Blizz

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Interactions: Yoko

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Well, that got weird. The stick girl seemed less than grateful for Selena's intervention, and she didn't have time to ask about the weird eldritch snake-looking abomination following the blue haired girl who rolled up before Stick Girl grabbed her wrist and dragged Selena away. Was that some sort of robot? What the fuck is a Necroid? That girl must've been some sort of tech Nomad, she saw a few of them on the way here- Some had robotic suits, others had weapons and even a flying creature or two. So the jagged snake thing wasn't the weirdest thing Selena had seen today. Alas, that girl seemed a little... Annoying, so Selena was grateful for the excuse to leave.

Once they were alone, Selena turned her attention to Yoko.

"What was that all about?"

The man's appearance was off-putting too- Almost like he was a robot himself like that construct the blue girl had. "Why was that man holding you by a stick?"

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

Only an hour ago, Velhass felt terrified beyond measure, at the sight of this creature. Flames rolled out of their skin and burned behind their eyes as if they were a walking funeral pyre. Even the voice they spoke with was like a knife being dragged against his ears. He still felt intimidated by the being who referred to themself as “Shirik,” but they had offered the boy a piece of fruit from a tree. He was starving, so he took it and was grateful that the fruit was not poisoned. The fruit was slightly larger than his fist, and was shaped like a rough orb with red skin and blue leaves on its stem. It tasted like bloody meat, with a kick of something sweet to it. Velhass hadn’t had anything to eat like this in years, if ever.

He sat in cool grass across from the infernal figure, in a thick garden behind their first meeting place. Trees swooped over their heads so as to blend in with the untamed wild, illuminated by a strange orb of light made by Velhass’ “savior.” In the warm glow, he could see a veritable oasis of strange foliage he never laid eyes on before. Bushes with multicolored flowers reaching for the sky, stocky trees with more of the fruits that Shirik offered to him, and much more that he could faintly see off in the distance. Velhass devoured his food in silence, and realized that the Iriad was still watching him.

”...What is it?”

”When was the last time you ate?” They asked, bluntly.

”Two days ago.”

Shirik considered that for a moment, and stood up. They walked over to a tree with wispy blue bark, and swiped a finger. A spark lit up above the branches, and another one of the cordesh fruits fell into their hands. They tossed it to Velhass, who couldn’t help but gawk at this person.

”Eat. I won’t have someone starve in my presence.”

But Velhass still stared, slightly slack-jawed.

”What are you? You’re not like the people in Etapett.”

”Have you heard of the Iriad?”

”Yes… But you’re on fire. They’re made of wood. How are you alive?” It was an innocent question. But it still irked Shirik. They sat down in the grass again, and adjusted their cloak slightly.

”That is not important. Tell me something, boy-”

”Velhass. That’s my name.”

”Velhass… Alright, Velhass, what are you doing here?”

Velhass hesitated. He looked away from Shirik and had to really think about how he would answer their question. What if he answered honestly, and Shirik turned them in? He’d run. This food that they spared would last another day or two depending on how much he ate. There was nothing to lose.

”I was running from someone. They were chasing me, and they would’ve killed me by now if I didn’t run so fast.”

”Who would have killed you?”

”The ones in the metal masks. They wanted to kill me but they didn’t say a word to each other.”

Shirik couldn’t form facial expressions, but Velhass could tell something in them shifted. ”The Inquisitors. You’re a thought mage.”

”I- I don’t know what that is. They told me to surrender, but then one of them pulled out an axe and- Well, I couldn’t stay there. They would’ve chopped my head off!”

”Settle down, boy,” Shirik chided, ”If they ordered a surrender, then that meant they were considering the possibility of sparing your life. I find it difficult to trust that you are unfamiliar with thought magic, while earning their wrath. Do you hear voices where none were found?”

Velhass looked very uncomfortable. ”Sometimes. It started a few weeks past. I- I don’t have a home. I live in the streets, I don’t have anything. I have to steal food to not starve. I didn’t think the baker would miss just half of one loaf that he might’ve thrown out. But he caught me, and a guard got to me sooner than I could run. He swung a mace at me, and I was scared.”

”And…?”

”And it hurt. I couldn’t breathe at first… But then I heard the baker speaking to me. Only when I looked at him- He- I sound out of my mind, don’t I?”

