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

[wildandbrave]

But think of what a memorable sight that would be!

Wait, no, that would probably be a bad thing.

"Take them all with you?" And that was when Cosette processed the packed-up state of most of the other side of the room, and her face fell a bit. "Oh. You're leaving, then?"

[genesishero]

Evan's own gaze dropped, and he nodded a little, sadly. This place was home. More home than any other real place in existence had ever been. He wasn't all too keen about the prospect of leaving, either.

"I got a letter from my old Headmaster," he explained, "who is... I guess he's the closest thing to a legal guardian that I have. Maybe. He wants me to go back to my last school, something about my uncle."

[wildandbrave]

"Oh, so you have family back there," Cosette said with a nod. "I can understand that."

She thought.

"It seems like a shame that you can't bring all the books with you, but that's the way of it when one has to leave in a hurry sometimes." Like, say, when your escaped-convict parental figure thought the police were onto him again. She frowned slightly as she looked at him. "Will you be all right there? You don't seem terribly eager about going."

[genesishero]

"I'm not sure," Evan admitted, sighing as he flopped down on the edge of the bed. "Stuff is pretty complicated when it has something to do with family, I'm learning. My uncle's in prison," instead of, you know, dead, "so I really don't know what to expect."

[wildandbrave]

"Oh." Cosette bit her lip, unsure how to react to that; it wasn't as if (as far as she knew) she could relate.

Really, it was just a good thing she'd left Paris before she ever had a chance to encounter one of the wagonloads of convicts on their way to the chain gang in Toulon, or her reaction would have been a bit more negative.

"I don't know what to tell you to expect," she said apologetically. "I wish I could."

[genesishero]

"It's fine," Evan replied with a faint smile, trying to look reassuring. "I think this is one of those things I want to be able to figure out for myself, anyway. It seems to be the most reliable option when I'm dealing with stuff from that reality."

Especially Wolverine and Fantomex. Deadpool was cool, though.

[wildandbrave]

"Well," Cosette said after a moment. "I don't have any reason to think you won't be perfectly capable of figuring it out. You're certainly smart enough. And . . . you do have people there you can talk to, don't you?"

Yes, she looked perhaps a bit overly worried about that possibility. She hated the thought of anyone being all alone.

[genesishero]

Evan fell silent for a moment, just a heartbeat, before he nodded a little.

"There's Wade," he replied. "He helped me a lot, after the last time I saw my uncle. And I've got Old Lace and Ozzy, too. Maybe even a few of my old classmates back there. Idie, or Broo."

But not Quentin. Goodness, no, never Quentin.

[wildandbrave]

"Oh! Yes, that's true." Cosette laughed and waggled her fingers at Ozzy and Old Lace. "You'll look after him, won't you?" she asked them, in the tone of voice that suggested it was a rhetorical question, because she already knew they would.

"That's good, then. So long as you've people to keep you company. Do you suppose you'll ever come back to visit?"

She would not be surprised, or terribly disappointed, if the answer was no; she definitely hadn't ever gone back to visit any place they'd left, either.

[genesishero]

"I'll try," Evan replied, smiling faintly as Ozzy bounded over, tail wagging, to say hello. He was getting attention and that was awesome. "I would like to. Fandom is more like home than anywhere else I've ever really been."

In fairness, he really hadn't gotten out much before Fandom.

"But... I can't make any promises, either. The stuff with my uncle is kind of messy. The stuff with my other school is just... weird. Who knows if I'll ever really get the chance?"

[wildandbrave]

Cosette extended her hand to Ozzy, fully intending to scratch him under the chin if he'd let her.

"So long as you'd like to, I'm happy with that answer, whether or not you actually succeed," she decided, nodding. "Now, had you said 'No, I'm putting this place completely out of my mind the moment I step off the island,' that would have been a different story, and I would have to be upset then."

She tried to look stern as she said it, and partly succeeded.

[genesishero]

"Most of my friends came from here," Evan pointed out. "And here's where I got Ozzy and Old Lace. I don't think I have the heart to try to put Fandom out of mind, even with all of the crazy, terrible things that happen here, too."

He'd mostly managed to get through those things without killing anyone or doing something especially unforgivable. He was going to consider that a win.

[wildandbrave]

Cosette would consider that a win too, only if the narrative were from her canon there would be several chapters enumerating why exactly it was a win.

. . . so luckily it wasn't.

"And that's why I would have been disappointed if you did," she said, seeming more or less content about it. "Luckily you are far too decent of a person to consider it. I'm sorry that you have to leave all this behind, but I do wish you all the best."