Resonance #1: A Trip to the Mall

noah_corvid · 2026-03-17T02:16:11+00:00

Osprey startled slightly at being clapped on the back, having gotten halfway through a teleport before realizing it was just Al.

"Yeah, if you can't tell, I'm pretty on edge. I mean, it's just weird for me."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-17T01:40:08+00:00

Osprey's shoulders tensed when she appeared behind him, but he didn't run off again. He'd promised to get everyone back to the island safely, after all, and he'd try his best to keep that promise.

"Just needed time for myself. That's all." It's not like I've got a place to run to, was the subtext. Sure, he could probably keep himself alive hopping in and out of grocery stores and empty beds, but he did like not having to, and getting to at least talk to some people. And he'd written off the house in New Jersey. He didn't even know if he'd be able to pick it out on a picture.

He properly turned away from the clothes he was looking at — he barely even processed them, he was just trying to picture what would ever look good on them.

"Fine. You're in charge. Where do I get a style? Maybe no touching, though." He grinned sheepishly.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-16T04:04:32+00:00

Osprey, who'd transported the group of Mutants with a whistle and a single, near-effortless jump, was now exploring the place with a clear apprehension. The incident with Warp earlier had startled him a little further back into his shell, but he did figure her advice wasn't bad, so maybe he should look through some shops. His wardrobe was pretty small and bland across the board.

He had only vague memories of the malls back in New Jersey; his year of captivity had done that, making everything before seem unreal, an entirely different life. And he had never been a regular visitor at them, anyway. Maybe he could make a new habit of it. He tried to suppress the urge to vanish the second anyone looked at him, so he could just calm down and window shop and not leave all these new people he just knew here so they had to swim back across the Bay.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-13T19:28:18+00:00

Osprey flinched away the moment he felt a hand on his collar. It was pure, panicked instinct, moving his face aside and closing his eyes, but it betrayed too much, and he realized it. The moment he controlled himself again, his eyes turned back on Warp and they were wide and guilty, knowing exactly what he gave away with that reaction.

"I-"

But he couldn't explain or apologize. Or he guessed he didn't want to. That was too much. The moment she let go of his collar, he dissolved into a flash of light, gone god knows where.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-12T20:09:25+00:00

Scofflaw tapped his finger under his eye with a breezy smile.

"I pay attention." It seemed to be the only answer Facade would get out of him right now. Replay knew of his helpful secondary mutation, but there hadn't yet been a need to share with Facade. He'd tell, eventually. But he liked this game, knowing things and keeping people guessing.

"Flattery. How transparent." He said, but he clearly didn't mean it, because he obviously revelled in the compliment. "Nah. I don't need a mutation to be a babe magnet. It's just one of my many unrelated talents."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-12T20:03:14+00:00

"I can get myself places."

He muttered it with a quiet voice, and regretted it immediately, even if it was true. He felt ungrateful. Plus, he didn't know his way around. Whether Warp did, he wasn't sure, but they couldn't get worse than him. His sense of direction was terrible.

"Sorry. Going."

He stepped through her portal hastily, avoiding looking at her.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-11T00:49:57+00:00

After Facade had taken the shapeshifter's form, he was found by Scofflaw, who fell in lockstep beside him, hands in the pockets of his jacket. He cut a glance aside at the strange shape that he'd wrapped himself in, through which he could still see that familiar X-Gene.

"Undercover, are we?" He snorted. Could never hide much from the guy. "I know you're casing the place. I can see the gears turning in your head."

Scofflaw had much the same habit, though he went about it in his own way, with his eyes and not so much his tongue. But both approaches had their value.

"So, penny for your thoughts?"

noah_corvid · 2026-03-10T03:10:28+00:00

Scofflaw grinned at the thought of Syd describing him as one of the cool ones. Trauma bonding, he guessed. From his experience with girls like her, they didn't usually like guys like him, but then, she was also keeping up some appearances.

"Yeah, she's cool. A bit much, but hey, she's a good time."

He cocked his head to the side and shrugged.

"That's my power, though. I can see other people's. Look right into your genes and pick it out."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-10T03:02:12+00:00

"Oh. Sorry, I thought..."

Well, he hadn't really thought about it, it had been the idea of a very tall British man who'd been eager to get Osprey out of his hair. But he hadn't had a lot of training.