”He was not there. You heard his thoughts as he left,” They were well aware that the poor weren’t helped in the Ascendancy. Shirik could not help but feel pity for this child. ”Is that what happened?”

Velhass nodded slowly. ”Sometimes I can hear other thoughts when I stand around people long enough. When I stay on the same street long enough, I can find some people that walk by every day. I can hear them speak, but they aren’t speaking. Do you hear it too?”

”No. Thought magic and mine are different. I can guess to how the Inquisitors found you. You thought to read them.”

”No… I was trying to read some Tekeri woman. I was only trying to understand it. But they sprung up and cornered me with their weapons, out of nowhere! One of them was holding lightning in his hands, I never felt that scared in my life.”

”And you ran for cover. To save yourself from a threat you assumed would harm you, had you stayed.”

Velhass nodded again. ”What was I supposed to do? Let them kill me?”

Shirik chose their words carefully. ”Boy, listen to me. I have been in this world longer than them. I outlived the first of their ranks, and I know for certain that you would not have died if you stayed. You are scared, this I can understand. But they chose to demand your surrender with the intention of resolving that conflict with peace. Inquisitors teach thought mages like yourself to control that power- Something you clearly wanted. If you return to them, and ask for mercy, then they will grant you it. You would not need to steal to live, they would take you in and you could earn a comfortable life. You-”

Suddenly, Velhass jumped up. ”No! I’m not going with them! I don’t trust them, they’re all trying to kill me! I could hear them when they chased me, they wanted me dead! I can’t go back there… I can’t. It won’t happen. It won’t. It-”

”Enough!” Shirik was standing up now, and the garden they were in became much brighter, as if to divert Velhass’ attention to his surroundings, and not his thoughts.

”What you do now will affect the rest of your days. Do you understand me? You are a scared, weak and dreadfully powerful child. You have experienced things that none your age deserve. Fear is a dangerous thing, but you have a choice to make. Live in fear, as a dreg on the world’s shoulders, or accept that you are not the same anymore, and live differently.”

Velhass’ would-be tantrum quickly vanished. The lights around them both were beautiful, like stars pulled from the heavens.

”I… I can’t go. I’m scared. I don’t want to die.” Velhass shrunk inward, and he looked away from Shirik.

Silence stretched out between the strangers. Once upon a time, Shirik was scared and alone. They had no one to guide them down the path, and now they walked it with confidence, and yet it took centuries of strength to brave that path. Shirik was surrounded by people on the day their life first changed. Soldiers defending the Myriad from the Kolodon. They were not lonely then, and the memories of those people kept them sane in the darkest days.

But this was a child with no one to call his family. An orphan with no one in his life but people that thought he was a plague, or scared him to death. They could not help but soften their fiery glare. What would Shirik’s ancestors do, if they lived to see them be set ablaze on the Day of Black Clouds? Would they have left Shirik to pick up the pieces with only a few stern words?

They would’ve appreciated guidance, back then.

And so, Shirik took in a breath of carbon dioxide that dimmed their roaring flames into near darkness, before they emerged again.

”...Then do not go with them. Stay. This is hardly a home, but you are safe in my presence.”

”You want me… To stay with you?”

Shirik shook their head. ”I do not care if you stay or not. That is your choice, and you do have it. I was in your predicament once. No one offered a roof for me to stay under. They will not find you here, if you wish.”
Velhass didn’t fully trust this person, but they had already shown more kindness than anyone in his life before. Besides, maybe Shirik could help them understand this magic. The thought of living here was new, and it would be nice to not get rained on.

”...Thank you.”

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Dear Myriad, of all the songs...

”Yes… I know the funeral song of my people. One might say I wrote it myself.” Shirik, ever the vague and cryptic one, left the question at that. "We called your... "Red Run" the Day of Black Clouds, I was there. I migrated from Mind to Soul young. Then to Valor years after. The ocean of Valor was unmatched in beauty before the waters were tainted with ash." Shirik spoke fondly of their home, but in truth, it was their home in origin only. They did not know what was happening there in this day and age, or any of them in centuries past. Having been as far as Pell'Tan and back, there were few places that Shirik wasn't familiar with. But the Myriad was something so far from what they had become, that just setting foot there would be to embrace a world that, fundamentally, was at odds with their being. Through hazy memory, they recalled the glares of their surviving comrades on that day. Narmev's terror at Shirik living despite the flame, Suro's spear held to eye-level as if Shirik were a monster in the shape of an Iriad, and so many others. Did they still exist as Shirik did? Or perhaps as an immortal, such as the green ones did?

