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Lorna had been told that she could visit, so she was trying something new, visiting Warren. The evening was cooling off rapidly, as it tended to do as the sun dropped lower in the horizon now that fall was approaching and summer was ending slowly. She wore jeans and a t-shirt, a pair of sneakers. Her hair was no longer the horrible dark dye job, but rather a soft brown that looked perfectly natural. No hint of green to be seen.
She had given her name, and been directed up to Warren's penthouse apartment. Her brows shooting upwards as she looked all around. It was pretty fancy. And she couldn't help a soft whistle at the artistry of some of it.
Having been informed by the security downstairs, Warren is waiting there by the elevator when Lorna arrives. He is dressed casually to beat the heat of the summer, barefoot in a pair of shorts and tank-top. "Hi Lorna!" he says as she emerges from the elevator. "Welcome to my humble abode. Can I get you anything? Water? Carbonated sugary beverage of choice? Something stronger? I won't tell if you don't." He smirks and wanders over towards the little kitchen area, "What brings you by?"
Lorna smiled at Warren's infectiously light mood as he smirked and offered her booze. "Hmm, well, I can always just take a taxi or a bus home. So sure. I'll take something stronger." She stepped inside, kicking her shoes off at the front of the apartment just out sheer need to not track in whatever had been on her shoes inside. Warren's place was nice.
"Well, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. I saw my sister, but well.. turns out asking her to help me find my mother is going to take a whole lot more magic than she expected. So I'm going to wait until she comes back from Poland to ask about the charm." Her left hand was heavily wrapped in gauze, and she held it close to her side.
"But I found her charm for my hair, so I can at least show you that at least."
Warren chuckles lightly and goes to fix something somewhat fruity and alcoholic for Lorna. A little rum mixed with some pineapple juice and orange juice, with a splash of grenadine. He fixes a martini for himself, tossing in a couple extra olives.
He passes over the drink to Lorna as he sips his, "That's fine, Lorna. I appreciate you asking. I knew it was probably a long shot anyway." He motions over to the sunken living room area, and starts to head over that way. "Glad you found your own charm, though. Should save you on hair dye."
Lorna murmured a thanks as he offered her the sweet and fruity drink, decidedly something that the mutant would enjoy. She grinned as she sipped at it and made her way over to the living room area that he motioned toward. She sank onto a couch, careful not to upset her drink in the process. "It's not a long shot, from what I've heard appearance charms are pretty low on the scale of magic. But finding a woman, without a name, or an idea of where she is, without anything that ever belonged to her, and who might actually not even be alive anymore.. well.. that's hard. Wanda said it might take her a few days of searching in Poland before she has anything for me." She shrugged and setting aside her drink for a moment, reached up for a necklace that hung around her neck.
A tiny slivery chain hung there, and an equally tiny Star of David hung from the center. As soon as it was off her, her hair was green. "She can make a more permanent charm that will always last.. but I wanted to be able to be myself too."
Warren nods, listening. "I could see how that would be a matter of difficulty. Finding a needle in a haystack to use an old saying." He chuckles lightly, taking another sip.
He watches the removal of the necklace and nods, smiling. "That's nice. Much better than hair dye and makeup to be sure. I don't think I would want anything permanent myself. I guess if I go out and do the 'hero' thing, being blue might be a good cover." He smirks, "Guess I will have to get used to wearing some jewelry as well. Maybe a necklace or pinky ring? I don't know."
Lorna shrugged as she pocketed the necklace with care, leaving her naturally brilliant locks visible. "Yeah, that was originally my thought as well. There's a difference between a girl with green hair and one with brown." She paused, "But then there were things… and people know what I look like and what my powers are anyways. So I saw little point." She sighed softly.
"But I dunno. I guess I was just lowering my guard too much." She shrugged and picked up her drink again, sipping at it carefully.
"I also talked to Miss Frost the other day." A pause, "She doesn't want me to leave the school."
Warren says, "I doubt her or Charles want you to leave the school. That doesn't mean that the school is the best place for you, or that you want to be there. You have to do what is ultimately best for you, and the only one that can really answer what that is, is sitting on the couch having a mai-tai." He shrugs a shoulder, "What did you tell her?" Then he pauses for a moment and cocks his head, "Wait? Emma is back? When did that happen?""