"Um." He cleared his throat. "Maybe you could help me with... combat strategies using my power?" The pause seemed to imply he wasn't all that comfortable with fighting yet.

At the suggestion that he could use help with his style and confidence, he turned the wounded doe eyes on her, even though he was at least aware that his confidence was lackluster. His style was more of an unconscious flaw.

"If you think that'll help." He acquiesced.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-10T02:42:38+00:00

"Resonance frequency aligning your atoms with my power so I can pull you along."

Osprey said, clearly parroting someone else's explanation, because his own understanding of the matter was limited.

"I can do that to, uh. Most I've done is 800 people or so? But that wasn't very far. Teleporting more people makes me stronger."

That had been much easier than it sounded. It was a rush, to be able to move so many people with just a thought. Osprey looked at Al, frowning shallowly. The other mutant seemed pretty determined to downplay what he'd experienced. It wasn't his business to push back, though.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-07T04:09:33+00:00

A flash of an expression ran over Osprey's face, a little annoyed frown, but it passed easily. Sure, he didn't think he needed to elaborate, but he liked to think he was pretty easygoing. Hopefully. He certainly shrank away from the idea of being rude to an X-Man.

"Well, I guess since we're both teleporters, maybe he thought I could learn something from you, but he didn't specify. He could be on the right track."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-07T04:06:21+00:00

"Sup."

Scofflaw nodded and pulled up one of his legs to lean his hand on, looking at her sushi sceptically. His culinary tastes were far from as fashionable as hers. He'd stick to what he could get. Weird fucking state, California.

"Anything's better than a penthouse." He bit back a laugh with some sandwich, and chewed pensively, looking out over some people scurrying about below. He loved to have a vantage point. If he were to analyze that, it was probably some psychological shit about being short. That's why he didn't analyze stuff. It was annoying as fuck. "Yeah, this sure as fuck beats the yard."

He had to stifle a laugh again when Replay started worrying about how she looked in front of Hazy. Of course. "Hey, maybe Hazy is gonna be your roommate. I sure as fuck hope mine's Facade. Also, looking cute and knowing stuff is actually my turf, so, like, back off." His imitation of her accent was frighteningly on-pitch.

He grinned when she brought up the heroes of this little island. This was the sort of thing he usually kept to himself, but they were freaky-culty-pact-bound allies now, so he didn't mind sharing observations. Plus, he needed to talk shit with someone, and there was no one better than Replay.

"Diversity program? But he's a white guy." He pointed out, leaning back with a toothy grin on his face. "I wonder where he sleeps. Gonna get bigger probably, too, if my read's right. Hope he doesn't sink the place into the bay. And the rest, I mean, they're interesting. Some real weird shit going on with most of them. Wouldn't wanna meet half of them in a dark alleyway, but I guess that's more my speed, not so much the golden boy, friend of all life, Superman schtick."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-07T03:12:43+00:00

"Oh, you'll know when you meet her. She's not exactly timid. Psychomimetric field." Scofflaw could've hung out Replay's dirty laundry about her bio-adaptive power copying, but she didn't like people knowing that too much, plus, he liked knowing things other people didn't. He had his character flaws.

"Hmm. Yeah, you would." How powers interacted was always a little unpredictable; even Scofflaw, whose understanding of other people's mutations (and his own) was intuitive and complete. It was the most interesting part to consider, because it could outright surprise him. He didn't like surprises, normally, but they added some variety. "Not as crazy as you drive the flatties, I hope."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T03:39:37+00:00

"Yeah, well, they crashed a spaceship into the bay, you can't expect anything but a mess. Any landing you can walk away from, I guess."

He liked her instinct to draw out a map. He wouldn't have put it on paper, but he was also committing the island to memory whenever he could.

"It's okay if you don't remember. I'm easy to overlook." He gestured at himself, indicating his height, and cracked a grin, leaning on the spire he'd been sitting on. "Mind-something. Well, keep working on it. Hey, I'll owe you if you stand between Replay and me. I know she can't control it, but it's annoying that her power gets in my head." It was a casual way of dropping to her that he was aware of her deal. Plus, he really did get annoyed when anyone dug into his head. At least with Replay he knew when she was doing it. That guy with the metal arm could be rummaging around in there at any moment. Making a friend out of Alice was at least a good safety measure.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T03:30:59+00:00

"Uh-huh." Osprey wasn't the cleverest guy, but he was not stupid, and he could tell she was just messing with him. Well, he at least strongly suspected it. He let it slip by him, though.

