( ｖｉｄｅｏ ｔｈｅ ｆｉｒｓｔ )

[permutation]

[ So, do you remember Raven, Asgard? Unfortunately, she doesn't remember any of you. Raven sits tall, back straight, looking directly at the video feed ]

I don't like this place already. Apparently they brought us here so that we could bring color to their world? I feel like someone's trying to make fun of me.

[ She looks less than impressed. She assumes that it's clear as to why she feels like she's being made fun of, and needs no explanation. Bright yellow eyes, red hair and most importantly, there's her blue skin and scales ( both of which are on full display with her sitting there, completely naked ) ]

I'm proud of who I am [ finally ] and I'm not going to let someone treat me like this.

[ She huffs a little and rolls her eyes, but she's calming down regardless ]

So this place is called Asgard and they replace whatever we could do at home with whatever they want to when they bring us here. They do that, and still expect us to help them. I think I would rather find a way back home, where I know what I'm supposed to be doing, and where I know people respect me.

Comments

[video]

[holmes_fanatic]

I think the joke's on all of us. We're -- all stuck here and none of us have been able to find a way to leave when we want to.

[video]

[permutation]

All? How many are even here?

[video]

[eisenrache]

[Erik had dealt with Raven leaving - privately, of course, but he'd dealt with it. When both Charles and Raven left, relatively at the same time, Erik had assumed it was an escape. A chance for them to go back home, and he had hope that Raven would continue what they had started - even if the Raven who had been here with him didn't remember.

Seeing her face, though, her real face, sends a mixture of disappointment (he had wanted her to escape this place, be free) and pride. Because this? This is his Raven.

So when the video starts up, he's smiling. Faintly, softly, but smiling, because he's missed seeing her like this.]

Raven, you are a sight for sore eyes.

[But then he remembers - stories he's heard of people leaving and coming back, not remembering what they experienced, what they'd done. He steels over a bit. He will find out what she knows, what she remembers, but first he must find her.]

Where are you?

[video]

[permutation]

[ Seeing him, seeing Erik's face, it isn't surprising since she'd just been with him. Off to see that other telepath, that Emma Frost. She'd been watching as he tried to recruit Emma to their whatever it was. Band of merry mutants? No, the surprising part is seeing him here in this place, and even that... Azazel could teleport, right?

Regardless of her level of shock and awe, Raven's face lights up when she sees him, because his is a familiar face in a place where she seems to know no one else ]

I prefer to be called Mystique.

[ Any sign of huffy annoyance brought on by her current situation is all but gone when she says that and she smiles wide. The smile fades quickly and her expression turns to one of concentration as she looks around. Since getting here, she's already ventured out. Seeing so many grey people made the girl with the blue skin that much more unafraid of venturing outside the safety of the building she'd been in.

The tiger's finally getting more comfortable with her stripes ]

It's called Heimdall. Do you know where that is?

video;

[gymnast]

...you do realize you're naked, right? [ Allison's going to focus on that because focusing on anything else - the scales and the eyes that remind her way too much of the kanima, even if her coloring's completely different - is simultaneously rude, the worst idea ever, and honestly a little frightening.

But the fact that she still looks human - or human-shaped, at least - is enough to convince Allison, for the time being, that this is something different. ]

[video]

[eisenrache]

[It's impossible to describe the sheer amount of relief he feels when she says that, the smile growing slightly because yes. Yes. Just getting that response is promising because that means she really is his.]

Of course. Mystique. I apologize.

[He gives her a nod, already leaving the Library where he had been reading.]

I will find you, and then I have quite a bit to explain. But first- [His expression becomes a bit more serious.] Where were you? Before being brought here, I mean. What do you last remember?

video;

[permutation]

[ Raven looks down at herself, as though for the first time discovering something she hadn't been previously aware of. She knew, though. She obviously knew. How couldn't she know? ]

Who do you think took my clothes off?

video;

[gymnast]

I don't know. [ It's a creepy though, but: ] You could've been naked when you got here.

