around and make sure the chair doesn't move for me, I'll get myself up."
Re: Kurt and Charles
Now that he'd taken a few moments to think it over, that seemed to make far more sense than resting his head in Charles' lap. That method would have worked, but had the telepath lost control, it could have meant trouble in both their cases, with Charles possibly falling out of his chair and Kurt ending up with the back of his head on the floor. "Smart thinking, Professor."
When instructed to hold the chair, he pushed himself forward and slipped off the side of the bed, moving back around to do as he'd been told - secure the seat in place. It was tempting to simply help Charles onto the bed (he'd lifted him before and all), but he imagined the other man preferred to have some sort of independence and Kurt flushed with mortification at his own over-eagerness.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Charles was grateful that Kurt decided not to try and help. He was used to, for a certain degree, getting around on his own. Sometimes it became a source of frustration or anger, but right now, it would have definitely been a bit of a nudge at his pride. It showed that he had developed more strength in his upper torso though as he got himself into Kurt's bed, shifting himself back so his back sat to the wall, making himself as comfortable as he could for now with the realization they could be there a while in these positions.
"Alright," he said when he was settled, "get yourself comfortable. It'll be a bit like going to sleep, but it will be a near instantaneous sleep." Something he would force for Kurt, but never quite fall into himself. It would something he would experience 'awake', which he wouldn't mention to Kurt held some dangers of its own.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Silently watching Charles made Kurt's heart swell with both pride and appreciation; the former because he was so proud to be able to call this man one of his mentors and the latter for being allowed to see the other mutant this way - getting to experience how strong Charles was, regardless of the fact he was bound to a wheelchair. It was fascinating to him and not because he didn't think of the paralysis as a weakness, but more of how Charles didn't seem to be bothered by it.
After his teacher was settled, he shook his head to draw himself from his thoughts and moved to get back onto the bed, positioning himself so his head was resting in Charles' lap, his legs dangling over the edge of the mattress. "Will I actually be asleep or will it be more of an unconscious sort of state?"
Re: Kurt and Charles
Charles would have been a terrible mix of proud and ashamed that he was able to hide how he felt about his paralysis. It would, as far as he was concerned, never stop bothering him and bothering him deeply. It was something that hit hard every day of his life, even these years since it had happened. In reality, he knew the truth that it was something he was slowly, even if very slowly, becoming more and more used to and the pain of its reality becoming less razor-edged, but it was still there. It was something he worked to hide from everyone absolutely, even if Hank and Raven were, thankfully, still here and still knew.
"Here, wait a second," Charles said after Kurt put his head down. He shifted to grab a pillow and tapped Kurt's head until the young man lifted his head. Quickly he tucked the pillow under there, something that would be more comfortable in the long run for both of them. "There we go."
It was a little bit of work to get them both settled but once they were, Charles gently placed his fingertips on Kurt's temples. "It will be the former to start, then true sleep as I bring your mind deeper. Just remember that no matter what happens, I'm right there with you. If it becomes absolutely too much, you let me know. We can stop, but I want you to push yourself through this." He peered down to Kurt, hoping the other understood.
"First things first, though. I want you to feel what it feels like when I touch your mind and make sure you are comfortable with that."
Re: Kurt and Charles
It was something that Kurt constantly wanted to ask about, but he could never seem to work up the nerve to do so. Always too afraid of offending his teacher or coming off as rude when that would never be his intention. Besides, it's not really his business anyhow, so keeping his questions to himself seemed like a better idea when it came down to it. Maybe, one of these days, he'll find the courage to finally inquire on the more simple things that buzz around in his mind.
"Huh?" He shifted to better look up at Charles, curious as to what he was doing. The touch to his head and the sight of a pillow ultimately cued him in on what the other mutant was doing and he raised enough to let the cushion be placed, settling his head onto it afterward. "Thank you."
As they progressed, Kurt could feel his nervousness rising, but he inhaled deep and released the breath, urging himself to relax when Charles' fingers rested at his temples. "I will do my best to get through it. If it becomes too much, I will remember, though I am going to force myself to continue - for the both of us." Even if that meant driving himself to the point of painful distress.
"Understood, ja. I am ready whenever you are, Professor."