Lorna sipped at said Mai-tai, with a smile twitching at the corner of her lips. "Miss Frost just got back this past week from a vacation. Apparently the Professor told her I needed therapy. So she called me over to the office. Then she learned I intended to leave the school and she was .. worried to say the least. She doesn't think it's a good idea since everything happened. She's worried." She shrugged and heaved a sigh.
"I told her that I would think about coming back, but that for now.. I'm going to stay at my father's house. I need the distraction and the distance. Being surrounded by people that care about is nice.. but gets stifling and only reminds me about what happened.."
Nibbling one of the olives off of the toothpick in his drink, Warren nods his head quietly. "Must be nice that everyone is so worried about you." He says a bit dryly. "I mean, maybe I am better off than I you were, but I don't recall this much of a fuss after I got back. Or maybe I was just unconscious when they rooted around in my noggin to deem I wasn't a threat. I don't know. I suppose I shouldn't say anything about it, but the few times I have laid eyes on Charles since then…just seemed he was more interested in other things." He sighs, shaking his head, "I don't know. Maybe that is just my own mind playing tricks on me."
Lorna's expression creased faintly, "You saw me the first few days after I woke up, to say I wasn't functioning is an understatement. And the Professor, is more of Uncle Charlie to me. He and my father have known each other for years and he's the safest place my father believes there is for me when he can't be around. And Miss Frost discovered that I was a mutant and got me into college." She shrugged, "So they're a bit protective over me."
A sigh followed and she glanced back to Warren.
"When you were out light a like, everyone was very worried about you. I visited." She grimaced faintly, "And I'm sure that the Professor wants to give you space. I mean, you said you didn't want people poking around. And they're pretty good at respecting that."
Warren shrugs, "Maybe I did. Maybe they are." says Warren sipping at his drink. "As I said, it could just be me and my messed up perceptions on the events that lead to me being there, and subsequent days. I don't know. I just haven't seen much of Charles since I got back, and when I did it was only for moments before he ran off to go do something else. It's probably me just reading into things that aren't there."
He plops another olive into his mouth and tosses back the last of his martini. "Maybe the worse of it for me was over by the time I got back. Who knows. I certainly don't. THe bits I do recall aren't for the faint of heart or stomach anyway."
Lorna leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs as she sipped at her drink. "It's okay. I know my perceptions aren't so good either. That a lot of it is messed up." She pursed her lips, "It's why Kellan and Vic stayed in the room when I wanted to talk to Kaleb. Because I can't be trusted to not .. not.." She closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Either way, I know how it feels, Warren." She exhaled a breath, turning her gaze back to him.
"Do you want to talk about what you do remember?"
Warren stands, moving over towards the bar to refill his drink. "It's just bits and pieces mainly. Flashes. I can't even be sure they are my memories, but I can't imagine them being anyone elses."
He sighs, "Mostly it is just…well. Mostly it is just blood, and body parts. Me, at least I think it is me, dismembering people. A flash of chrome, a scream, a fountain a blood. Didn't matter who they were, or what I was cutting. It was just…messy."
Warren finishes making the martini and sips at it, grabbing more olives as he moves to sit back down. "I can't imagine if any survived. If they did, they were maimed for life."
Lorna fell silent as she listened to Warren's experiences and she nodded slowly, "That sounds well.. pretty in line with what they had me do." She pursed her lips, "They had access to mutants with several different powers. I don't know if it was a chop shop, lab or some kind of staging ground. It felt like all three at different times." She murmured.
"They made me kill people with metal in different ways." She bit her lower lip, "They did iron injections to see how high an iron content I needed to rip it free of people." Her gaze fell to the drink in her hand and she exhaled a slow breath. "Had me kidnap people.." She shook her head and sipped at her drink.
"And I couldn't do anything to stop it."
Warren listens quietly as he sips at his drink. "That sounds…horrible. I don't know if the visions I am having are from while I was a captive, or during my escape. I don't know what, if anything, they had me do when I was with them. The only thing I know is that I ended up different by the end of it all. At least, for all the horrid things they did, it seems like you made it out mostly yourself? Nothing inherently different about you?
Lorna pursed her lips as she glanced over Warren, a faint pinch in her brows as she gazed at him. "No. They didn't physically change me. Or strip my DNA and fiddle around with it like they did to others." She swallowed a hard lump. "They thought my powers were strong enough. That they could do what they wanted with me for the long haul. They had people researching magnetism its affects on the human body to see what else I could do." She bit her lower lip.
