Strangers Like Me(Wicked, Open)

[ace]

Acelyyn wandered around the hide out aimlessly, searching for anyone that could have been there. Somehow, she found no one. It was a bit bizarre to her. There was normally at least one person there. And if that weren’t the case then Que was almost always nearby. She was still new to the Runaways so she didn’t really know anyone.

Hidden under her bed was an acoustic guitar. After her combing of the hideout, she retrieved her instrument and brought it over to the fire, which needed a bit of help. She seated the instrument on the ground before putting a few logs on the fire and ordering a few sparks under the log. The sparks ignited the wood and she smiled, happy that she was slowly gaining more and more control over her ability.

With the fire roaring again, she sat down on the ground and cradled the instrument’s body in her crossed legs. She tuned the strings before she began to play. At first, it was just a ramble of random chords. She was mostly making noise that flowed, considering what song to play.

Suddenly, for some odd reason, she thought of Tarzan and began to play the song Strangers Like Me, humming lightly and resisting the urge to burst into song. She missed singing every day. However, here no one knew of her musical career, which had been going so well before her power emerged.

She heard footsteps and muted the strings with her palm, listening and waiting for whoever it was that was in the hide out. It was probably another runaway, but that didn’t mean she had to continue playing, dispite the fact that it seemed like the cat was out of the bag.

[sarashadow]

Crux had been asleep all day. He'd spent his whole night out wandering around the city, not really having any point to it. Wandering was his thing. He'd gotten back to the hideout around two in the morning, and now he finally awoke from hearing something. Music...?

It was rare to hear music in the hideout. He couldn't help but investigate, especially when he immediately recognized the tune. Before his powers had emerged, back when he was little, Tarzan had been his favorite movie. And he never forgot a song.

He followed the music to the fire, and froze the same time Acelyyn muted her guitar. So she knew he was there. Crux had only seen her a few times, and didn't know if she knew how dangerous he was. But he figured he might as well explain himself for basically sneaking up on her, unintentionally of course.

"I'm sorry," he spoke quickly. "I didn't mean to intrude. I'm just not used to waking up to Tarzan."

[ace]

Ace swallowed a lump in her throat before placing her guitar aside, standing just as Crux stepped into view. She hadn’t ever seen him before. Well, she had seen him, but she hadn’t ever met him. All she knew was that his name was Crux, or at least that was what he went by. Unfortunately, the few people who knew her name called her Acelyyn instead of Ace, which she much preferred. It wasn’t that she disliked her name. She enjoyed having a name that was not easily forgotten, but at the same time she wished that people would leave the lyyn part out of her title.

Her eyes fell downward and her hands swung behind her to hold themselves.

“I thought no one was here. I’m very sorry I woke you.”

She hesitantly glanced up at him before a slight smile upturned her lips.

“I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Acelyyn, but please call me Ace. Acelyyn is only what people call me in a professional environment. You’re Crux, right?”

[sarashadow]

Crux watched her as she set her guitar down and stood up to see him. Before she could make eye contact, though, he immediately looked down. "It's all right," he said, "It was nice to wake up to music, rather than arguements for once."

Acelynn, that was a nice name. But when she mentioned "a professional environment," that made him curious. "Yes, I'm Crux," he nodded. "Professional," he thought a moment and glanced at her guitar, "Music professional?"

[ace]

Ace wondered why he didn’t allow his eyes to meet hers and she bit her bottom lip. He may have been protecting her from his power by doing this for all she knew. Around here there was very little she knew about everyone so she did her best to not be hurt when he wouldn’t meet her gaze. She pursed her lips together to keep back a laugh. “Yeah, I’ve been woken up by bickering a time or two myself.

“Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Crux.” when he questioned her professional environment, she bit down on her tongue in order to punish it before answering. “Yes…it’s not the guitar though. I’m no where near good enough to get paid for playing the guitar. I was a singer before my powers came out. I was even getting jobs at the Sydney Opera House and the Met.” she paused and shook her head, growing sad upon speaking of what she needed to leave behind to keep those she cared about safe from her already spastic powers. Some days she felt the energy swirling around her, ready to do as she commanded, but then other days. Other days her powers controlled her to the best of her ability. Luckily, today was a good day.