Re: Kurt and Charles
"Just a touch, first," he murmured quietly before he let his power reach out, down through his body and out of his fingers, sinking into Kurt's mind. Not too deep, not this time, only similar to a brush against the mind, picking up only the outer-most surface thoughts. For Kurt, there was only the faintest feeling, something a bit akin to having someone very much in his personal space without touching him. A bit uncomfortable for most, and those who knew him usually could identify him from only this touch if he reached out to them, but far from a terrible feeling.
Can you feel me? Charles' voice was not in Kurt's ears but in his mind, in that same non-space Kurt's own mental voice came from.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Strangely enough, the breaking past the barrier of his mind wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as he'd thought it would be, especially since it had been willing this time. Their exchange in the library had been more of an accident than anything and it had surprised him to the point of not wanting to pry with any questions, but there had been that lingering hint of curiosity afterward. Now, as he rested in Charles' lap, his entire mind laid bare at his hands, Kurt felt an odd sense of tranquility flow through him and something else that he would later remember as absolute trust.
Oh, how peculiar. It is like I am listening to you, but you are not speaking ...
Re: Kurt and Charles
With another slow breath in and out, Kurt would feel something, almost akin to a pressure, right between his brows where the third eye was to lie. Ready?
Re: Kurt and Charles
The compression caused his brow to furrow, earning a noise of slight discomfort, but that was it. He could also try and blame it on nerves, but-- ... I think so.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Then here we go. Charles' eyes closed as he took a breath, and then all at once, the world would blink out for Kurt. It would turn dark and silent, empty, like the depths of sleep. Nothingness. Then into that nothingness came something. A fuzzy light, the idea of consciousness, until it began to grow in color and depth, a multitude of colors that might have been images but they were too fast, too blurry, to make out. Then, like the snap of a rubber band being pulled and released, white. Everywhere.
There they stood, in a room that was completely white with a pair of doors in it, on opposite walls. Charles stood in front of Kurt, actually stood. His wheelchair was no where to be seen and he still had all of his hair. Sometimes the mental image of a person didn't change as quickly as their physical shell could. "Here we are," he said with a tiny bit of amusement in his voice.
Re: Kurt and Charles
The darkness surprised him more than the rush of colors that followed it, although the sudden slack of his consciousness fading, easing him into the relative calmness of white had been a much easier motion than he'd thought it could be. If that was really the correct word for this sort of thing.
He briefly winced his eyes shut at the stark ivory of the room, blinking his attention over to the doors then up to the mutant that stood in front of him. Kurt straightened as much as he could manage, astonishment flooding his features at how different Charles appeared in his mind. Sure, it was subtle differences, but to see his teacher standing filled him with this delightful excitement that he almost couldn't contain. "So, is this how your mind appears to you all of the time?"
Re: Kurt and Charles
Kurt was the kind of person who hid nothing of his expressions and thus the surprise that came across the other's face was something that was simaltaniously amusing and heartfelt. It managed to bring a smile to Charles' lips, gesturing out with one hand to indicate the room. "This isn't my mind at all, but yours. This room, though, is something I've created as sort of a... visual representation. A starting point. That door," jerking a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the door behind him, "is the way back out and that door," pointing behind Kurt, "is the beginning of the path in your mind. This is someplace neutral we can start."
But he paused, his head tilting ever so slightly, before he added, "if you're talking about this?" Gesturing down at himself slightly, indicating his current form, "this is how it appears now." Which hinted it had changed from something in the past, but the faint hint of something sad in his voice hinted at something else as well. He knew eventually he would probably lose this as much as he had lost the ability to walk in the real world.
Re: Kurt and Charles
"Mine?" he questioned incredulously, studying the space around them that they currently resided in. Although Charles had been the one to create the visualization, he felt like it was rather fitting; all white - like a blank slate, which was how Kurt tried to keep it when his thoughts weren't jumbled or out of his control. Starting with complete emptiness on something always felt like he could give a far better idea behind whatever it was he'd been thinking about. He eyed the door behind Charles first, then turned to look at the one over his own shoulder, making a note of the differences in them.
A simple nod of the head was all he offered, though in the back of his mind, that melancholic tinge had not gone unnoticed. He strode forward and reached to place a reassuring hand on Charles' shoulder, lips curving into the smallest of smiles. "No matter how your image changes, you will always be the amazing Professor that I've come to know."
