It's Not the Waking It's the Rising

[praypal]

WHO: Kurt Wagner, You!
WHERE: Fountain (Open to 1), Inn, Various Outdoor Locations
WHEN: Nov. 27 - Dec 4
OPEN TO: OTA, Arrival Locked to 1
WARNINGS: None yet.

---

Arrival

Yellow eyes open in the dark. It's cold. And he's weightless- wait, no, he's in water. Did he teleport in his sleep? No, that hasn't happened since he was a teenager. He struggles for a few precious seconds to locate the light, and bamfs-

Or not. His movements feel clumsier too, though that might be the oxygen deprivation. It takes him several more seconds to truly register the full extent of his situation as he struggles to the surface- he can't even cling to the stone walls of the well! This is strange.

He gasps loudly as he breaks the surface, groping one arm over the ledge of the fountain and spitting out a mouthful of water. "Scheisse," he coughs as he begins to haul himself over the ledge- and noticing just how much harder it is than it should be to do so. The laws of gravity are not meant to be so restrictive where he is concerned, and he feels downright clumsy. This isn't right.

Also, it is definitely not Central Park.

Inn

Dressed in the dry set of light grey scrubs he'd found in his pack, Kurt has made his way to the social center of the village, even if he's not feeling too much like his usual social self. But there's hot food and, most importantly a roaring fire that he's gotten himself as close to as one can without risking burning off one's fuzz off.

He's got a bowl of something hot that someone was kind enough to spare, and it reminds him enough of the big pots of stew or curry that they'd leave bubbling in big pots around the clock when the circus was performing that it's bringing him some modicum of comfort.

The Great Outdoors

This feeling of unbalance, this simply will not do. If he is to function here as anyone else, he has to get used to life without the superhuman agility he's been used to since his very first steps. So he's found somewhere nice and empty aside from a few felled trees, and clad in sadly very drab scrubs, he's doing what he would with any other setback-

Pushing past it, and with style.

Even with the loss of his powers, he still has his tail. That lends him more balance than most would have, and he's making the most of it as he makes running leap after running leap, pushing himself into handsprings, backflips, using the tree trunks as balance beams.

And, every so often, falling on his fuzzy blue butt. Or face.

The muscle memory of years in the circus and cross-time swashbuckling is still there, it just feels hindered. He can work with hindered. Hindered just means it's harder, not that it can't be done. The effort of having to work these muscles and his spacial awareness this hard means- well, he's not as aware of the rest of his surroundings than he might be.

He does not realize he's being watched until he stops to perch on a sufficiently stable rock to catch his breath.

Comments

[praypal]

"Ja. And I have always thought so about my own life. I'm sure you felt a difference between my hand and most other people's when I touched you. I am not wearing velvet gloves, it is indeed fur. Blue fur, at that. Along with some other very unique features- which also come with very unique gifts," he shares, openly and without hesitation. It doesn't feel right for everyone else to be immediately in on something about Kurt that Matt has no real way of knowing.

"Being born looking the way I do has lead to challenges, but I am a better man for them, I believe." He knows, actually- he saw what his Age of Apocolypse self was like, as well as so many other Kurts during his Cross Time Caper days.

[blindninja]

Blue fur. Matt blinks a few times, clearly perplexed. It's been a long time since he had seen blue, but there was no mistaking that slightly leathery feel and the soft bristle when Kurt touched his hand.

"Are people afraid of you? Or do they just stare? I suppose they're not mutually exclusive."

[praypal]

"Often, yes. Fear, and often knee-jerk anti-mutant hatred. And thanks to a very... ah, interesting life, there is no shortage of footage of me in some sort of life-or-death battle that can be creatively edited to provide a very threatening face to put to the phrase Mutant Menace. I suppose that is the only part that truly bothers me. I can dodge some rocks and torch-bearing mobs easily enough, but not all mutants are so lucky," and he means that mob part both literally and figuratively.

"It's not exactly good for the ego when your image is used to make people afraid of others, but in the end, it's still making people afraid. It's very easy for some to justify hating a child when you can associate him with a man who looks like some sort of blue demon."

[blindninja]

They're not really terms that Matt is familiar with - mutants and mutant menace? - but it makes his eyebrows rise and his face melds into a more pensive expression. There are parallels he can draw to 'gifted people' and sentiments against them that have steadily gained traction since the Incident, people like Jessica Jones who cop the flak for things they weren't involved in and never asked for.

"People don't accept you, where you're from?" Matt's not sure if the vast majority of people simply don't care and there's the 1%ers out to get them, or if discrimination is systemic and widespread.

[praypal]

"Fear and disinformation are a dangerous combination. Especially when you throw in superpowered battles and teenagers who can blow holes through walls with their minds," Kurt tries to explain. "But that is the heart of it, ja."

He's just. Not going to even try to untangle what even was the whole mess of going to war with the Inhumans. No. Nope. Going by the question's Matt's asking, he's connecting most of the dots here, so he just comes out and says it.

"So there are no mutants in your world? No X-Men?" Infinite possibilities. A world where the X-Gene just... never happens. Huh.

[blindninja]

"I'm sorry, 'X-Men'?" Matt repeats. "No, I've not heard of them. There are gifted people, with all sorts of abilities. I don't think they're uh, part of a club or... support group though." Assuming that's what the X-Men are.

"I've defended a few of them in a court of law. I guess... that's why the other me does it too. It's a... it's a matter of principle." Said with a nod like Matt has no other vested interests in doing what he does.