3432/Atop The Tower

Atop The Tower
Date of Scene:	19 September 2020
Location:	Roof Tower
Synopsis:	Drake tells Kitty the story of how his power emerged and he ended up out here from LA originally.
Cast of Characters:	Kitty Pryde, Drake Riley

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Kitty Pryde has posed:
The day is done for most people. For Kitty it's been an extremely busy day as she has handed off the teaching duties subbing for Scott in English Literature, after agreeing to help out part time as a guidance counselor. There was a lot of reading to do to get caught up on happenings, and she'd missed her normal workout that she was planning to do in the Danger Room.

So it is that she made her way up to the roof now that the sun is down. Carrying a yoga mat, and dressed for that activity, she pauses to look out at the stars in the cloudless sky above. Thankfully they are far enough from New York to not get the light pollution from the city that would make all of those stars seem to disappear.

A happy sigh is given and Kitty sets out the mat and then beings working her way through the different yoga exercises, enjoying the soft breeze that stirs her hair now and then, but otherwise, the night is quiet and peaceful as she lets the exercises help her relax.

Drake Riley has posed:
That makes two people the day has been busy for.

Drake slept like a rock last night in a bed far more comfortable than he has any right to enjoy. He woke up feeling oddly guilty about it; like he hadn't done anything to deserve the lap of luxury he'd found himself surrounded by. But his first priority was to race back to the 'safehouse' to retrieve his new belongings, then race back to the mansion. Still lacking a cellphone, he couldn't hail a cab until he got closer to the city proper, so a considerable amount of time was spent on foot. He was perhaps a little gunshy around a plethora of strangers, unwilling to make himself a nuisance. Or at least, he believed he might've been, had he bothered someone for their phone.

The ride back was in a taxi, at least.

After that came a shower, and finally, the donning of new clothes; the physical representation of a new start, shedding the old and taking on something new.

After that, he holed up in his room for a few hours. He might look more fresh and clean than he has in years, but it's still so much to take in and nerves were wound tight like a coil. But when he snuck out to discreetly pilfer food, he heard mention of the rooftop access. That's more his style.

Stepping out onto the roof, it doesn't disappoint. A velvety black sky studded in sparkling stars, a cool, gentle breeze playing through his hair and along the tail of his overshirt, the glow of a city far in the distance - it's beautiful, relaxing, and somehow surreal. And then his gaze lands on Kitty Pryde, arched in pose up ahead. He inhales in surprise and starts to retreat a step, only to pause and look at her a moment longer. She didn't notice him yet, did she? He can afford to linger a second, if he doesn't disrupt her. And though she's remarkably pretty in his eyes, and it's certainly registered, it isn't her looks that his mind has settled on. She's 'Shadowcat'. A superhero like Rogue. She looks so normal. Not bland by any stretch, but natural. Yet she has that secret, and she presumably puts herself in danger for others. He can't help but admire that.

His foot skids slightly against the floor, breaking the silence. Ack!

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty's hands are placed on the mat as she pushes forward and arches up, her legs extended behind her along the lack while her torso is lifted and her back arched. The young woman has toned athleticism to her slender build. More of a dancer's look though an athlete. Sleek, some might say. At the moment the yoga pants and top are not hiding too much of that tone.

Kitty's attention is on the yoga routine for now, not noticing Drake at first. Letting her mind clear itself as she goes through the exercises. She lets the pose go, pausing to reach over and take her bottle of water and get a sip of it. That's when she hears the foot scuff the decking that lines the rooftop.

She glances over without turning her head at first. When she does then she's already seen the handsome young man standing there. "Drake, is that you?" she asks, her voice carrying the smile as well as her lips do. "It's beautiful up here isn't it? One of my favorite place in the school," she says, turning to look out at the few lights that are on out on the grounds, and then up towards the starry sky above.

Drake Riley has posed:
Caught!

Drake's gaze is immediately averted, his right hand setting against the side of his neck. He wasn't staring, honest! "Eeyeah. Breathtaking." For a few reasons.

Finally stealing a glimpse back to her through the corners of his eyes, he decides retreating would be more awkward and leave a bad impression. Plus, he'd like to get to know her a little more. So he swallows his embarrassment and moves ahead to her side. Upon reaching her, he lowers to a kneel beside her.

