Xaviers!

Not too long ago the road into town and many streets in general had been completely devastated by plundering hordes and a tank, but thanks to temporal mechanics they were now as pristine as they had been a couple days ago. In fact exactly a couple days ago. Most of the town was now technically ever so slightly younger than the rest of the world. It's on that rejuvenated road that Miriam and Wanda are walking into town.

"The patterns around here are still a little strange," Wanda said, watching the air. "I'll chalk that up to time-travelling nazis." The space under the trees on the side of the road were occasionally spattered with sunlight or cloaked in shadows. Some of the shadows were deep enough that they almost had a presence of their own.

"Almost wish I'd gotten involved in that mess instead of one of my own making..." she sighs, glancing at the shade of the tree as if to check on something she saw out of the corner of her eye, briefly shaking her head when it's just the shadowy pattern of leafs on the sidewalk.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Wanda glanced at her before turning her attention back to the road in front of them.

"And scare you off right away? I'd rather not."

"I can be difficult to properly scare," she shrugged, "but it's your business, not mine. Based on your accent, you're from the UK?"

"Up north, yeah. Newcastle upon Tyne but I... haven't been there in a couple of years."

"Everyone leaves home at some point," she said. "I haven't really been back to Uppsala for any length of time in quite a while."

"Usually not at 11 though. But it's not like I would have wanted to stay if it'd been up to me anyway."

"Hrm, that is on the early side of things." As they reached town, they passed one of the edge of town bus stops. A man was standing there in a dark business suit. His features were a little off, like a portrait whose subject had moved ever so slightly and the artist had failed to properly compensate. Wanda glanced at him and he watched the girls with apparent disinterest. "I was sent to the states after one too many freaky weather occurrences in my vicinity," she said. "As destructive as my potential was, I was lucky to end up where I did."

"Feels like we all have stories like that, doesn't it. Bye bye normal childhood." Miriam's head follows the strange man for a moment as they pass him. "Instead the lucky ones are taught how to use it while the rest of us get to hear about the damage we could do. It's bullshit..."

"It can be, yes," Wanda agreed. "It does get tiresome. I get it, I could ruin the climate of southern England, but I've not got any plans to do so, so would they kindly shut it."

"Right? It's frustrating. And it's disingenuous to hold everything back just because it doesn't make people feel better about mutants, like a pretty set of wings or at least ugly scales to pity."

"There's something to be said for personal restraint, but it's no different than other expectations. I dearly love thunder and lightning, but I don't create thunderstorms just for the hell of it. But it's no different than expecting someone to not be an ass in public. It's just being polite." If they glanced behind them, the man was no longer at the bus stop, which was odd since no bus had come by.

"That's what I keep saying. You can be an ass with any power or even without them. It's bullshit to be singled out and told yours is somehow different." she says, casting a glance over her shoulder. Something in the back of her mind was bugging her. Did she not pick up on that man's mind or had she just not paid attention? When she fails to spot him she frowns slightly. Was she going nuts now?

"Hey, where did the guy we just passed go?"

Wanda turned to look and then stopped. "I... don't know." Her eyes got a far away look. "I'm not even seeing where he disturbed the air."

"But there was somebody, right? You saw him too?"

"Certainly," she said. "Though he looked odd, so I didn't want to look at him too much." She paused, "Though that makes me sound like an ass."

"Makes you sound like a person. I mean, people are garbage, but we all live in the same dump together so what does it matter, right?"

"There is some usable stuff in every dump," Wanda said with a chuckle. "I'm a little disturbed by our disappearing businessman though." She turned to start walking again.

"You think someone's following us?"

"You'd be able to sense him if he was, right?"

"I dunno... If he's just a human then yeah, but I'm not really sure I picked anything up from him. I wasn't paying that much attention."

"Well, never attribute to malice what can be attributed to oversight. We'll just keep our eyes open."

"Sure. You worried someone might be following you? Vindictive ex or something?"

"Me? No. No exes, vindictive or otherwise. You worried someone might be following you?"

"It's... possible. No exes, but I'm a telepath, it's a pretty personal power and someone might be holding a grudge..."

"People who hold grudges bug me. Either act on the grudge or just give up. Holding onto that sort of shit is poisonous."

"I suppose. People just feel like they can't. Or at least shouldn't."

"Grudges are the emotional equivalent of I.O.U.s. Neither a borrower nor a lender be and all of that. Of course, this may be directly influenced by the things I deal with with my power."

"Well yeah, no one wants to be handed an 'I owe you a lightning strike'."

"Well, rest assured you will never get the note. If I owe you one, you will get one right away," she smiled at Miriam.

"How reassuring." she chuckles. "I get to skip the looming sword of Damocles."

"Those are the tools of James Bond villains," Wanda said with a chuckle of her own.

"Well yeah. If you're holding a grudge you want to savor that moment of fear for as long as possible."

"I have yet to actually earn the ire of a villain, but there's still plenty of time in life."

"Probably not the smartest thing in the world anyway. That sounds like it'd be a huge pain in the ass."

"I've been led to believe it's not precisely ideal."

"So no exes or supervillains, any idea why someone would be following you?"

"I did some minor hero work when I was at the Institute, but that was mostly search and rescue type stuff, providing good weather for searches and that sort of thing. I can't imagine someone would be pissed at me over that." She frowned, "It's possible I pissed someone off on my Europe trip last year, but if I did, I don't remember it."