Xaviers!

After everyone's said their goodbyes and traded promises to stay in touch, the X-Men load themselves back aboard the Blackbird to return home. The flight is short, since crossing England doesn't take that long and Tereza slides the ship back into the hangar with some assistance from Ashlie's autopilot programming.

As the ramp lowers, there's a blue-haired figure waiting at the bottom of it. "Welcome home," she calls out, "Ashlie sent me to take care of the gear."

Having eaten herself into bit of a food coma at the fey banquet Shari only realizes when the plane sets down that she's basically being delivered right to what she'd been running from. When the ramp lowers and she hears Natalie's voice she shifts right back into an otter and wriggles out of the now-loose armor to clamber down the ramp. Unfortunately she still has the pointed helmet on her head, covering most of her vision and she stumbles, tumbling down the ramp in a serious of metal clanks until she comes to a stop pretty much right at Natalie's feet. She lifts up the helmet to look up at her and tries to grin awkwardly.

Natalie looks down at the helmeted otter at her feet, raising an eyebrow at the obvious grin, and then back up the ramp. "Why did you guys bring an otter back? And why did you put a helmet on it?"

For a moment Shari considers just going with it and getting out of this situation. It's the obvious, easy thing to do and her gut reaction is to bail. But Natalie seems to have... pulled herself together? Moved on? Dealt with things? And turning tail suddenly feels hypocritical.

"It's me..." she relents after a couple moments. "The helmet just kinda... showed up."

The voice draws Natalie's attention back to the otter. "Shari..." Her tone is non-committal as she tries to hide the pain she thought she'd moved past. "I... didn't know you were back on campus." Keep things polite. Lots of people here. Don't want to cause a scene.

"Guess I am, yeah. Sorry bout... you know..." she says, scratching herself behind the ear, not quite managing to reach the back of her head. "Being a drunk butt."

Without thinking, Natalie reaches down to scratch the place that Shari can't quite reach. The hand feels a bit weird, but it's certainly Natalie except for some minor details in the face shape and her being a bit taller than she should be. "We both said some pretty harsh things."

"You look different." she says, fidgeting with the oversized helmet she's holding.

Natalie chews her lip for a moment before saying, "Still in that robot body. Looks like I will be for a while." She's obviously afraid of how Shari's going to react to that news, though whether it's because she doesn't want another fight or she cares what Shari thinks only a telepath could tell. "Ashlie and I did some work to make it look more like me."

"It looks good. You... feeling okay?"

"I think so. Some days are harder than others, but there's something good things too. Are you feeling okay? I mean, the helmeted-otter is cute and all, but..."

"I was avoiding some indigestion. Now I just kinda feel like it."

"Well, if that's what you feel like, then I guess that's okay. It's good to see you back here." She gives Shari another scratch behind the ears.

"I... know you're not like me. I have to keep reminding myself, but it's hard. You don't... disappear into what shape you're in." she says awkwardly, avoiding looking at her directly.

"No, I don't. I just disappear into my work. Like you said, I'm always me, for better or worse." There was maybe a slight bit of emphasis on 'worse'.

"If this is your worst then your best must be pretty amazing."

"Well, my worst is..." She glances around at the others getting off the plane, "... not really something I want to discuss around everyone else."

"But you do? Want to talk about it, I mean."

Natalie chews on her lip for a long moment, but finally says softly, "I think we should. Talk about it that is."

"Let's find somewhere quiet then."

"Sure. I can come back for the gear later," Natalie says, "The workshop should be quiet right now."

It doesn't take long to extricate themselves from the goings on with the X-Men and after a quick walk, they end up in a workshop that has several projects in various stages of completion. The door closes behind them and Natalie finds a seat on one of the stools in the room. She fidgets slightly. "I'm... not really sure where to start."

"Well, that's part of it, right? You don't really know how to deal with people. And... sometimes that includes yourself?" Shari asks carefully.

"I... yeah," she says, looking at her hands. "People... people are scary. I don't know why."

"But you're people." she says and then something seems to click for her at least a little bit. "Like I'm scared of my people..."

"Machines... I get... I can see how they're put together. How they work. If A and B, then C. It's ordered and nice and... people are just so... not. They do things for no reason other than to be spiteful. Even when they're supposed to be your friend."

"I wasn't trying to be spiteful..."

"No, no, not you. Somebody else. Someone from before I came here." She sighs, "I know you were just trying to help, but..." She holds up one hand, flexing the fingers, "This is one of the things I used to dream about being able to do with my power. So... to suddenly have it treated like... something heinous... it hurt."

"I was just worried. I know you're all... weirdo aliens," she tries to joke a little, although it's kind of the truth from her point of view "But all I've ever known is that you are who you are and it's... not a compulsion or a control thing but just... a truth and a way of thinking and being and I was scared..."

Natalie thinks about it for a long moment, "Well, imagine that there's some form you've always wanted to master. And then one day, you master it. You have it down perfectly. But then someone you care about starts going off on you about the form. And that's after you feel like you've helped save the day, but someone else yelled at you because they... You know... this metaphor made more sense when I started it."

"No I... I get it. I think. And I'm really sorry I was so up in my own head."

"I'm sorry I was so harsh about it. It just... made all my concerns and worries boil over and you were just a convenient target. That doesn't excuse it and you were right, I am apparently stuck with myself and I don't really like who that is."

"Then change who you are." Shari says almost automatically, as if it was that easy.

"I'm not... as malleable as you are."

"I'm not saying it's easy..." she admits.

"And I'm not saying it's impossible. Just... it's a long, difficult process. Refactoring personality's not like refactoring code."

"No, I guess it's more about... doing stuff differently. Like not running away cause it seems easier..." she says with bit of a labored smile.

"Well, I'm certainly trying to do some things differently. I don't know how successful I'm being."

"Guess I could stick around to let you know, if you want me to..."

"I would like having you around. I missed having my friend."