Re: Kurt and Charles
"Yours. A small space of my own creation, temporary of course, inside your mind. Sort of... a safe haven, somewhere we can retreat to if things go sour or are too overwhelming. Free of stimulus, and the entire mind is stimulus. It's a necessary thing to be able to spend any length of time here if we're together. On my own... things are a little different, but we're here on a mission!" He gave that quirk of a smile he got, very rarely now a days, but the ghost of something from the past. A bit of mischief in that look.
But it dissolved into surprise, then a certain fondness, as Kurt stepped up to reassure him. Still, he didn't want to linger on it, not when his emotions could just as easily affect things within, and gave Kurt's shoulder a pat. "Thank you," meaning it, but continuing on. "For right now, let's see where we can start. It might not be pleasant, but what can you remember from the dream you where having?"
Re: Kurt and Charles
"Incredible. This is such an absolutely amazing gift ..." He gave their surroundings one final, lingering glance then returned his attention to Charles, a wide grin of his own coming across his face at the sight of his teacher in such a seemingly enthusiastic mood. (Was that a possible hint at some playfulness in there?)
Kurt's smile softened, warm and content in response to the affectionate touch to his shoulder. "You are welcome and thank you, Professor," he paused, taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, features immediately shifting to worry. "The beginning of the dream is not always the same. Sometimes, I'm in a church first and things get progressively worse from there, but they eventually end up in the same place: the fight club that Raven rescued me from. More often than not, the ... box I was kept in."
Re: Kurt and Charles
"Mm." There was just a tinge of anger Charles couldn't help at the idea of Kurt being kept in a box like some kind of animal, but he needed to focus on this problem now and making sure whatever that mess was in Kurt's homeland was taken care of later. (And he damn well would after seeing all of this.) "We need to see how things start as much as where they end, so... I want you to imagine this church. Is it a specific church? An imagined church? A church made up of other churches?" Trying to get a clue going through Kurt's mind so they had a starting place.
As soon as Kurt started to imagine that place, the white room would start to dissolve into it. No matter what the imagined church looked like, there were still two doors. Maybe this time it was the huge double doors at the back of the church people usually entered and the smaller door used for the priest to come and go at the front, but always two doors, just like the white room.
Re: Kurt and Charles
It wasn't hard for Kurt to notice the hint of irritation from Charles, though he figured it better to not mention it. If they were to get distracted, the mind-space could be distorted and all of their careful planning would be derailed. "It's worn and abandoned ..." He tried his hardest to imagine the church from his dreams, attempting to conjure up even the smallest details about the place - any particular things he could remember.
The ivory space began to fade around them, giving way to a far more intricate sort of setting; a church, as Kurt had described, with double doors at Charles' back and a vast empty space with another door at his own. He turned to gaze around at the old stone pillars, faded stained glass windows and arching ceiling, swallowing hard around the forming lump in his throat. "... this is it," he stated simply, trying to keep his voice from wavering.
Re: Kurt and Charles
Charles took a few moments of silence to study the surrounding church-scape that had appeared. What was it about this place that affected the generally cheerful Kurt so strongly? His gaze flickered back to the other, those elegant scars carved into his skin, and briefly made an assumption about the connection between the two before forcing that out of his mind. He couldn't assume, not now. This was delicate territory, in the mind of another, and a way to all too easily manipulate something if he was not extremely careful.
So instead, staying close to Kurt for support, he let Kurt describe it. "Is this based on a real place or is it something your unconscious has created?" Getting Kurt to talk wasn't just for his own information; he needed Kurt to start processing this on his own which was the only way this would work without needing a more drastic step, one that Charles didn't believe would ever fully work. A great difference lied between. Simply repairing the beam of a well-used bridge versus replacing that beam. Repairing it would be simplier and quicker but it meant there would forever be a weak-spot just waiting to break again.
Re: Kurt and Charles
He didn't have to look up to feel Charles' eyes on him. Still, the cobalt-tinted teen dropped his attention to his feet and shifted uncomfortably. If that wasn't a hint toward the meaning behind this church, behind the intricate scarification not only littering his face and hands, but all up and down his arms and across his chest. Most people hadn't been given a chance to see that, though, so they assumed it stopped at the former places.