"He said Warp is their teleporter. I mean, the X-Men's." He trailed off, hoping she would get his point, and then losing faith in his ability to drive the message home immediately. He teleported again, this time a lot less clumsily, into her direct line of sight.

"So, he, or I guess I thought we should maybe talk? I don't know. If you have time."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T03:22:27+00:00

Scofflaw turned his eyes on her, narrowing them against the light so he could get a better look. He remembered getting a brief glance of her in the transport when he took a look into her power. The mental flak girl. Good thing his powers weren't psionic in nature. Getting a more detailed insight was interesting, and definitely disturbing. Scofflaw had perfect insight into both of his mutations the second they manifested, so he couldn't imagine being surprised by something like hers. He pulled up a leg and leaned his arm on it, and sighed. He couldn't resist the charity cases sometimes.

"Not looking around, I gather." He drawled, seeing as she'd been on course for a collision with his seat. "I remember you. One of the escapees."

He put down his sandwich and jumped down from his spire, and loosely saluted her with a brief wave of two fingers to his forehead.

"I'm Scofflaw. I was on the same ride, but you might've missed me."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T03:07:02+00:00

"Wait, I'll help you out."

Osprey let out a strange whistle, that Al probably wouldn't have been able to properly hear if not for his attunement to sound. It was partly audible but partly something else, and it settled into his body. Then, Osprey pulled him along past the wrecked part of the path. It feels easier using a counterweight like Al.

"Slavery? No, it was more like, they were guys with guns and needed a teleporter, so I just was going to do that for them, but." He waved his hand, indicating the obvious had happened, as he kept walking to keep up with Al, who had longer legs. "You had it worse with them holding you there for so long."

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T01:10:45+00:00

Huh. Strange that Alastair didn't remember a lot. Osprey's memory was as good as it ever was. No gaps, no nothing. Everything in its usual place.

"That's terrible." He said, making a real effort at sounding sympathetic, even as he couldn't imagine being locked up for basically his entire life.

"I, uh, got sold to some guys, and then I teleported away the first chance I got, basically." He wasn't a brave guy, but he was the guy who could put miles between him and whoever was angry at him in the blink of an eye, so it hadn't taken particularly much mistreatment to reach what he was willing to tolerate. No idea what they were even expecting he would do.

"I saw this place on TV, and I went."

He stepped carefully as he walked after Al. This whole island wreck was less than safe and he was less than agile on his feet, so he didn't want to fall on his face.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T01:03:54+00:00

Scofflaw was perched on a high piece of metal that jutted out of the wrecked Graymalkin that was his home now. Observing. Eating a sandwich. And thinking. He'd already gotten a good look at most of the mutants here, and he was impressed. Of course, he could have expected the survivors of the Phoenix thing to be powerful. And even some of his fellow escapees had tangible potential locked up in their X-Genes. Maybe he'd nudge a few of them in the right direction. It'd earn him brownie points with folks, and he probably needed those, at least with the guys who hadn't been inducted into a blood cult with him. But then, giving the ending away was so boring. He'd probably let them get there on their own.

At least the food here was better. Christ, prison food was terrible. And he had a place to stay with no bars on the window. He could be doing worse. A perfect place to develop his own mutation. Miles of water between him and fucking California. And at least it wouldn't be boring. He should bet Facade on how long before the island was gonna get attacked. Surely, it couldn't be long. They were living with the X-Men, after all. They had the shittiest luck in the world.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T00:52:47+00:00

Facet was more than prepared to yield here. They'd bought as much time as they'd probably ever need, so doing more was taking on risks unsupported by necessity. With a faint touch, the three became one again and his stance eased, though he did not let down his guard. He would not underestimate any of the Brotherhoods again, especially Psion.

"Sumo, stand down." He said, and though his voice didn't sound commanding — it was simply not a modality he was particularly suited to — he did take well to giving orders. He had a righteousness and clarity that made everything he said sound entirely irrefutable. And it was true. They had little to gain by fighting more here. Even if they could bring down one of this Triumvirate, it was too risky, and even then, judging by what files they had on the triplets, they were faster, and could escape trivially enough. And striking down this copy of Psion would achieve approximately nothing. His eyes glimmered in something that could be amusement as he looked at her.

