Sept 26 - Water is Pretty

[Mercy Wilkins]

Mercy sits on the edge of the concrete embankment, wings slightly extended to help her keep her balance. There's a bit of a dark aura around her as she calls on her power a little, though she's not really doing anything with it in specific.

[Juma Ngomo]

Juma makes his way along the embankment, somewhat lost in thought. As he spies a familiar set of wings his attention returns to the area and he makes his way over with an even pace. "Good day, Mercy."

[Mercy Wilkins]

Mercy pulls her little haze of darkforce in, and smiles. "Hello Juma." It takes her a moment to say, "Would you like to sit?" She seems a touch distracted.

[Juma Ngomo]

"I would, thank you." He eases himself down and balances easily. "Penny for your thoughts?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"I'm not sure I could deliver on the deal. I can't really remember what I was thinking about. I was listening to voices."

[Juma Ngomo]

Juma tilts his head and partially shifts, growing over-large feline ears to listen closely. "Would these be local, inside your head, or across the universe?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Somewhere in there...." Mercy raises a hand and lets a ball of darkforce grow around it.

"I'm trying to understand what's in that place better, in case there's trouble."

[Juma Ngomo]

"What sort of trouble?" he tilts his head, shifting back to his human form.

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Well, we've been attacked a lot lately. And my only real escape route is a pretty dangerous one. I was hoping I could make it less dangerous."

[Juma Ngomo]

"What do they have to say?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

Mercy sighs. "They're encouraging me to go in there. But every time I have in the past, it's ended with some pretty serious injury."

She smiles wryly. "I am beginning to suspect that they don't have my best interests in mind."

[Juma Ngomo]

"Many djinn are known for their trickery. From what you have said, the denizens of shadow are not particularly.. altruistic. What is it like to travel there?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

Mercy considers. "There's pain. It's dark of course, and there's always a sense of movement. I've never found anything solid there, but I've only been a few times. Flashes of light, and once I felt something grabbing at me. Breathing is like taking smoke into your lungs."

"My trips through it are very short in our world, but they seem much longer over there."

[Juma Ngomo]

"If I could be of any help I would, but I am afraid that's beyond me. Unless.. perhaps you could camouflage yourself somehow?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Hmmm, maybe I should speak to Mr. Wagner about that."

She looks at Juma in surprise. "Actually, I never thought that he might come through unharmed because he looks like a demon."

[Juma Ngomo]

"Protective colouration can go a great distance. Of course, I rather prefer your appearance to Nightcrawler's, but I might be a touch biased," he smiles softly.

[Mercy Wilkins]

Mercy traces her fingertips over Juma's cheek. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

[Juma Ngomo]

He smiles at the touch, "I'll remember that. Have you ever taken anyone else through with you?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"No, but Kurt has, so I assume it's possible for me to do it."

[Juma Ngomo]

"That could be a dangerous assumption. You might want to talk with him about that too."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Well I would only ever try it if there was no other way to save a person."

[Juma Ngomo]

"Fair enough." He pauses and enjoys the sound of water for a few moments, "I have been thinking about something you said earlier, about diplomacy. It's too late for these attackers, but what do you think we can do the next time we have to deal with.. someone with a grudge or a plan."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"The important thing is to get them talking. As long as people are talking, violence is not happening. And it's easy to keep people talking, most of the time, if you let them think that they might find a way to gain from the conversation."

"Eventually the hope is to show that they do gain from talking. They aren't forced to resort to violence, where you can lose too much, too quickly."

[Juma Ngomo]

"And in circumstances like these, where we are simply attacked? How do we bring them to the point of talking?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Well, I admit it's not always possible. But often people like these will agree to some kind of meeting, if we have any way to communicate with them, if only because they think they will get a chance to ambush us. If we can forstall the ambush, then we can get them talking."

"I mean, people, humans, we like to talk. It's easy to get people talking if you can get them to stop shooting, even temporarily."

[Juma Ngomo]

"I was not meaning to give you a hard time," he smiles reassuringly, "I just really would rather not have to come to blows and if there is anything we can do differently, I am certainly willing to try. Of course, that seems to be a minority opinion some days," he shrugs, "but I know I am not alone in that hope."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"That's how I feel too. I mean, I don't know if you know this, but our planet is being blockaded, right now by powerful and advanced aliens. I would really like to talk to them and see if we could come to some kind of reasonable arrangement. I don't ever want force to just escalate."

Mercy leans against Juma. "I'm glad you're not for violence. Most men your age with an X-Gene are. For that matter, most of the women too."

[Juma Ngomo]

"Blockaded? No, I was not aware of that. How does that even work?"

[Mercy Wilkins]

"The Shi'ar have told us that we cannot leave our solar system, and they have some very dangerous ships in the area that are no doubt ready to destroy anyone who tries to leave."

"Or anyway, so I was told in the introductory class."

[Juma Ngomo]

"That seems rather unfair. What have we done that we should be quarantined like that? Not that I have any plans to leave Earth, but it is the principle of the matter."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"They are afraid of our mutant powers, apparently. Phoenix in particular."

[Juma Ngomo]

"I am not sure if I should be flattered or depressed by that," he lets out a humourless laugh, "On the other hand, it might give us enough time to clean up our own planet before we stretch further afield."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"And to do that, we need to get people talking. They can yell at each other or make snide comments as long as they talk instead of shooting."

[Juma Ngomo]

He nods and leans into Mercy, "Indeed. Well, I am also glad to talk to someone who is willing to look at alternative solutions to conflict. You would think that with all the potential we have we'd manage to figure something out by now."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"People are lazy. It's so much easier just to fight. The world is a Prisoner's Dilemma, and the woman in the other cell is not cooperating."

[Juma Ngomo]

"Well then, we must take the road less traveled by. Unfortunately, I will be heading down the easy road tomorrow. I should probably get some rest tonight."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Awww, leaving already?"

[Juma Ngomo]

"You can walk with me, if you like. I would be happy to have the company."

[Mercy Wilkins]

"Sold." Mercy hops up, using a quick wingbeat to get up more gracefully, and then offers a hand to Juma.

[Juma Ngomo]

He laces his fingers into the offered hand and begins a casual stroll up the embankment toward the campus proper. "Why did you come down to the river?"