Did they still immortalize themselves in a world of life magic? Did they, or their descendants remember the face of the Burning Iriad in some fashion? As a myth, like the rest of the world or as a martyr of the Kolodon's war? These were questions that Shirik could never answer in the last thousand years. They may never find the answers to that peace, and they may never know if they truly yearned for it.

Shirik wasn't too old to hear Esedel's hushed voice. But the didn't comment on it. They were curious as to what Kvarr actually knew of the "cursed" Iriad who cooked them all a dinner.

X-Men: GenetiX

Ryder didn’t actually want to answer the question of how she knew, as it would tip her hand and she’d light on the sheer scope of her powers. But in a split second choice, she came to a half-baked conclusion: If they knew how dangerous she was, they would keep her away from Umbra for their safety. So a small part of her chose to intimidate these men. To gloat.

”I know everything that happens in that place. All I have to do is think about it and I can read their whole system like a book. They take notes like they’re scared they’ll forget what they had for breakfast if they don’t- Every name, age, medical condition or allergy, I know the address where every single worker there goes to sleep at night. Everything that’s ever been put on a computer, hard drive or sent over a text message has passed through my damn skull at least twice.”

Ryder took a step towards them, channeling a bit of that manic determination she demonstrated constantly until now. ”They don’t breathe without me hearing the sound. Every single time someone closes a door? I know about it. Their computers do what I tell them to- I can shut the whole place down with a thought. That’s how I know, because they have your name in Becker’s files. They were too stupid to think I could do it- They thought I was weak and they paid the fucking price!” Oddly enough, Ryder didn’t sound angry in this moment. In a scary way, she sounded proud of herself. Vindicated in how she ransacked the place as she left.

”They didn’t think they had to wipe their logs or watch out for me. They didn’t think I could reach into the system’s heart and rip it out if I wanted to, so I caught them with their pants right the fuck down. I’ve known about you for years. You’re just a drop in the damn bucket, old man.”

Titans of Gotham

Enough had happened at the attack on PK-01 that Monolith wasn't going to discuss it unless someone else brought it up first.

And of course, no one did.

After the incident where he damn near killed the cybernetic murderer, Oscar simply tuned everything out. He didn't mean to fight as hard as he did, in fact he wanted to simply incapacitate Peacekeeper and be done with it. But hearing those gunshots and knowing Bolt had to have been hurt, Oscar just... Snapped. He relapsed back into the old mindset that Avalon had programmed him to work with, where he needed to be the only thing still breathing in the end or he had failed somehow. The feeling of that was painful. Monolith tried so hard to be someone different, and yet he nearly murdered someone on their first mission as a team. He counted himself lucky that the others avoided him as they had. He wasn't sure he could face them if they asked about it. When Animal Man trained him and Trask, Monolith used it as an excuse to leave PK behind him. The rhino herd wasn't a particular challenge to him.

The challenge was collateral damage. Monolith was like a sledgehammer, he could hit what he was aiming for with absolute power. And yet, he would but everything else around it as he did. Someone like Trask was more like a surgeon in the application of force, he didn't waste anything. Every move was calculated. Of course, Monolith calculated his attacks as well- He had to. Even something as minor as stepping on someone's foot as he walked by meant someone would be unable to walk, and holding something meant for normal human hands was a risk when he could shatter anything short of Tenth Metal. Even still, one could be calculated in their application of a rocket launcher, but it was still an explosion. Monolith opted to make his attacks no less profound and aggressive, but more sparse. He did not rush down the rhinos, he grabbed one and hurled it at another like a sack of grain and nothing heavier. Instead of shoulder charging the entire herd at once, he swung a fist at specific points on their chunky bodies, their horns, their legs, or their sides. There was only so much precision one could have with strength like his. But honed precision was better than no precision.

During downtime, he overheard Garfield talking to someone about something.

"Is something wrong?"

Inferno - STRIKE THE MATCH! - Concluded

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Jack Hawthorne

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Location: Limbo
Skills: Extra-planar Navigation
Spells: Twilight Doorway
Outfit

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If there was one thing that Jack had learned from all his travels, it was that nothing could last forever. Including the absence left behind by others. In a way, Jack felt better knowing he had the chance to settle something that plagued him since childhood. He stood up gently, and left the acorn to rest in the inner pocket of his coat. He raised his shadowy hand, and smoke began to trail from it. He looked at Ororo with a tired smile, a genuine one. ”Farewell, my friend.”