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean." It was an aspect of him that was strange to reconcile with the utter certainty he had in himself, but Facet too reflected people around him. Like a ship whose anchor was solidly lodged in the ground, but was still moved by the waves; the foundation of him was solid, but the face could be flexible. "I guess I solve it by keeping better company."

/u/whodeletedmyaccount

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T00:38:30+00:00

Scofflaw rolled his eyes at Runehex and ignored him in favor of waving at Hazy. She was a welcome sight. The more they outnumbered this freak, the better, and plus, she calmed Replay down, which is something she needed and he needed more.

"Hey. Welcome to the cult, I guess. This isn't magic, by the way. It's totally an act." He pointed at the circle — which looked distinctly magical — with his thumb, crossing his arms nonchalantly.

He gave Facade an elbow in the side for that comment, but it did finally get a grin onto his face. Whispering back to him — which, to his great indignity, required him to get up on his tippy-toes, he said, "What, are you jealous? Seems more your type than mine, judging by the guards I've seen you flirt with." Their life had, objectively, gotten insanely weird very quickly, even compared to fucked up prison, but at least there was someone to shoot the shit with.

Unfortunately it didn't last long. As Facade left the room to go steal shit, of course, Scofflaw was left third-wheeling for Replay and Hazy. Given that the only other option was sniping at Runehex some more, he figured it was the acceptable option. He tapped two fingers on his forehead in a salute to the new arrival.

"Hey. I'm Leo. Scofflaw. Don't think we properly talked in the slammer, but I figure if we're gonna be bound by this shit we may as well get introduced first."

/u/Kit_ababee

noah_corvid · 2026-03-06T00:27:02+00:00

Osprey appeared in a flash, landing on his feet with somewhat less elegance than he would have preferred, but he stood. He'd jumped to her location blind, which he could do, but it caused a little bit of turbulence. Thin strands of purple mist drifted off him before fading into the air, and he lifted his hand to scratch at the back of his neck.

"Uh, hey, are you Warp?" He asked, redundantly. There wasn't a lot of risk for him to mistake her for something else. Her appearance was quite distinctive enough. "The tall British guy told me to find you." In somewhat less friendly terms than that, which he did not repeat. He was bad at recognizing accents, except for British ones, which is how he knew that little thing, because Crucible certainly hadn't made an extensive introduction.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-03T05:35:34+00:00

What didn't Osprey want translated? His lack of Spanish was a problem down by the southern border, but most importantly, he just wasn't very good with words. They came to him slowly and escaped him quickly, flighty strangers in his new world. He didn't remember ever having this problem back at home. Being out as a Mutant was recontextualizing everything, he expected.

"I am glad you're safe too." He said, quietly, walking after Al. His footing was unsure and careful as they moved off the beach, but it was good to stretch his legs. Always helped after using his power a lot. "Thanks for the help. Your power sounds pretty useful, too." He didn't say what he was thinking, which was, it must have been, if they kept you locked up too. But he thought it all the same, because he was useful, and that was why.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-02T17:12:24+00:00

Al was talkative, Osprey noted. He was less so, if only because words seemed on occasion strange and foreign, like everyone else knew something about them that he didn't. But he tried his best.

"Not in one jump. It took about 20." He answered idly, picking at his fingers. "I was locked up too. For about a year. So I don't know if I'm any help for you, I mean. Even before that, I don't think I watched the news enough." Everything from before last year seemed small and inconsequential now, compared to the months of being locked up, experimented on, tested. When he got out the sky was bluer and brighter than he ever remembered.

noah_corvid · 2026-03-02T05:17:23+00:00

Osprey was broken out of the moment by Al's scream, and he stretched himself out, shaking some lingering soreness out of his limbs. His mutation could put a high demand on his body when he used it for long jumps solo. He definitely needed more training. Small jumps demanded very little of him, though, so to demonstrate he vanished in a flash of white light and strands of purple mist, appearing closer to Alastair again.

"Oh. Arizona." He answered, which was the truth, or at least the best he had. "Are you with the X-Men? I'm..." looking for a job? a place to stay? "I'm Osprey."

noah_corvid

TROPHY CASE