1963-05-29 - Burnin down the House
Summary: Amara is still getting used to the house.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
xavier amara 


Amara has had a very eventful week. What with the being brought back to Nova Roma from hiding with the natives, the attempted sacrifice, and then the trip in the very strange machine back to this…entirely different world. She slept like the dead when she was shown to a room at the mansion - probably as much because her body needed to recover from the sudden change as because of anything else. When she awoke, though, she was still here. In this very strange land.

Getting dressed in the tunic she brought from home, she's crept quietly onto the grounds from the house in the pre-dawn light, barefoot and still half-asleep.

There's an odd mixture of smells coming from just out in front of where Amara is walking. The kitchen seems to be alive early this morning. There's a sizzle as there is clearly bacon being prepared. Bacon and other mixture of things, but it's the bacon that overpowers everything.

As she turns the corner, Charles Xavier is standing at the stove, cooking a full English breakfast. "I thought you'd be waking at any point now. I didn't think it was proper to invade on your mind, especially while you were sleeping, but I felt like this style of food was probably decent enough for someone from any part of the world."

He plops the bacon onto the plate and moves towards the eggs. Already on there are tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and sausage.

"Plus, my mother used to make this. She was from England."

"I…appreciate that." Just how or why Amara has picked up English is less than clear, but she certainly seems to understand it. And she's speaking it better every day. "Thank you." Whatever else, she's unfailingly polite, and turning down hospitality would be unforgivably rude. So she steps into the kitchen, still moving cautiously. Absently, she brushes her fingers through her hair, trying to bring some order to the blonde curls.

"I'm sorry if I was rude when I arrived. Everything- The last few days, everything has been so strange, and it seems as though I'm just- I feel very…unsettled. I feel as though everything caught up to me at once, and I desperately needed to sleep."

"Amara, please don't apologize. First, I did not find you to be the slightest bit rude. And, even had you been, it would have been completely understandable with what you've been through over the past few days. If you're hungry, I've made this for you. I did not know if you preferred scrambled or poached eggsthere are some who have an aversion to liquid yolkso I made both."

Xavier grabs a plate for her and himself and makes towards the large table. "You've come at an interesting time, just as school is beginning to let out. It means that the numbers here will be a little bit thinner. That can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it. Either way, I'm interested to learn what you hope to do now that you are here."

"Poached sounds lovely, thank you," Amara says quietly, taking the other plate and sliding gracefully into a seat at the table. She's quiet for a moment, choosing her words, perhaps. Or maybe just finding them. "I cannot go home as it stands, Professor," she finally replies. "My people…After Selene, my people are rightly afraid of what I can do. And my father has so much work to do there, and…And I clearly can't control this," she adds, the faintest tremor rattling the plates in the cupboards. "I need to learn."

Charles is about to bring a cup of coffee to his lips when the plates start rattling. He stops abruptly, raising an eyebrow, before a slick grin widens on his face. "Well, you've come to the right place, Amara. Later today I shall bring you to what some of my students have lovingly begun to call the Danger Room. It has some spaces that we can begin your training, which I hope will grant you some peace as you make the transition. You may also stay as long as you wish."

"The Danger Room?" Amara arches a brow at that suggestion, but the rattling has stopped. For now. "It sounds…like quite a place to train." She starts eating, though, neat in her use of knife and fork. "Thank you, though. I know there is much to learn. Not just my own abilities, but everything in the world outside my home. It seems we've stayed separate from the world nearly as long as we can hope."

"I assure you I didn't come up with the name. One of the things that came out of teenager lingo. I'm afraid I don't quite understand it either," Charles says with a smile. "Whatever ways we can help you, we will. I look forward to it, to be honest. I've never met anyone from your part of the world. In fact, I didn't know it existed."
"Yes. That was by design." A faint smile flickers across Amara's features before she looks back down at her plate, cutting herself a bit of sausage as well. "We've kept ourselves secret for centuries. Kept our culture safe. Kept our secrets. You were the first people to find us."
"Why the secrecy? Or, I presume, that if you answered that question that would sort of defeat the purpose," Charles says with a laugh. He changes the subject abruptly, "Tell me about your powers. Tell me how you feel when you use them and how you came to find them."
"To keep our culture pure. To maintain it," Amara lifts one shoulder in a slight shrug. "Because it's the way it has always been." The question, though, gets a nervous upward glance from the young mutant. "Before…There have always been some among my people who were touched by the gods. People with gifts. But such gifts were also something to be feared, because having them was a certain way to draw the attention of the dark goddess."

She cuts the egg, letting the yolk seep over her sausage. "My father said my mother had gifts. And that was why she was taken. Sacrificed. So when I was fifteen, he sent me out of the city to hide with some of the others. And I would have stayed there, if it hadn't been for your people," she adds, glancing back up again. "But when we were all taken back to the city, she decided we would make excellent sacrifices, to fuel her power. Except when she threw me into the volcano…"

Amara trails off, her hand shaking slightly. "It was like…Like everything inside me was suddenly on fire. Like burning without being consumed, like I could feel everything spreading out from my own body, into the magma, into the heart of the earth itself. Like for a moment, I was me, but I was also…Everything."

As she speaks, the rumbling starts again. Soft, at first. A mere tremor. Then building, rattling the plates against the table, sending hanging lights to swaying.

Charles reaches out with his mind to soothe Amara's emotions, "I hope you don't mind my intrusion, but it seems clear to me that your powers are based on your emotions. That's actually a good thing. Problem number one solved." Charles smiles and drinks his coffee, never seeming all that particularly worried that she's going to burn the place down (which she might).
At the first touch on her mind, Amara's head shoots up, panic flashing through her. There's a sharp crack from outside as the ground parts at the roots of a tree, sending it tilting to one side. For just a moment, the girl across from him seems to burst into flames, a creature built of molten rock, before the calming touch takes effect.

The seat cushion might be smoking just a little bit.

"I'm sorry," she says, bewildered as she looks around herself. "I- Yes. Yes, I think you are correct, Professor."
Charles shrugs, nonchalantly. "No problem, Amara." Pause. "It's an old cushion." Xavier looks down and the cushion is totaled, burnt to a crisp.

The Professor just takes another swig from his coffee.

"I must learn to control this," Amara sighs, going back to her breakfast. "Or I will hurt someone. Damage something. I cannot go home until I can control it. Not given the nature of my powers. Nova Roma is built on a volcano," she points out, dry. "I can hardly surround myself with my friends and family knowing that one bad surprise, one angry moment and I could sentence them all to death. So. I will study here," she nods once, firmly. "And I will learn."

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