"Never had many views like this back home," he notes as he looks out over the expanse ahead. "Lived in the heart of the city. Just on the edge of the rough side. Here, it's like... I don't know." His left arm rests over the upturned knee, and his focus returns to Kitty. "It's a whole other world. A completely different perspective." His gaze lingers on Kitty for a moment longer, before breaking downwards with a soft, self-conscious laugh. "Jennifer was right. My luck definitely improved."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
A welcoming smile is given to Drake as he approaches her. "Have a seat, make yourself comfortable," she tells him with a soft grin. There's patio furniture up there for people to sit and enjoy the view, eat or study, whatever. There are a couple of lounger chairs there near where Kitty's yoga mat is at.

She moves back to the mat and continues, though her attention is still on Drake as he mentions how different the school is. "Very different than deep in the city," she agrees. "I do like New York, and a few other big cities. But it's nice to get away to... well I was going to say the peace and quiet. But who am I kidding? Like Xavier's is often quiet kids flying around and everything," she says with a soft laugh.

She begins another exercise, supple body seeming quite limber as she's able to stretch quite a bit more than most people would. "I know it's quite a change for you," she tells him. "And if you need someone to talk through some of it, I want you to know I'll be here for you," she tells him.

Kitty finishes the exercise, kneeling there on the mat for a moment. "I was the youngest student when I started here, by a good measure. Had Ororo, one of the teachers now, who was like... I can't even say big sister. She was like a surrogate mother to me. It really helped having someone to be close with like that as I adjusted from being away from home," she says.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley's focus is directed to the furniture, then back to Kitty. Where he is right now is perfectly comfortable, given where he's been sleeping for so long. Besides, moving to the furniture would move him further away. If he's being honest with himself, he's chosen to linger close to his peer. But what she says earns a sudden snicker from him and a shake of his head. He doesn't immediately volunteer what caused that, though - that would require a little prodding.

"I'll keep that in mind," he assures, allowing a more natural, boyish smile to edge the corners of his lips. "It's just a lot to process right now. I don't even know what I'd talk about..."

He catches his gaze drifting along the curve of her waist, and he quickly snaps his focus back to her face.

"I think I liked L.A. a little more for one reason. Beaches. I don't know if New York has any decent beaches. But..." He glances over his shoulder before returning those expressive green eyes to her, "...a heated pool is definitely winning me over."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
A soft, wry smile is given at the sound from Drake, she probably assumes it's the thing about kids flying. Because really that never quite gets old.

She seems to take a break from the yoga for now, just sitting there beside Drake. "So you've lived in California, and New York both now?" she asks. "There are some decent beaches, over on the east side of the island. Brighton Beach. Coney Island. Along there. And you've probably heard of the Jersey Shore," she says.

Kitty reaches behind her to undo her pony tail now that she's not exercising, removing the scrunchy and ruffling her fingers through her hair, head tilted back to let it fall down her back. "So where are you from originally? And how did you getting from wherever that was, to here?" she asks him. Kitty takes a sip of her water from the bottle, and then offers it to Drake.

Drake Riley has posed:
"Guess I'll have to check those out," Drake replies. "I mean, when it gets warm again. Get the feeling the heat's gonna be gone soon. But for the record, I'm not Oompa-Loompa orange enough to fit in at the Jersey Shore." His left arm raises, as if inspecting his skin, before setting it over his knee again.

When he refocuses on Kitty, she's letting her hair loose. He's silent for a moment, studying her face a little more freely while she's distracted with her hair. And in the process, his smile softens a little.

But then she's asking him a question and offering him her bottle. To drink after her? Is that a big deal? Do people do that here? Is he being weird about it? Gah! Drake quickly takes it from her and determinedly takes a quick swig. He'll try not to read into it. Drinking after someone isn't something he's ever done before, though!

"Err, well, Los Angeles," he replies as he offers the bottle back. "You want the whole story? It's not really exciting, and it's definitely not glamorous."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty shifts over to sitting on her bottom, kneels bent and serving as a rest for her lightly crossed arms. "Doesn't have to be glamorous. Just real," she tells him with a little grin and a shrug of her shoulders.

She takes the bottle back, taking a sip and setting it aside. "But yeah. I'd like to get to know you, so knowing what path your life took to bring you here to us? That's a good start I figure. But don't let me pressure you either," she says. The nineteen year old has a very easy going manner and a friendly demeanor. She seems like the kind of person that one can probably take at face value. Open and honest.

