14567/How Was Your Day

How Was Your Day
Date of Scene:	31 March 2023
Location:	217 West 57th Street, New York City
Synopsis:	Alexander comes home after the Battle at the Starport.
Cast of Characters:	Betsy Braddock, Alexander Aaron

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Betsy Braddock has posed:
The apartment was a wonder to behold. Three stories of perfection high above the city of New York. It was expensive beyond belief. And a lovely real estate investment. Thus when Betsy Braddock had gone looking for a place in the city which would have a bit more room, she had opted to go for the best. The property had been sold to her furnished so it wouldn't be mostly barren, though she was going to be working on that.

It helped keep her mind off things.

Which is why she was currently sitting on a stark white couch with the backdrop of the city behind her due to the giant windows lining every inch of wall space. In her lap was an oversized book of samples. Materials, colors, various things as she considered what she might order.

Only, it was difficult to concentrate. Her mind was elsewhere. But sadly, the situation was beyond her actual range and thus she couldn't use her telepathy to see what was going on. It was frustrating and she turned to look toward the east, frowning slightly as she did so, then looking back to the book of samples without really seeing it.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    It was as she read that same page in the catalog for the fifth time that she might have caught the first flicker of something on the edge of her senses. The flicker of presence that she has keyed in to her senses, that subtle echo of the other who shares that penthouse with her. She could tell that he still didn't quite consider it a home, then again she likely also realized he didn't consider his own apartment his home either. That was likely some old house where he grew up with his father.
    Somewhere in Jersey probably.
    But she heard the trill from the elevator. That tone that announced someone was using that private lift to bring one of the few people who knew the entry code up high up into the sky where the penthouse dwelled. She could reach out and contact him if she wanted, she knew he wasn't focusing his thoughts to her, wasn't trying to communicate . His thoughts had wandered as he rode up that elevator, watching the city skyline get lower and lower beneath him.
    Then the door opened and she heard the whumpf of his backpack being left at the door. His voice lifting as he calls out, "Hey. I'm home. Anyone here?"

Betsy Braddock has posed:
That little hint had her head snapping up and face turned the direction of the mind she sensed. Immediately she wanted to latch on and see what was happening but she forced herself to keep her mind apart. Unless he was thinking loudly, she would be able to keep from reading his thoughts. But she was immediately on her feet, setting the book aside on the seat to her left, then rising to move toward the elevator.

She was dressed comfortably. Gray yoga pants, a pair of thick socks, a tank top with a lighter sweater worn over it but one shoulder sagged a bit showing the strap of the undershirt. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, secured with two hair sticks in a Japanese design.

As he stepped off the elevator, she was rounding the corner into the small hall area and spotted him. "I'm here," she offered as she moved closer, automatically looking him over quickly to ascertain his physical status.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    He brought his work home with him.
    Or at the least seemed to in part with how he was dressed. He had those boots on from the SHIELD deployment, though he was wearing a pair of blue jeans. He had a loose somewhat muddy white t-shirt that looked a little frayed, but over top of that was the black SHIELD field jacket with the eagle on the shoulder. His hair was wilder than normal, and his features were just a touch more haggard. But when she rounded that corner...
    He smiled.
    "Hey." Behind him he had dropped that backpack, leaving it there with the rest of his gear he brought with. He closed the distance and slipped his arms around her, drawing her into his embrace as he eased close and they shared a soft kiss that drifted with a hint toward the passionate. Just for a moment, as if to let her know how glad he was to see her.
    "It was... wild. It'll be on the news for... weeks I'm afraid." Then his brow furrowed, "Longer, it's going to cause ripples."
    He held her again and shared another kiss, taking in a deep breath and her scent as he smiled gently, "You would have loved it."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"I had to turn off the news. They couldn't really tell us anything," Betsy admitted as she kept her arm around his waist, keeping that physical connection between them. It was more for her than him, which was rather silly honestly. He was the one that had been in some giant battle. She'd been sitting on a couch trying to pick between lavender, violet, or lilac duvet covers. "Come. Sit. You want some tea or something to eat?" That offer of comfort in another form which seemed to be a part hard-wired into humanity.