And then, he walked away.

Jack slowly walked through the garden that Ororo has raised over a lifetime, taking it in knowing it may be the last time he saw it for an eternity. The peace gave him time to collect his thoughts while he prepared his door out. The concept of purposes in life always eluded Jack until now- Why did one need a purpose to simply exist? But now that reality as he knew it was threatened, he found himself longing to make things right on Stephen’s behalf. An orb of darkness appeared in his hand, and he tossed it out in front of himself. It began to take shape.

Jack stared into the demonic sky above Ororo’s garden. That was the world he was entering again.

”You died here, didn’t you? You must’ve put up a fight against whatever force it was that could harm you,” He mused aloud, to no one in particular.

”I should have been a better friend to you. I’m sorry I could not have been there before you met your demise… You’ll have your successor. I will make sure of it.” Jack didn’t really think anyone was listening. No one could possibly hear him, certainly not a dead man…

Right?

The portal stretched out into its full shape, and Jack stepped through. On the other side, he was greeted by the infernal snell of Limbo’s air. That fiery wind that burned the lungs and left sand in the eye. Only, rather than reuniting with Annika and the others, he stumbled upon a woman wearing Stephen’s cloak… Just how badly did that man fuck up for there to be four of them? Wait- No, there was another one… And the room smelled like meat. And calcium. That was a child he sawZ In the clutches of the Green Eyed One. And it appears to be a child.

No, no, no no no.

”Well, well, well. If it isn’t Limbo’s most forgettable demon. Still obsessed with this garish form of decoration, I see. Put that child down, and I will consider letting you walk away without draining you in the Great Abyss.” Jack locked his eyes on the Green Eyed One, making his presence loudly well known. He despised creatures like this, and had a very special place in mind for where to banish this motherfucker.

X-Men: GenetiX

In her borderline-feral state, Ryder wasn’t fully concerned with this “school” that this man was referring to. In a way, it only confirmed a suspicion that Ryder had which suggested these men were going to take her somewhere else- Trading one captor for another. Of course, she had no way of confirming this up until now, but she assumed t this point that they wanted to bring her back there. Umbra was touted as a safe place for mutants, somewhere that they could live without fear while they were given what they needed to survive. That was a bold faced lie, of which Ryder was living proof, but she wasn’t about to trust someone else who made a similar claim.

When the old man uttered the name “Charles Xavier,” something shifted in Ryder. She was taken back a little, and had to stop and think about that. She knew that name. In the time she spent secretly trawling Umbra’s database under the guise of weaker powers, his name came up many, many times. An unknowable individual had seen to it that Xavier’s DNA was secured, and used to create a child with powers that exceeded his own by an exponential margin. That child was right in front of him.

And he had the nerve to ask for her name.

”You… You can’t be him. No. No.” Ryder’s resolved found a footing again, and she plunged a metaphorical crowbar into the man’s mind to wrench a door open. Xavier was a powerful psychic in his own right, but there was only so much he could’ve done in this situation, and that would only slow down Ryder’s mental attack. It was like a weight laid upon him, she aggressively searched him to find anything- A meager scrap of evidence that implied he was telling a lie.

And just as abruptly as she dove in, she splashed back out of Xavier’s mind with her answer. He was telling the truth.

”I don’t believe this…” For the first time since they met Ryder, Scott and Charles saw an emotion etched on her face that wasn’t overt rage. Now, her face only conveyed shock, and confusion. ”You- You. Becker never told me anything about you, but I know you.”

Scott had previously observed overwhelming conviction in this kid when she broke out of Umbra, and took down at least a third of the on-site security plus a dispatch team in her escape. But right now, she was struggling to find the words to get her point across.

”You and me… We’re related. They took a piece of you, and used it to make me. I’m Ryder- Your kid that you never knew about.”

There was no sense or warmth or catharsis to this revelation. Ryder’s words we dripped with anger.

X-Men: GenetiX

Jean was finally out of his hair. Good.

