A weekend on a tropical island did wonders for Sage. The warm sun, the cold wine, the enthusiastic company... she was loathe to leave it behind. Fortunately, it was only the sun and the wine left back on the beach. The company returned home with her.

There was paperwork aplenty waiting for her when she returned to her office. Something of a prank war had broken out while they were away. She'd pass the detention notices along to Logan and let him sort it out.

A few days after they returned home, workmen turned up to install the safes she'd asked for. One wall safe for her room and one large, armoire style safe to be bolted to the wall in Misha's closet. When they'd discussed installing one to keep his keepsakes safe, they'd talked about a regular sized one. After he'd been given a suit of armor from Anthony, she'd called the installation company and upgraded his to a larger size to accommodate the armor and his other items. The cost of the upgrade was part of her Christmas gift to him. He still got to pay the original installation, as per their agreement.

While the workmen installed the safe in her room, she peered into the walk-in closet in Misha's room to see what would need moving. The large duffel bag back in the corner caught her eye immediately. When she lifted it, she knew immediately what was inside. No chance she was leaving Stark property lying around while strangers tromped about.

Putting the bag aside for the moment, she turned her attention to the small stockpile of items arranged carefully on the floor of the closet. Books, tee-shirts, gift certificates... arranged in some kind of order, although she had no way of knowing what. There was also an order confirmation for a candy delivery from Godiva tucked in among the items. Scheduled delivery date was tomorrow. It was a good thing she found it before someone else accepted the order and squirreled it away. The order confirmation was folded up and tucked into a pocket before she carefully moved the assorted gift items from their place in the closet to stack neatly on the bed and out of harm's way. They could be replaced once the work was done.

She slipped back into her own room and tucked the armor bag away in her own closet. It also could go back when the safe was in place. The work in her room was finished by that time and she examined it, found it to be acceptable, then followed them into Misha's room to observe the second installation. The second one took considerably longer and there was much muffled and apologized for cursing. But, eventually the thing was solidly in place and working well.

While Sage had opted for the old fashioned kind of safe with a spinning dial, Misha had requested one with a digital lock. She listened patiently to the instructions for setting the code, took the written copy, and showed them to the door. When they were gone, she set a temporary code and then carefully stashed the armor away inside. When Misha returned, she'd walk him through the instructions for changing the code.

The only consideration left was the pile of gifts on his bed. Standing over them, she frowned thoughtfully. It was just days before Christmas. While she'd never had a great attachment to the holiday, it appeared that he did. A niggling worry started at the back of her mind, but she put it aside for the time being. Logan knew his son. If he wasn't worried, then she had no right to be.

After another moment's thought, she left to gather some items. Classes were over for the day and she had a few hours to herself. When she was finished, each gift she'd discovered in the closet had been carefully wrapped and affixed with a blank namecard each. Under one corner of the card on each parcel was a tiny number that corresponded to a list she was keeping of what was in each one. When he came home, he could match the gifts to the recipient. She had no clue who was to get what. Then she stacked the gifts back into the corner of the closet where she had found them.

The restaurant was quiet despite having a healthy number of tables full that evening. She'd picked it for that reason. It wasn't as nice a place as the one he'd picked before -- booth instead of nice tables, and waitresses in jeans rather than nicely tailored uniforms. But, the food was good and the atmosphere was pleasant. Also, they boasted a healthy beer and liquor selection. Always a bonus.

Legs clad in denim stretched out underneath the table and her feet rested on the empty space beside him on the booth seat. Jeans and a long sleeve shirt had replaced the nice skirt from before as well. With his jeep in a puddle and hers not yet purchased, his bike had been their transportation. She was damned if fashion concerns were going to convince her to wear a skirt on a motorcycle.

She idly rolled the stem of her wine glass between her fingers as she browsed the menu. Essentially, it could be summed up as "meat", "meat on a bun", and "meat with gravy".

Decisions, decisions.

Player: Karma
Email: karmaschild at gmail dot com.
AIM (if you have one): karmaschild
Character name: Sage
PB: Evangeline Lilly
Age: 31
Abilities: Same as canon.
New character LJ name: virtual_recall
Base of operations: Xavier's
Sample Post:

Tessa cursed them all. Every one of them, even though it was only one woman's fault. All the way back to the states on the plane she cursed Roma, cursed Merlyn. Even Braddock and that pillock Wisdom. But, Roma was the one who'd short circuited her brain with... with everything. All of the images and all of the wisdom, all the knowledge of all the ages of man. Never before in her entire existence had Tessa felt so powerful. Or so completely lost. As advanced as her mind was, no human was ever really meant to know all of this all at once.

She was going mad.

As she stepped out of the cab and onto the pavement in front of the gate to Xavier's mansion, she peered through her red, cybernetic sunglasses as reached a hand up to trace the path of the tattoos that were no longer there. In a fit of vanity some years back, she'd had them removed. But, she remembered them. This place brought the sensory memories back. It had all begun with Charles Xavier. Now, she was going to have to trust him to help her end it.

/Charles./ Inwardly, she grimaced. Roma's meddling with her brain had restarted her telepathy. She'd worked so hard to shut it down. Now, she would need help doing it.

/Sage?/ The powerful mental voice of Charles Xavier was not something she would forget, even if she were capable of forgetting anything. /This is quite the surprise./

/I didn't have the time to call ahead. May I see you?/

/Of course./ His voice in her head was curious and perhaps a little concerned. He knew that she had voluntarily shut down her telepathy. Hearing her voice in his head must have been unsettling.

The gates swung open and she walked up the drive to the front doors. They did not open of their own accord, but she didn't need them to. Even if she hadn't known the mansion's layout already, she could easiy have found her way by following his telepathic signature.

Bloody Roma. Bloody English and their bloody mythology. If Roma wasn't already dead...

Tessa shook her head and climbed the stairs to Xavier's study. She gave a perfunctory knock and then pushed the door open before he bade her enter. There was little room left in her for pleasantries.

"I need your help." She dropped the duffel bag she'd carried in on the floor and dropped into the chair across the desk from him.

"I can see that now." Xavier gave her a long, concerned look that made her teeth itch.

"Kindly stay out of my mind until I've asked you to enter."

He smiled gently at her and she cursed him for it, too. "I wasn't. Your rage and fear are rolling off of you in waves. Any psychic within range would notice. For the good of some of my students, I'd like to help shore up your barriers for the time being."

Somewhat abashed, but refusing to show it, she nodded once. A feeling like a cool breeze wrapped around her mind and she couldn't stop the sigh of relief that it brought with it. For a moment, she could relax. "Thank you."

"Of course. Now... tell me how I can help you."