[video]

[permutation]

[ She swells with pride when he corrects himself and calls her by her chosen code name, sitting up a little straighter and holding her head a little higher ]

Before showing up here, I was with you. [ There's a long pause, as though that's all she has to say. That is, until she realizes just how unspecific that is. She'd technically been with Erik ever since Charles managed to keep him from drowning himself. There was also that time she'd almost been with Erik. Her face grows warm at the memory and for a split second she wonders if he'd be able to tell that she's blushing, with her blue skin ]

I remember that we left Charles, there on the beach. We just left him. [ There's guilt, probably even a little regret in her voice but she swallows it down before she speaks again ]

We - you - were recruiting people like us.

video;

[permutation]

I was naked when I got here. [ Of course, she could simply leave it at that and allow the other girl to take away from it what she will but instead, Raven slumps a little, somewhat in defeat ] It's the way I was before I even got here. [ Because that's slightly more comforting, right? ]

video;

[gymnast]

[ Way more comforting because now she's not worrying about the gods undressing people sometimes. ] Well, if you want some clothes, someone might be able to find you some? I don't think they stock the apartments, but there's stores here.

video;

[predators]

They don't care who you are, how they treat you or what you'd rather do. [ Let alone what you are since everyone is as attached to their strings as possible. But yes, this is all said with the most positive face. Just look at it. ]

video;

[permutation]

[ Well, it could still happen and if it actually does? Well, Raven wasn't the first victim of it ] Thanks, but I'm fine. Clothes only cover what we're ashamed to show anyway.

video;

[permutation]

[ If this is positive, she'd hate to see angry ] How do you know so much about what they care about and what they don't?

[burping]

[You are blue. And Mithian taps her bracelet, wondering if it's broken already.] It seems that many of us have been brought here at the same time.

[permutation]

[ Quite blue! Please, don't adjust the color on your bracelet. There's nothing wrong with it ] Did some mysterious godly force bring you here against your will too?

[burping]

I am afraid so. Along with everyone I have spoken to.

[video]

[eisenrache]

[He likes seeing her look like that, sitting up straight, confident in who she is, who she's become. There's a sense of pride, there, in seeing that she's at the point in her life where she understands how perfect she really is.

It's like having an entirely different Raven here with him. He wouldn't say better, because she's not. A more enlightened Raven, maybe.

Erik listens to her explain, walking along the streets in her direction. When she mentions the beach, he nods. When she mentions leaving Charles, he nods again. It's when she speaks of recruiting that he stops, looking at her.]

You remember the Brotherhood? [he hadn't expected that - resigned to believing he would be the only one who knew the whole story. The smile breaks back through because this is better, much better, than he could have ever expected.]

video;

[predators]

Pay some attention and it becomes quite clear. [ Or have videos of people dying from defiance shoved at you. That works too. ]

[rollingboy]

[ Ah, blue. He doesn't mind blue. It's a cool color, and he's seen odder here. ] I don't think we'd help them anyway unless we were brought here with the powers they choose. [ A breath. ] That's how it works.

[video]

[permutation]

Of course I remember that. Am I not supposed to? [ But then she narrows her eyes suspiciously. Had Erik's telepath done something to her? Charles had promised to stay out of her head and he didn't, so who was to say that Erik's new telepath would? Charles was - is - her brother and Emma is just a woman who, until recently, was on the other side, fighting for the enemy. So the idea of Emma getting into Raven's head, messing around, making her forget things is something that feels uncomfortably possible.

And suddenly, for just a moment, she's that scared little creature Charles had first found rummaging through his kitchen. What defense does she possibly have against a telepath?

But the moment passes quickly ( or at least she tries to keep it from showing ) and she's back to as she was just before, all prideful and unafraid ] You were talking with that telepath woman and trying to get her to join us.

Then I was here. What's going on?

[permutation]

Is everyone who isn't creepy and grey not from around here?

[burping]

I believe so.

video;

[permutation]

And how long have you even been here that it's all so clear to you? [ Her tone is accusatory because quite frankly, it sounds like he's speaking for them ]

[permutation]

What about the bringing color to the world thing, is that true? Or do you think that woman really was just making fun of me when she said that?

[ Watch out if you try to answer that second question, Mithian ]