Hugs Are Important

[iamnotpolaris]

The first thing Emily notices is that something felt weird when she pulled open the door to Hank's lab.
The second thing Emily notices is that what's on the other side of the door is not Hank's lab.
"That's weird," she muses, stepping inside and looking around. Surely someone would have mentioned if they were remodeling? Surely she would have noticed it happening?
...Surely they wouldn't have installed a bar?
For lack of a better idea of what to do, she wanders up to the bar, still looking around to see if an explanation for this oddness will be readily apparent.
"This is strange," she murmurs, drumming her fingers on the bar.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"Generally there is only one of anyone, as far as I know."

[calescent]

"I mean there's only one person people have to be away from. And it's me."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Why would people have to be away from you, though? ...I'm sorry, I'm being pushy, aren't I."

[calescent]

The little girl frowns. "Um, I'm the Ardelay prime, and if people get too close to me I read their minds and I can't stop. But - it's only a few feet so I don't have to go live by myself in the middle of nowhere or anything."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Oh, if it's only mind reading I don't mind."

[calescent]

"...I can't stop," she repeats. "And I get all the thoughts, even if you didn't want me to see them and - and you have to stay back."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I mean, if it bothers you then of course not. But--I mean, I've never heard of something called Ardelay prime, we're probably from different universes, it's not like you'd be able to use it against me if I accidentally thought of one of my deepest darkest secrets."

[calescent]

"That's not the point!"

[iamnotpolaris]

"...Then what is the point?"

[calescent]

"The point isn't that I would - would tell other people the secrets, it's that I'm a person and I being a person could know the secrets even if I never did anything or told anyone, and I'd know all about how your mind works and - and everything." She swallows. "The - the last Ardelay prime might have done it like that or she might have had it different and we don't know. She might have just gone around, reading people's minds, all the time..."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I mean...I'm not going to tell you that it's okay to read people's minds without their permission, it's not, that's true, but my twin sister is a telepath. She can not read minds if she chooses to, and she usually chooses to, but I let her read my mind all the time. I genuinely don't have a problem with it."

[calescent]

The little girl bursts into tears.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Are you okay? Was it something I said? Augh, I am a tactless idiot, but I honestly don't know what I said wrong..."

[calescent]

Presently she gets herself under control. She takes a few deep breaths. The tears boil off of her face, which doesn't seem to cause her any discomfort.

"My," she says, slowly and not without hiccupping, "my brothers, my twin brother, won't hug me, any more."

[iamnotpolaris]

...
"My, uh, my twin's been a telepath since we were babies?" she offers weakly. "I've--literally never not known her like that--this isn't helping, do you want a hug from me, I know it's not the same but it's something, is there literally anything I can do..."

[calescent]

Sniffle. Shy guilty nod.

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily steps cautiously into range, and hugs the girl.
She really wasn't lying about not minding mind reading. She knows, objectively, that some people do, and she respects that, but she finds it odd. How can you not want to be understood like that?
This is a little backgrounded, though, under sorrow sympathy I hope it'll be alright wish there was more I could do hugs. And a sort of general wave of affection--you are a stranger, yes, but you are a person who is suffering and a child on top of that and you should not be suffering and it is bad.

[calescent]

Hugs.

[iamnotpolaris]

Hugs. And wishing that this girl's brothers were willing to hug her, and knowing that judging someone for not wanting their mind read was wrong, but she's so sad it's not fair.

[calescent]

"If it was one of them," she swallows audibly, "it couldn't have possibly been but if it was anyway I wouldn't let them either."

[iamnotpolaris]

...Yeah. That's fairly predictable, in retrospect, from how she reacted to the idea of mind reading. It's not evil. It's just sad.
Hugs. She can't fix this--it's not logically impossible to fix but any cure would by definition be worse than the disease--but she can do hugs.

[calescent]

The hugs are nice.

"My name's Kiribel Ardelay."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Emily Xavier."
And boy is there a lot of context under that. She has--somehow, she doesn't think about the mechanics--two fathers, only one of whom she can publicly admit. Her sister is not, legally, her sister. The fact that her name probably should be Xavier-Lehnsherr or Lehnsherr-Xavier or something but isn't.
She doesn't dwell on this, it just passes through her mind as an accepted piece of context.

[calescent]

Kiri doesn't ask.

"So if you don't have Ardelays why can your sister read minds?"

[iamnotpolaris]

Mutants. Some people are just born with powers--Emily has her magnetism, Scott has his eye beams, Jean has telepathy AND telekinesis, that Frost woman Dad argues with when she visits has telepathy and the diamond shapeshifting thing, Warren has his wings, Aunt Raven has her blue skin and more general shapeshifting...
And it's not only wings and blue skin that can be different, physiologically. That's how Emily has two dads.