Becker walked down a hallway that no one ever walked down. The floor echoed up as fast as his heart was beating, and every now and then the man looked over his shoulder to ensure no one was there. The gun he carried under his vest weighed on his mind heavily. When Becker turned a corner, he walked seven steps, and pressed his fingertips to a wall. The wall slid away in pieces, like a secret bookshelf. It made not so much as a sound, even as it closed behind him. Behind the wall, there was only darkness. Out of that darkness came sickly green lights to illuminate the path, which no one else could have seen had they stepped into this space. It was not a room, it was not an area. It was a "space." There was no oxygen beyond the liminal wall which Becker crossed. Becker could breathe nonetheless, because it was decided that he could. The lights could have at least been bright enough to see more than two inches in his face, but brother dearest had a flair for drama.

Becker stepped forward down the path that was cut out of the negative, and his steps neither felt nor sound real. Parsecs went by with each step, and he stopped before an abstract landscape he could only acknowledge instinctually as there rather than see. The landscape was like a bedchamber, safe and isolated. In this land where time had no meaning, where the mind was synonymous with existence, Becker brought him into existence.

A man without a singled discernable feature. He was but a tessellation upon a backdrop that didn't truly exist in tangibility. But he was there.

"There's been a delay. You're going to have to wait a little longer."

There was silence.

"Don't give me that look. We'll find the damn kid. Just don't burn the place down while I'm gone."

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Ryder's chest and arm stung like hell. Her head swam and she couldn't truly recall when she woke up, only that she did. She heard the old man and the laser twink chatting about someone named Jean. There was a pressure over the wounds, but she didn't dare to look up and open her eyes. They weren't particularly stressed by the sounds of their voices. They just talked like normal back and forth. Ryder was pretending she was still unconscious while they spoke. She stretched her powers out and determined that the things she looted were still nearby, so either she was back where they found her from, or they had moved her somewhere else and took that shit for some reason. She could've tried to read the other two, but right now Ryder didn't feel like doing much. She had relative peace and felt more liked capitalizing on it than anything else. But then again... Fuck these guys.

After a lull where things chilled out, Ryder sprung up suddenly. She was on her feet thanks to her ability to apply telekinesis to movement. Even in her busted up state, Ryder was primed to beat the living shit out of anyone who breathed wrong.

They could've took her to the lab, yet they took her here... If she scared them, they wouldn't have a time to form a lie... Okay, time to scare them.

"Where the FUCK did you come from?!"

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Interactions: Yoko and some weird MF

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There was something quite weird about this guy. He was talking like a robot and saying he was defending himself, but that girl looked like she couldn’t hurt if she took his kneecaps with a shotgun… At least he was smart enough to not disqualify him. That meant this could be somewhat salvaged. ”That’s more like it. Did they fail to teach you manners back where you came from?” She asked, as snidely as she could manage. Conflict resolution wasn’t her strong suit, so she was secretly grateful this was easy to solve.

In the blink of an eye, the clone of Selena seemed to evaporate into pale purple smoke. Along with the magical orbs or light that were held to his head. Of course, she was ready to blast him if he didn’t actually cool off. ”Mind yourself from now on, alright?”

Then, Selena addressed the small woman with the stick.

”Now then… Are you alright?”

X-Men: GenetiX

They were actually backing away.

They understood. Ryder's death glare soften by a fraction, as she believed it possible to escape now. This was the end of the road for now. She didn't know where she'd go, but she'd figure it out now. Ryder figured everything out, she could do this alone like she always thought she'd have to.

"I mean it. Don't ever come near me again. You don't know me, you don't know them. If you think you're so fucking clever that you could catch me, then you should know that. I'm not letting this all get ruined by some fucking nobodies who don't know me." Ryder's asteroid belt of debris clattered violently to the ground around her. She collected the scattered pilferings from the ground, and just for good measure, she sent out a telekinetic wave to toss the mutants back. Xavier would be parted from his wheelchair and Scott was off in some other direction. When they looked back, Ryder was gone.

She had rocketed away into the sky again, into the forest. She made sure to stay near the town to ensure she could raid it again, or to lure those two fucking weirdos into it and make the town recognize them again. There wasn't much she needed right now, so she dropped into a tree and started playing with her stolen bits of tech. In the commotion, Ryder forgot to process that there was a knife and a bullet stuck in her... So she pulled them both out with her telekinesis. The sound she made as she ripped the bullet out would've alerted anyone chasing her, if they were still on her tail.