She's wearing the clothing suitable for her yoga workout, but one other thing that might stand out is a small necklace about her neck, with a Star of David hanging from it.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley had noticed that star earlier, as well. He just didn't feel like bringing attention to it. After all, there's so much else to take in here. And he's still processing the girl beside him. Hearing she also wants to get to know him is kind of exciting. But he warns himself to settle down. He's reading too much into it. She's pretty, but she's a superhero. She's likely invested in everyone. That's what being a hero is, after all. Right?

"H'okay. From the beginning, then."

Drake stretches his legs out in front of himself, and leans back, propping himself with his hands against the decking. It's a languid poise, opening himself up more to the sky. "Years ago, I wound up with this... gang, sort'a. You know? We did thug junk. It was so stupid." He shakes his head. "I was just doing it because they wanted me around. I mean I got good at it, but..." It never gelled with him. "Anyway, fastforward a year-ish, I guess. Some of the gang's getting stupid'n cocky. They start tagging another gang's turf. A bigger gang. Grown-up gang. One that didn't have a problem shooting holes in people. They caught us, I got separated, and I was pretty sure he was gonna knife me. But I wound up blasting him with electricity instead. It was purely reactionary." His expression twists in a wince, and he exhales a slow, breezy sigh, chest rising and falling visibly. "I think I killed'em. I-.."

He pauses himself, deciding instead to give her a chance to process. He has no idea how she'll react to that.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde's main reaction seems to be empathy. Concerned for Drake rather than upset about what she's heard. She reaches out gently, and if he doesn't show signs the touch is unwelcome, rests her hand on his shoulder. "Moments like that can be terrible," she tells him. The girl's eyes search his face, reading his emotions, and showing concern.

"And moments like that are the kind of moment a power can emerge," she says slowly, nodding towards Drake. "Even just trying to protect yourself, people can be hurt at moments like that. Even if they aren't good people... still. I understand how it can feel," she tells him.

Her hand gives a gentle squeeze to his shoulder, just a small one. to let him know he has someone there supportive. "So you had to get out of the city after that, I'm guessing?"

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley inhales subtly at the sensation of her hand on his shoulder. He doesn't withdraw, but it does bring his gaze back to meet hers. Alright, so she gets it. He wasn't sure why he would've expected any less. She's a superhero. She's amazing by default. And though he's happy to know there's that empathy, he clearly remains haunted by the event.

She squeezes his shoulder, and he smiles softly to her.

"Actually, no," he replies. "No one else saw. It was just me'n him. So I ran back home, and... like... walled myself off from everything. I kept going to school, of course, but the only thing I could think about was never letting that happen again. So every night, I'd practice. I'd train. I'd learn how to tap into those powers and control'em. I got ahold of one of those watt-readers, anything I could grab that could detect amps and currents. And I trained myself to know what the different power outputs felt like. I studied what a human could normally take, what the risks were, what myths were out there about electricity and lightning. Anything I could to learn how to never... you know..." He hedges. "..do that again."

He glances to his feet, then back across to Kitty, as if needing a brief reset.

"I got good. And the more I worked it, the stronger I felt. Eventually I started training in the football field late at night. But I kept everything under wraps. It stayed a secret."

"I mean, until it didn't."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
A wind stirs across the rooftop, blowing past them with a faint stirring of Kitty's hair and a little ruffle of Drake's over shirt before continuing on towards Breakstone Lake. From up here the Lake can just be seen, spreading off into the countryside away from the school.

Kitty gives a slow nod as she listens to Drake, gently pulling her hand back after a little bit. "It sounds like you really applied yourself to controlling it. That was really good," she tells him, the young woman's smile visibly approving.

As he trails off after that bit of foreshadowing as to what might be coming next, Kitty gives a small nod as if to tell him it's ok. Ok to continue. Ok to share, that he's somewhere he can talk about these things and he'll be understood.

Drake Riley has posed:
The wind plays through his bangs, skewing the obsidian black over his right eye a little further. He blows a quick puff of air to nudge at them to no avail, and simply refocuses on her. "I know I don't need to tell /you/ this, but when something like that happens - when you find out you have... /powers/... it rearranges priorities instantly. And mine are really dangerous. I /had/ to get it under control."