[sarashadow]

Crux knew that she was probably suspicious about his gaze, which was still glued to the floor. He just hoped she wouldn't ask about it. But, like he'd done many times in the past, he would explain if she did ask.

He listened carefully as she explained her music career. The Sydney Opera House? His eyebrows raised slightly as she said this. So she had a good voice in her. That was more than he could say. He'd never had any talents, before or after his powers were revealed.

"So your powers ruined your life," he sighed, "I know what that's like..."

He glanced into her eyes for a split second, and instantly looked at her shoes again. He was glaring at himself, now. Why did I do that? he snapped at himself mentally. Even a split second of looking at her could hurt her severely, and he only hoped that she was smart enough to know the fast but extreme pain she was about to endure was made by their eye contact. He wanted to kill himself for doing that. He hadn't even met her eyes for a full second, but he just stood there, his fists tense by his side. He knew that she would be fine, but he hoped this wouldn't ruin her judgement of him, if she had one.

[ace]

His eyes remained on the ground and she finally and to inquire why. “This might be rude of me to ask, but why do you seem so reluctant to look at me?”

Dispite the fact that Ace had a body that a model would kill for, she was still far from confident with her body. Some called her legs long and lean, she called them skinny and stretched. She found her forehead was large by her standards and could point out many other flaws she saw that others called her crazy for.

She bit her bottom lip when he stated her powers ruined her life. “In a sense, that’s true. My agent is still trying to hunt me down and make me perform again. He claims everyone’s forgotten all about me blowing an entire theatre to rubble all because I lost my temper. Consider that it was all over the international news, I highly doubt that everyone’s forgotten about it in less than a year.

Crux looked at her, only for a second, but it was enough to bring a smile to her face before she suddenly felt an intense twisting in her stomach. It was either unfortunate or fortunate that she had a high pain threshold. Ever since she was a child she had it. She recalled once in her youth having fallen from a high stone wall, breaking her arm clean in half. She remember it hurting a bit, but she was mostly more upset that her mother insisted she go to the hospital instead of return to playing. As quickly as the pain was there, it was gone.

“Well that was an adventure.” she said, unsure of what else to say. It was then she noted his fisted hands at his side. Ace slowly approached him and gently laid her fingers upon one of his fists. “You don’t need to be angry.”

[sarashadow]

He listened as she explained about losing her temper. She didn't seem that dangerous, not that he was all that good at reading people. But, whatever powers she did have, they were definitely something to take into consideration, but at least she could somewhat control hers. He'd been trying to control himself for years, many long and tiring years, but he had gained nothing from it. But he stopped trying.

And after he'd looked at her, he listened to her reaction and was thankful that he hadn't hurt her enough to make her collapse. That was never fun to watch, but he'd almost killed someone just by looking at them before, and was very relieved that she'd overcome it faster than he'd thought.

An adventure? That's not what he'd expected her to say, but at least she was angry... or terrified of him, for that matter. But then she was right beside him, and reaching for his hand. Out of habit, he immediately sidestepped away from her before she could touch his hand. He swallowed and looked in her direction, but made sure that he didn't looked into her eyes again.

He replied to her then, "Yes. I do."

[ace]

She wasn’t sure which she was more saddened by. His tone or the fact that he was suddenly being very…distant. Her eyes narrowed at him and she began glowing. It was a small glow at first and lights got brighter. As her glow grew, the lights began to flicker. Her emotions were beginning to surface. That could mean her good way was almost over.

“No, you don’t. You caused me a bit of discomfort. I can deal with that. I could tell you horror stories about my body that will make you cringe. That was nothing. Well, it was something, but no worse than what I deal with on my own, only when I’m putting myself through that it lasts a lot longer. That and I have a high pain threshold to begin with. It anyone should be angry with themselves about anything it should be me. I killed hundreds of people because I was angry with my manager.”

It was then that she noticed the lights flickering. “Oh no, she breathed, dashing out of the room and outside as quickly as her feet would carry her. The energy she had unintentionally pulled from the hideout was pent up inside her now and if she didn’t release it then bad things would happen. Once she was far enough away, she released the energy into the ground, shaking the earth until her glow vanished. After this, she struggled back into the hide out, breathing heavy. She had managed to close the door behind her when she collapsed to the ground. That was one thing she hated about her power. It drained her.