Using her powers to float the basket into a tree, Ryder stopped to catch her breath. The sun was starting to go down. And this was the first time she had laid eyes on a sunset. This felt like being reborn, as if her life had properly began just an hour ago. Ryder had no intention of falling asleep right now- She had been kidnapped too many times in her sleep before for Silas' experiments. Instead, she used the disconnectedness of the moment to actually think in peace. In a few hours after she had rested, she'd sneak back into town and steal a few more things. A bike, a change of clothes, perhaps even something to eat. It would be very easy to snatch these things up under the cover of darkness.

Ryder felt blood start to soak into her shirt... She didn't think about this part. If she bled out now, what would be the point of all thing?

Pain was ringing through her chest and arm. It felt throbbing, cold and slightly numb. The adrenaline was starting to dump out of her.

"Fuck... Fuck- FUCK!" She swore out loud, and the whole tree groaned under her. This wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to get shot. Now she had to go back and hope she could find something to slow the bleeding or use a computer to look up how to cauterize things. And god as her witness, she would if she had to. But what if those fucking guys were there?

Fine then. I'll just go Brainshatter on them if I have to. Here we fucking go.

Approximately 6 minutes later, Ryder was now awkwardly walking down an empty street. The sun was officially down, and blood was soaking into her shirt more and more. Her arm wasn't feeling that great at the moment. It felt hard to move her shoulder. Psychically looking through cameras on street corners, Ryder could tell there were no cars, but it was so dark that people might as well be invisible to her. Sweat was dripping down her face. But she didn't care, she couldn't stop. It was stop and die or continue and live. She was not letting herself die here.

One foot in front of the other. Live by any means necessary. Or die.

And yet, her eyes were so very heavy, and Ryder tripped. She didn't get back up.

Inferno - STRIKE THE MATCH! - Concluded

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Jack Hawthorne

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Location: Limbo
Skills: Extra-planar Navigation
Spells:
Outfit

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”…You-“ The idea that Ororo, more than the universe itself by his understanding, expected him to carry this burden was unsettling to Jack. She expected him to protect life- Why? Why him? Jack often had something to say in response to anything, he was never slow to retort anything. But now, Ororo had challenged him in a way that went against all he was. Jack did not protect, he simply wandered. But perhaps this was what Ororo expected. After all, she knew him quite well once, and Jack Hawthorne was not a man to back down from a challenge. To be surrounded by so many legendary people was no small fear. Steven Strange, Storm and the X-Men themselves- They all expected something of Jim that he simply could not bring himself to give.

Jack gently took the acorn into his hands. Even through a hand that was not fully there in the normal sense, he could feel its magic like warmth from a fire. It was unconditionally a figment of Ororo’s will. Her strength, her compassion, her power… These were all of the things that Jack resonated with. At last, he found his voice.

”Ny sacred pact. I’ve never known anything to be sacred… But you always did know how to convince me into something that deserved more of my dedication.” Perhaps that was why he stuck around for as long as he did as a boy, however fleeting. ”It seems there truly is not way for me to avoid this further… I expected this to be a hollow endeavor. That Steven Strange’s cloak would move on from my shoulders one it found a truer candidate, and that the pieces would simply… Fall together as they always have.”

”But something is telling me that I’m wrong. I am not one to push against a change…”

He doesn’t say it out loud, but Jack made a decision. If the universe he lived in called out for help, then what was another night in Limbo? Besides, if anyone were to replace Stevie, it might as well have been someone competent.

”Ororo, I may not ever see you again. Clearly, I have places to be for the first time in years, but I don’t know if I can ever return here. I found you by mistake…” He paused, trying to find the words that would matter. ”When I was there, at Charles’ mansion with all of you, I had a home and more than I could ever ask for. I never showed an ounce of gratitude for that… But know that I will never forget that time. You were all the closest thing to a family I’ve ever known.”

He held up his magical hand, and it’s surface rippled. Shapes rose up from its surface like an ocean, as a pitch black rose formed. Jack laid his hand on a patch of grass between them, and the flower rested there, planting itself in the earth. ”You’ve given me something with a great meaning behind it. Let me to do the same for you. This will remain here for as long as your garden stands, as a reminder that I am out there in the universe, and that I have not forgotten you.” Ororo’s penchant for drama and being poetic rubbed off on him.