Room 330, Saturday Morning

[genesishero]

Evan was sitting on the edge of his bed, a piece of paper in his hand, which was shaking, just slightly. Old Lace was awake, but resting her head in his lap, coiled around him on the bed. Ozzy was curled up at his feet. He'd had the paper with him in an envelope for most of the week, putting off opening and reading it because of who it had been sent by.

Evan had a complicated relationship with Logan. Seeing his name on the Jean Grey School letterhead as he had pulled out the letter didn't help that.

The contents of the letter helped him even less, just raising more questions than anything else.

Uncle Cluster -- Fantomex -- was alive somewhere, and being kept in a high-security prison in The World.

Logan needed Evan there, to help get him out again.

Evan's time on the island was done. Just like that. Headmistress Pryde had left, apparently ages ago, Storm had taken her place, and Logan needed Evan's help to get Fantomex back.

He needed to pack. He had... more books than any one kid could carry, on any subject under the sun. He wrote a little 'Free' sign on a piece of loose paper, and had Old Lace help him lug the majority of them out into the hall. There were a few, mostly the ones he'd read with Sholeh while she was here and, um, the magazines that Wade had left for him, that he didn't have the heart to part with. Packing Ozzy and Old Lace's things came next. And while he did that, he placed handwavy phone calls, to leave messages for Rosalind and Mr. Constantine, to tell them that he wouldn't be back to work for them again. There was already a portal booked for him, courtesy of Logan, set to leave in just a few hours.

He would have argued if Logan had called him back under almost any other circumstance. The island was more a home to him than the Jean Grey School had been, after all. But then there was Uncle Cluster, who, in spite of all of the lies and hurt and everything horrible he'd done to bring Evan into the world, was still more family to him than anyone on the island. Maybe that was just the way Evan had been programmed. Maybe there was no way he would ever be sure. But right now he was certain of one thing.

It was time to go.

[OOC: Open door, open post. Last chance to talk to Evan before he vanishes forever. Feel free to loot the small mountain of moddable literature sitting out in the hallway.]

Comments

[genesishero]

Evan blinked up from the seat he'd taken on the edge of his bed.

"Most of them, yeah," he replied, giving a little, messy kind of exhale. "I can't take them all with me when I go."

Did that explain that? At least a little?

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"You're leaving?" She hesitated in the doorway, not sure what sort of words were appropriate at a moment like this. "Did you graduate, or ... is everything all right?"

[genesishero]

"I haven't graduated yet," Evan sighed, shaking his head. "I got a letter, from the headmaster of my other school, who says that he needs my help saving my uncle."

He scuffed his toe against the floor. Old Lace wandered over to investigate the person standing in the doorway.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor held her hand out to Old Lace, wondering if the dinosaur remembered her. Maybe people all smelled alike.

"Your uncle's in danger?" she asked, her stomach twisting. "Does that mean you're ... going away for a bit, or are you ..."

It was just that he seemed to be packing, was all. It had less the feel of a weekend trip.

[genesishero]

Evan's toe tapped against the floor a few times while he mulled over his reply.

"My uncle was dead, the last time I saw him," he shared, because... that had explained a bit about how messed up everything was when he'd been talking to Alana. With Eleanor, he had the added bonus of feeling like it was maybe okay to add, "they locked me in a room with his body. I watched them pulverize his heart."

So being called back to save him seemed a bit off.

"I don't know what to expect, but whatever it is... I don't think I'll be back after it."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"So ... your uncle's hard to kill," Eleanor murmured. "Do people typically resurrect, where you're from, or ... is this new?"

She folded her arms around herself, wishing she knew what to say, exactly.

"I'm sorry."

[genesishero]

"It's not unheard of," Evan replied, a little awkwardly. "I mean, the X-Men die and come back all the time. But it's still... unusual, for my world."

Not really unusual for Evan personally, but that was a different matter entirely.

"He has a lot to answer for," he added, quietly. "I'm not sure what I'm going to say to him, if he really is alive."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"So it's complicated," she said. "You're angry with him, but ... presumably, still grateful that he isn't dead any longer."

Otherwise, he'd hardly be packing to go back.

[genesishero]

Evan gave a little nod, frowning down into his mostly packed bag.

"Yeah," he admitted. "He wasn't really my uncle. I mean, there's no shared blood between us. But my entire life, so far as I was aware, had him as a fixture in it. And when I found out how much of that life was a lie, it was too late to take him to task about it."