[sarashadow]

Crux looked around at the flickering lights as he listened to her speech. But she didn't understand. He was mad because he couldn't even look at people without hurting them. And he could understand about the pain that she could put herself through, he'd done that before. And he'd killed people, too, and he'd never forgive himself for it.

And then, she took off, glowing. He knew she'd be back and as she returned, he was waiting. She collapsed in front of him and he wished he could do something to help her. But he couldn't touch her, and he didn't know what else to do...

"I didn't mean to anger you," he said, once she was under control again. "I'm just much more dangerous than causing pain through eye contact." Then he added in a quiet, almost incomprehendible voice, "I'm more dangerous than you..."

[ace]

Ace merely shook her head and stood up, rather shaky. However, her attempt was useless, for she was back on the ground seconds later, her eyes lazy and dazed. When he implied to having angered her, she merely laughed.

“You think that was me angry? That was me catching myself before I got angry. That was me slightly irritated, if even that. You know the blackout in Los Angeles about a month ago? Don’t tell anyone, but that wasn’t a black out. That was me. And the media downplayed just how bad the black out really was.”

Not only had she sucked all the energy out all the buildings, but all of the cars had died as well. Had she not used that energy to silently leave the atmosphere to unleash it all, the effect could have been catastrophic.

“Would you mind getting me a bucket? I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

Ordinarily she didn’t feel this nauseous after unleashing energy. She knew she was only sick because she had taken in the energy and released it so quickly. It had probably been a mistake, but she didn’t care. At this point, she preferred to be safe, not sorry.

[sarashadow]

Crux watched her helplessly as she stood up and fell back down again. He wished he could do more than just stand there. But at least she wasn't angry, and when she asked for the bucket he walked swiftly down the hall to the nearest bathroom and found one under the sink.

He laid it on the ground beside her and stepped back a little, just in case she tried to touch him again. He was just out of her reach, which was all he wanted. She didn't know about his powers, and he didn't think he'd be able to live with himself if he ever hurt her. He'd only known her for five minutes but he already hated seeing her in pain.

Finally, he broke the silence, "So you came from LA? How'd you manage to get all the way up here...?"

[ace]

When he placed the bucket next to her, she was quick to drag it across the floor towards her. Ensuring that he wouldn’t see her lunch in reverse, she shoved her face into the container and then it all began to spill out, her heaving motions and the sound of liquid substance slopping onto the ground was more than enough to embarrass the hell out of Acelyyn. Once her stomach was completely empty, she pulled the bucket behind her to block it from Crux’s view. The last thing he needed to see was her vomit.

At the mention of being from Los Angeles, she laughed. “Me? An L.A. bitch? No, I was there for a funeral. My friend…well, he died, that’s all you need to know. I’d really rather not talk about it. But no, I’m a New Yorker. Born and bred. I grew up literally a street away from Broadway. I even played Cosette on the stage when I was a kid. Lots of good memories.”

She stood still stumbling a bit before she bent down, nearly crashing onto her head in the process, but she regained her balance quickly enough, hugging the bucket to her. “Ugh, that’s so nasty.” she stated to herself.

[sarashadow]

Crux just watched her pitifully as she shielded her throw up from him. He'd seen way worse than vomit, but was surprised to hear her laugh.

And he felt bad for asking about it when she said her friend died, but didn't ask anything more about it. He smiled when she said she had good memories. He only wished that he'd had a childhood like hers. All the memories he had were devastating, or at least most of them.

But he gave her a small, sympathetic smile after stood and caught her balance. "I know," he nodded when she sad it was nasty. "Are you all right?"

[ace]

She was surprised to see a smile from him and that pulled her own lips up into one of her own. “You know, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile. You should do it more often.”

Ace was generally a positive person. Just like anyone, she had her terrible days. Many little girls would have loved being home schooled in order to perform on broadway at such a young age, but it was hard work. Ace never really got a childhood. Since she had begun singing at the age of five, her play had become her work. She knew the musical business inside out by the time she was eight. Granted, she loved what she was doing and had fun doing it, but she never really had time to roll in the mud and get dirty like any other little girl.

“yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired. I’ll be fine, I just need to not do anything stupid for a while.”