With his mentor nearby, Kurt faintly relaxed his shoulders, taming the rapid in and out of his breathing. He had to do this and with Charles' help, they would figure out a solution. "It's an old church I used to go to when I was still living in Bavaria with my family." The words are somehow above a whisper and he only pauses to sharply inhale before continuing, because if he stops, he probably won't be able to continue. "This is how it looks now that it's abandoned. It's where ..." he trailed off, hands trembling as he turned to look over his shoulder. "Where I began scarring myself."
For now, he refused to look at Charles - too afraid of losing himself in emotions about this revelation, but this was a step forward in the right direction.
Re: Kurt and Charles
There was no hurry. Time didn't pass in your mind at the same rate it did out there, so Charles could wait until Kurt could speak about it, letting him set the pace and speed of what they were doing. He would give him that space yet also provide the hand up that everyone needed. He had needed, even if it came with foot long metal claws at the time.
When Kurt admitted where this place was the beginning of, he knew this would work in the end. A step in the right direction. From the way that Kurt was reacting spoke so deeply of shame, guilt, pain... it was obvious to understand why this church would be a starting place in his nightmares. It was a literal and figurative start.
"Do you remember the reason you began?" He asked quietly, giving Kurt a small suggestion of how to continue even as he moved slowly within memories, trying to encourage it up out of the depths of the unconscious.
Re: Kurt and Charles
That was probably a good thing. It took him far longer than he'd liked, but he (albeit hesitantly) turned back to Charles after a few long minutes, the twitching of his fingers ceasing long enough for him to move his hands behind his back.
Along with all of those, Kurt also couldn't fight the mixture of fright from the memory and unease at the thought of what his fellow mutant would think of his bodily harm. He tried his hardest to fight through the wave of sentiment rushing to him, head faintly tipping and his shoulders rolling. He could do this - he was more than determined.
"A priest spoke of it during a sermon: wonderfully elaborate figures--" he paused to motion to his face with an equally scarred hand, "called 'Enochian'. He mentioned how it was used to fend off demons and negative otherworldly things. It started as a form of repentance, like how some people flog themselves?"
He stopped to briefly huff a laugh, taking a step forward, that tail lashing from side to side. "I made a comment once that when I think about it now, it seems inappropriate. 'Most people won't know what the symbols mean, but maybe with the language of the angels on my body, I will appear less demonic,' or something like that."
Re: Kurt and Charles
Charles could feel all of it. Every burst of emotion, the pouring of guilt and shame, so powerful it felt like it could flatten him. It was all a part of their connection, the feeling of his fingers at Kurt's temples far away and beyond memory, but it was something he was feeling as keenly as if it was his own. His fingers crept up against his willing, brushing against his bare forearm as if he had the designs across his own flesh.
"It is not... something unexpected for a child to take so literally, but rare for it to go to such extremes." He had to rise above those feelings so that he could show Kurt that it could happen, that they could be over come, but it wasn't an easy thing when he still felt them every day himself. "I don't think the comment is or was inappropriate, but a child's pain speaking out."
He gave a little smile, trying to encourage. "Do you still doubt that your friends can look upon you in another light? The world... human, mutant, it doesn't matter... for all that we say we are higher beings than animals, we still judge each other on first glance. It doesn't matter the color of your skin or eyes or the make up of your body - everyone is judged and only those worthy of our time look any further past that."
Re: Kurt and Charles
From his peripheral, Kurt watched as Charles rubbed at his arm, bit down on the inside of his cheek again and huffed from his nose. He couldn't bear to think about someone else feeling what he'd done all these years; the first sting of a cut, the adrenaline rush from the exsanguination, the weeks of recovery afterward. No, he didn't want Charles to have to feel that.
Forcing the overwhelming emotions down, he cleared his throat and adjusted his hands again, allowing them to clasp over the front of his stomach. "I was young and impressionable while trying to find where I fit in this life." Something he was continuously struggling with, apparently. He scrunched his nose in thought, twiddling his thumbs to occupy his hands so they wouldn't twitch. "Maybe you're right."
Charles' question brought about another long silence, his head dipping forward and his eyes shutting. In his time before the cage fights, he might have thought that most people would always look at him with pity or hate, but here at Xavier's, he had friends - people who cared about his well-being and vice-versa. "... I think they could. Many of the other mutants I've met here have all treated me with respect. It's ... something I've been attempting to adapt to since I was rescued."
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles
Re: Kurt and Charles