At the prompting, he glances aside. "Alright, so... my family had gotten really dysfunctional at that point. But my dad was going on like things were gonna be different. So I made a stupid mistake and told'em what I could do. He didn't believe me, so I showed'em. And he did what you'd expect - freaked out hard. Like, just short of calling me a witch." A humorless smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, but it quickly dissolves. "Said no son of his would be a freak. I wasn't allowed to do that any more; I couldn't be allowed to, like, destroy the family any more than I already had. His words."

"So, I pretended to be okay with that. But they didn't. My mom found out. It was pretty obvious. No one spoke. I was looked at like I was some bodysnatcher who replaced the original Drake. And I kept practicing and training myself in secret. 'Til I graduated. Next night, I left. He caught me on the way out, told me not to come back."

He pauses a moment before explaining, "I couldn't stay there, you know? That wasn't... I dunno, not a family. And I didn't wanna be something that destroyed lives. And if I stayed, that's all I'd ever be. That's not a life worth living." His head turns forward, and dips low, focusing towards his lap. "I wanted to find people like me. New York's full of weird, so it seemed like the play, y'know? And I wanted to be something I could be proud of. I have this... thing, that was treated like a curse. But what's the difference between me and someone with superpowers? Just, what, genetics? Using it to help people... making a difference... doesn't really matter what happens to me. Just that I do something right with what I've got."

His left knee steeples.

"So I walked east. I hitchhiked. I lived in alleys, scavenged food, and used what I learned to help people I found being robbed or hurt. Wore the hood, the baseball cap, the sunglasses to try to hide my identity. And I went by Volt when I did. I dunno..."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty sits with Drake quietly, listening to what he went through. Her expression shows how it hurts her to hear how his family reacted. It might be tough to tell whether she's been through that herself, or just seen enough of it to really feel for him. But whichever, it clearly affects her.

"People..." she says, and trails off, sighing and shaking her head. "I don't get how people can do that. It just... that wouldn't be in my nature I don't think. Even if I wasn't on this side of it," she says quietly.

She looks over to Drake, offering him a soft, very gentle smile that is meant to be reassuring. "There's people here without family, or whose stories with their families are similar. We understand how it can be," she tells him quietly.

Kitty reaches back over to give Drake's shoulder a soft touch. "You know what I'm hearing though? That with everything you went through? That you took what you could do and focused on helping people with it. And that really speaks well about the kind of person you are," she says.

Drake Riley has posed:
"I think so, too. That it'd be hard to just flip on someone like that. Hard to imagine being in that headspace. But then, I dunno, I don't think I was ever really wanted." Drake frowns tensely; a bit heavier than he'd intended to be. So he gives his head a quick shake to refocus.

He'd expect a number of those like him experienced similar things, though. He knew how public sentiments were towards mutants. Sure, he wasn't even certain he was one, but his family decided he was in a heartbeat. So how many others had to go through the same? Still, it's difficult to process turning on family like that.

Her hand touches his shoulder again, and he looks back to her.

She has pretty eyes. And she seems to radiate warmth. And at this point, his heart wrenches. He's such a hypocrite.

Wincing, he looks away from her again. "Okay, I wasn't gonna say anything, but I can't just let you think that without telling you everything," he blurts. "You seem like a good person. You're a /superhero/, of course you are. But if I'm actually gonna be something better than a disaster, I can't be dishonest." Certainly not with someone being so forthcoming and encouraging. So once again, he braces for a negative response. "When I got to New York, I realized I didn't have much of a way to actually meet anyone. I mean, any of the people I wanted to. So I.. kind'a.. started.. robbing convenience stores and gas stations. Hooded'n incognito and stuff. Using the electricity. I was doing it to try to draw out a superhero. And I never took much! Just enough to get by. And it was Rogue that I found, and she was... way better to me than she had to be."

He chances a glance back to Kitty. "When I got that winning lotto ticket, I paid back everywhere I hit. If that, uh.. helps any.."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
The way that Kitty's lips slowly quirk up at the end of Drake's story might leave him wondering if maybe Kitty had heard about the robbery before. "Granted, probably not the best plan," she says slowly, and giving his shoulder a little pat before returning her hands to resting on her own knees where they are bent before her, feet flat on the yoga mat.

"But, I think you showed you have a good heart, Drake. And I'm glad that we ended up meeting you. Even with how it happened," Kitty tells Drake.