At mention she would've loved it, she had to tilt her head but there was a faint curve of her lips. "If it was a physical hand-to-hand? Probably so on some level. How bad was it though? The news made it sound like it was the end of the world."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Alexander walks with her side by side down the wide hall toward one of the sitting rooms, he smiles a little. "If you are having tea I'll have some, but don't make it just for me." He nudges her gently with his hip as he moves, and once they reach the room he drops onto the sofa, pulling up a foot to undo the laces of that combat boot, taking his time as he does so.
    "I still don't know everything that happened, you might have a better bigger picture than me. But... I was part of one of the teams that boarded the Indomitable. So my experience for most of it was sitting in the back of a Quinjet getting ready for the drop." He pulls that boot free and sets it down and to the side. He does seem to treat this penthouse with more care than his Greenwich apartment, and she can catch the hint of a flash of his thoughts about how it feels like living in a museum, he's so cautious of breaking things.
    "So we sat there and we talked nervously. Then the green light came and the jets took off. We dropped down out of the cloud cover..." Alexander looks at her, those pale eyes holding her gaze and she can sense a hint of the... thrill that must have gone through him in that moment. "And there it was laid out beneath us. Hundreds of these... ships. Flying daggers, black, sinister looking. So much fire going on, so many weapons. The fight was focused on the Starport. The Eisenhower was there and still fighting despite being mobbed by ships. And we were pointed at these alien vessels..."
    He shakes his head as his eyes sort of unfocus as he brings that moment back to his mind's eye, and she can see it with him. "We broke off, the Quinjets went to infiltrate some of the larger ships, board, do what damage we could. We had those wing suits in case we had to evac quick, but it was still... insanity."
    The young Olympian looked at her. "So we boarded one of the ships, and everything was chaos. We hit into one of the outer hull effects. Started working our way in. They didn't have organized responses to our incursion. Half of them seemed to be trying to save their own skins, some ships were breaking formation already by then. We got to the engine room, fought a few counter-boarding teams. Then we controlled the engine room and they had me contact the bridge. As soon as I did, they surrendered?"
    He shakes his head, "We got the ship to land, and most of our teams were intact. Omega team boarded a ship that almost immediately went FTL and they're... somewhere lost. We have no idea what happened to them."
    He takes a deep breath. "By the time we got the ship down it was all over, we were put into rescue detail and we did what we could. And..." His eyes distanced, then he murmured, "And then we came home. Shifts are still working there. It's going to take a while to recover."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
There was indeed a cup of tea on the table in front of the couch. She moved the book that was taking up a seat onto that table then settled in, folding her feet up beside her and listening as he explained what had happened. Visualizing what he was saying though again Betsy resisted the urge to peek into his head and clean up those images to match reality.

"We didn't have visual confirmation until some kids apparently started a live feed. Then the news was all over that. It seemed--" She shook her head a moment. "Like insanity. Chaos everywhere. Difficult to even imagine how terrifying it must've been."

Which brought something to mind as she pursed her lips, looking at him critically a moment then opting to save that for another time. "Well, not for you obviously," she said, a hint of a smile. She rested her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry. To lose so many people and then having teammates just gone and no idea." A little squeeze of that hand.

She nodded toward the tv that was just a black rectangle on the wall at the moment. "They have news crews there now and it looks like the Starport is going to take a while to recover. Not to mention the wrecked ships that I'm guessing will be salvaged. Maybe reverse engineered if possible."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    The young man smiles a little, "Above my pay grade."
    But then he looks a little distant, "Still... it was... amazing. Reminded me of... the past." He shakes his head a little, "Reminded me of times my father would speak about. War. Battle. I've seen both. But it's been a while. Years. It was exhilirating, though we lost people." He bit his lower lip a little and shook his head.
    "I should feel more shellshocked, more... mournful. But I don't. Just reminds me that I'm... different and all."
    He finished with the other boot as he had stopped working on it as he spoke. Then he leans over and takes a sip of her tea, handing the cup back to her. He pulls a leg up into his lap. "At least it's... over. For the most part. No more attacks on the Triskelion for the foreseeable future. Hopefully."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"Hopefully," Betsy echoed. "They are still working on repairs after the last attack, yes?"

Which had been a while back now. The damage from that was far less thatn what had been suffered at the Starport though. She took a sip of the tea then set the cup back on the table, looking over at him again as she did so.

"It's also fresh so it may take time for your mind to fully deal with everything. And I...understand on some level?" Not exactly since she obviously was not a god. "The rush of adrenaline, that edge of danger. It's a heady combination and has an appeal that most people don't get. Most cannot fathom being in those situations and, when faced with it, never want to be again. Others just thrive. Which is the two of us."

