Xaviers!

The sun has just about set on a day that has been more than a little insane. Physically she feels... not fine, her body still aches a bit from what Quinn put there through, but well enough. Mentally she doesn't know what to think. She feels like an idiot for unloading on Will and Sam like that, embarrassed mostly. Guilty about the things she even had to apologize for. But then why can she not stop smiling like an idiot as she stares at the sun's dieing light casting the horizon in a reddish purple hue.

The door to the stairs leading down creaked open behind her, the only indication that someone had arrived. The troubles with having no telepathy, I suppose -- one could still be surprised.

Will stood there, quietly, letting Miriam soak in the sunset.

After a couple moments of awkward silence Miriam turns her head to spot the once again green-haired Will.

"You have your powers back..." she says, the implication of him probably having come to return her power pretty clear in her voice.

"I do. Apparently no side-effects, either; everything seems alright so far, at least."

He would have made some stupid jokes here, but, well, he could read a room.

She nods and glances back at the sky for a moment.

"Do you want to know something bloody stupid? Losing my power changed absolutely nothing..."

Will walked forwards and stood next to Miriam, looking out over the sky.

"Really? Nothing at all?"

"Maybe for a little while. But it turns out I wasn't sensing blame as much as I was just feeling guilt. And that didn't go away when my power did."

"The feelings coming from inside the house, eh? Ack, that sucks. It hurts to have your worldview shunted like that; I'm sorry, Miriam."

"They're always coming from inside the house, whether they're yours or mine and all that... guilt and anger and jealousy and loathing and loss and sadness it... it's easy to pretend they aren't really mine when it all happens in my head one way or another..."

Will nodded, slowly. "You can lose yourself in the illusion."

"So no, losing my power didn't really change anything but the fact that it didn't... that changed everything."

"Being trapped with your own thoughts gave you...perspective?"

"Sure, if you want to be boringly concise about it." she says, turning her head slightly to smirk at Will.

"One of the side-effects of the mutation, I'm afraid. I'm immune to boredom," he deadpanned. "A tragedy beyond understanding."


"So, if everything's changed....where do you go from here?"

"Have you ever known me to think ahead?" she says with at least some of her sarcastic bite to it. "Which is to say... I don't know. Try a little harder, I suppose. Be a little better to myself and everyone else? Other... trite adages?" she chuckles ruefully.

"I realize how much of it's in my own head now. That's a start."

"And you know you don't have to be perfect, right? That you have friends here who will help you along the way."

"Inexplicably, some people just refuse to give up on me, yes." she smiles. "I'm just glad that for once it wasn't me who got suckered into hanging with the bad guys."

"This is where I loudly protest I was undercover, and pretend that was my idea from the beginning, right?" Will half-grinned back.

"It's either that or double-down hard. No other options."

"Eh, you've seen my attempts at being 'evil'. Surprised it fooled anybody for a minute," Will laughed.

"I don't know, that silver needle hurt like hell."

"If sugar bombs and lollypops could break through the mental conditioning, I would have gone that route. Only figured it out by breaking my own thumb, and THAT wasn't a pleasant experience, either."

Miriam shudders. "It's almost impressive how bad your mental defenses are with that kind of willpower. I could barely bring myself to use the spike more than once."

"Well, we all have our own crosses to bear.

Wait, sorry, vampire. We all have our own definitely non-religious symbols to bear. And willpower or no willpower, my psyche is, y'know. I believe the technical term is 'fucked up'."

"For someone as old as you it's in remarkably good shape. I'd imagine."

Will shrugged. "It wasn't in better space when I was younger.

The secret, Miriam, is that my defenses are fine, in their own way. It's just my subconscious poking holes in them that makes me vulnerable. We all have our demons."

"And I suspect you brought one of mine up here in a little vial."

"I suppose I did, if you look at it that way."

"I'm not sure I do anymore. But at the same time, do I really want it? So often it feels like it's more trouble than it's worth..."

"Trouble? Eh, maybe. But there's nothing wrong with a little bit of trouble.

It's a tool, Miriam, and you get to decide what it means."

"I think I have..." she says, turning away from the edge of the roof and holding out her hand for the vial.

Will carefully handed over the vial; a deep red crimson liquid shimmering inside.

"Drinking my own blood is a weird change of pace." she says before popping the vial open with her thumb and knocking it back like she would a shot of liquor. For a while Miriam just stares out at the horizon.

Then slowly large, worn stone tiles push aside the ground beneath their feet and slowly replace the roof's surface around them, the effect creeping up to turn the low wall in front of them into an elaborate balustrade complete with parts of a stone gargoyle slowly emerging out into the open air. The effect thins out only a couple feet away from Miriam, but just about reaches the wall of the doorway where a tangle of shockingly green foliage is now growing up the wall, speckled with the occasional crimson of burgeoning roses.

Will carefully stepped over the line of transformation as the roof was replaced by something straight out of a gothic horror novel. If it's bad luck to step on a crack in the sidewalk, think of the terrible luck from stepping on a crack in reality.

Will watched for a moment as Miriam stared over the campus, thinking quietly to himself. He let his clothing ripple and shift, his usual casual jeans and shirt look being replaced by a dark, black and red velvet gothic dress coat with the appropriate trimmings and accoutrements included.

Plucking a rose from the wall, he walked back over to Miriam, leaning over the balustrade to look back over the scenery, letting Miriam take her own time to come to grips with the situation. There would be time for stupid quips later.

After some time of comfortable silence Miriam turns her head to look at Will.

"You do realize I can feel the stupid jokes bubbling under the surface, right?"

"Ah ah, no fair peeking. You've got to give them time to age and develop character before you tap the barrel. "

"No, I think they're more like curdled milk. Cheesy."

"If you've been eating cheese made of curdled milk, no wonder you've switched to blood."

"Will, I hate to break it to you, but that's what cheese is. Just like most alcohol is just spoiled plant juice. Although that does give me an idea..."

"You're going spoil some plants?"