"Because they had a method of controlling me. I wasn't me anymore." She whispered and shrugged, looking away and back to her drink.
"It was like that negative voice in the back of your head.. but it was another being. And it knew everything I knew. And I couldn't shut it up and I couldn't stop it from making me do things."
Warren nods, slipping back into his seat at the couch. "That's horrible. I think I prefer the whole blacked out thing to being awake but not being able to do anything thing. That is a special level of horror." He shakes his head, sipping at his drink. "We are just a pair of fucked up individuals aren't we."
Lorna offered a twisted, thin lipped smile as she sipped at her drink. "I still can't sleep a night through without nightmares." She nodded toward Warren as he stated the obvious, or at least what she felt was obvious. She held out her nearly finished drink in a mock toasting gesture.
"Cheers. To us, the fucked up, screwed over, mental cases. At least we're not alone." Her chest tightened, a sorrow for the one that should've been there with them and was not.
She finished off her drink after in a gulp.
Warren lifts his own glass and takes a sip. "No, sadly we are not alone." He shakes his head, "I've been avoiding sleeping with Thea or anyone else since I have been back. I've had my own nightmares. Scary thing is my nightmares can kill someone. I've already had to replace my matress a few times. I'm sure people are loving to gossip about what kinky stuff I must be doing up here."
Lorna grimaced as she looked down at her empty glass, turning it between her fingers. "There's been a long history of people like us, maybe someday there will be a place where it won't happen.. but I don't think that it'll exist anytime soon." She whispered. Her lips pursed into a thin line. "What happens when I wake up in a terrorized state and my powers react.. it's why Miss Frost wants me at the mansion. If my father isn't around to monitor and control my powers as a back up.." Anotehr sigh pulled from her lips.
For a good long while silence fell between them. As she stared down at the glass in her hand, before she finally continued. "He.. won't see me again until I'm .. better." She exhaled a breath, her gaze lowered. "And I don't think that that is ever going to happen. I can't just go back to who I was before. He'll never see that girl again. She's as good as dead." She whispered, "And sometimes I wish that no one had rescued me. Stupid thought, but still.." She shrugged and set the empty glass down. The pronoun game, sure, but she knew Warren would understand.
Warren continues with the pronoun game. "I'm sure he is hurting just as much as you are, Lorna. After all, from what I have overheard he blamed himself for your abduction." He shrugs a shoulder, "And none of use will ever be who we once were. Even if this hand't have happened to any of us, it is just by the nature of life that we change. I am not the same Warren I was even 10 minutes ago than I was. All I can say, and I'm sorry if it isn't filled with hope and good cheer, is that either things will work out, or they wont. You can't live life in the 'what ifs' anymore, because that will just drive you down a path of insanity. You just have to live your life, and hope that in the future your lives intersect again."
Lorna offered Warren a sad smile, one of a breaking heart. Her brows pinched and she slowly nodded, "I know. And that hurts all the more. It wasn't his fault. It was never his fault. And he is so used to blaming himself.." She exhaled a breath, looking down at her lap. "Thanks, Warren.." She smiled weakly as she glanced back to him after a moment or two of sitting there in a continued silence.
"I should get going back. And likely not have another drink if I don't want to ride the bus home."
Warren glances to the empty glass and shrugs. "I can get you a cab if you want another, or hell I could just fly you home. Being up this high means less chance of actually being seen coming and going. Of course, if you want to go I am not trying to stop you, either. Just saying you don't need to go."
Warren shrugs and sips at his drink, "As far as he is concerned, only time is going to be able to rectify things, if they are to be rectified. Wish I had better words."
Lorna paused in the middle of getting up as Warren offered her another drink, and several ways home. "Twist my arm why don't ya." She grinned, musing lightly. "I'll take another. Or a few in that case." A pause followed, "I can fly, so no need to worry about my being scared of heights. But there's no way I'd try using my powers while drunk.. Bad stuff happens." She grimaced faintly, looking off to the side.
"I knocked over a lamp when I tried to turn it off the first time I was drunk. Ooh boy, my sister had a lecture about not drinking." She laughed softly and then immediately sobered up at Warren's comment. She sighed.
"Your words are better than most and I appreciate them, they mean a great deal to me Warren." She murmured, sitting back.