Then a little nod as she addresses what she had thought of moments before. "In addition, with you being who you are, there had to be an influx of fear from those all around you during the situation. How does that work? Is it like a drug that just feeds you or just something you are vaguely aware of?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "It's hard to describe," Alexander chews his lower lip, turning to face her more directly. "I feel more in touch with things. I can feel that... texture of fear around me. The fabric of it all, can hear those fears, or sense them. It's not... not like what you do. It's not that I am looking inside their thoughts to see their fears. It's that I am their fears?" He shakes his head and frowns.
    "I'm not doing a good job describing it. It's just... when there is so much of it around me, I feel like I am one with all of it. I don't have to think... to influence it. It becomes second nature. When we were rushing through the corridors I could tell where they were hiding, I could just think of them and they would wail in terror. They'd come around the corner and I'd... already be firing because I knew they were about to."
    He shakes his head, "And when I saw the armored figure that was defending the engine section, I almost negligently just..."
    He makes a face and looks at her, "Like just flip a switch and he was lost in his own misery of what he feared. So many of them were afraid of their leader. But afterward... more of them were afraid of not having him as their leader."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
This insight was something she'd not really heard before so Betsy listened quietly, trying to understand what he meant and how that would 'feel'. There was no actual concept for her. The best she could do was think to times she was with the X-Men, creating a psilink for the entire time, aware of where everyone was at all times through that link though her purpose was to just relay information from the various members to one another at the speed of thought. To be able to /be/ their thoughts though? To be able to become their greatest fear in life in that instant?

She felt a little trickle of discomfort go down her back. She knew what Alexander's power was. But she had never asked to see it. She never would. Because she wasn't sure what her greatest fear was. And she was not so naive to think that such a moment would be devastating on a psyche. Too many people seemed to think it would be no big deal, from what Alexander had told her in the past. Betsy knew better.

"I guess it is impossible for someone like me to really understand it. But...that's odd. That they were afraid of their leader but afraid of him not leading them?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "It was..." Alexander leaned toward her, pulling her leg gently up so she can rest it across his lap, his other hand reaching for hers, fingers interlacing. He takes a deep breath, "Perhaps more fear of change... fear of the uknknown. With him dying I could feel a sudden ease, as all of them were released from whatever hold he had on them..."
    Alexander then shook his head and smiled slightly, "But then all that fear returned slowly as they became afraid of what would happen now that he was dead."
    A deep breath is taken, then he murmurs. "So it's... going to be a mess I think. People were celebrating, but also mourning. It was very difficult. I know my aunt was... very saddened." Alex frowns softly, then he takes a deep breath. "I felt... so selfish, since I knew you would be home and safe."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"So they were not all there voluntarily. Mind controlled perhaps?"

Betsy adjusted her position as he tugged her leg over, shifting to throw both legs over him and settling in comfortably again as she felt his fingers twine with her own. A squeeze of his hand with a small happy smile then she continued.

"I'd be curious to look at it from a telepathic point of view. See if it was more like what I do." Not thinking about the fact magic likely had been involved on that side. "Fear of the unknown is really the biggest driver for most people." Then a little shake of her head with a light laugh. "Look who I'm telling that." A roll of her eyes since he obviously would know that fear far better than anyone else on the planet.

"It looked like all the groups lost a lot of people. And the Starport was a big project for those countries that participated in the building. I'm certain your aunt was devastated. You can just be there to help her."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "I think she wants to be amongst her sisters right now." Alexander says with a quiet calm, nodding a little. "We lost Omega team, and several Quinjets went down. The Atlanteans lost one of those... big battleships they have." He takes a deep breath.
    "I saw fallen Wakandans. US Navy. I saw fighters fall out of the sky. And so many Dark Elves. I even saw several Asgardians there it was..." He shakes his head, then pushes a hand through his hair, resting his hand on the back of his neck. "Staggering in some ways."
    A tilt of his head as he looked back at her, "I brought some of their... blades that the Svartalfar fired from their weapons, I thought you might wish to have one. Monica took one as well I believe."

Betsy Braddock has posed:
"Thank you. I actually would like to learn more about them. About their weapons and fighting styles. Not sure what might be released that the public will be able to see outside that video from the Burrito Bros." Yes, they are now a known name for at least the next 48-hours. After that, they likely would fade back into obscurity.

"Which is shaky at best. But perhaps you can show me if there was anything that was not really something we're familiar with here." On Earth that is, not here in this apartment.

Another soft squeeze of his hand. "But for now, you should relax. Maybe get a shower or go take a soak in the sight-seer tub." That's what she called the big tub in front of the giant window that looked over the city. "Or you tell me what you need?"

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Just spend some time with me?" He says with a small smile, "That's all I really want." And as he says that he leans in and their lips touch gently.