Meeting for an interview (closed)

[Golem]

When Elias entered the small café not far away from Central Park, he didn´t know what or who to look for. He had never met the woman who had just called him, saying she wanted to meet him. He had been interested at once. Sources about the prophecy were rare with Xavier´s Institute understandibly keeping their students under their wings and possibilities for interviews thus being scarce so far.

He looked around and ordered a coffee before finding a seat in a corner from where he could observe the entrance but still not be too easily spotted. He didn´t know whether he looked like a typical reporter with his usual jeans-shirt-and leather jacket attire, but one never knew.

While he was waiting, he had a look around, trying to guess which of the guests were mutants and which were not.

[wallflower]

Laurie walked into the cafe with her head held high. The confidence she'd acquired the day she'd turned her powers on herself had stuck, and it was making life so much easier for her. She pulled her sunglasses off and set them on top of her head. With a faint, curious smile, she began to look around for the reporter, then spotted a man sitting alone and walked toward him. "Elias?" She asked hopefully, knowing that a few months ago she would have been too embarrassed to approach the stranger.

[Golem]

He noticed a young woman walk in and wondered if it was her, waiting about rasing his hand because one couldn´t be certain. When she walked towards him, he gave her a small smile. "That´s right." he said. "you must be Laurie then."

[wallflower]

Her smile widening into a warm grin, she extended a hand in greeting and nodded, "Yes, it's nice to actually meet you. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

[Golem]

"Not a problem at all," Elias replied, shaking his hand and then motioning towards the seat across him. "It should be me saying thanks for the offer. Would you like something to drink?"

[wallflower]

Laurie sat down with a contented sigh, as if sitting down were somehow rewarding. She placed her bag in an empty seat at their table and nodded, "Yes, please," she said eagerly. "I've been dying for a piña colada."

[Golem]

Elias gave a wave to one of the waitresses who were around and ordered for her, before returning his attention to the young woman opposite of him, giving her a smile. "It´s really great you called," he said "it´s difficult to find people who want to talk about all this. Let alone to me and my people."

[wallflower]

Laurie nodded with a genuine look of understanding. "I can imagine," she answered, leaning slightly onto the table, making their conversation a little more private, "Things have been pretty tense at the school, and it seems like the entire mutant community is just waiting for the other shoe to drop." She swung her hair away from her face in a brief, graceful motion before continuing, "I want to be up front about a few things. I can't share information about the institute or any of my coworkers, and I can't tell you anything about any of the other people named in the Prophecy." Her tone was kind, but firm. She was there to help as much as she could, but not at the expense of any of the others.

[Golem]

Elias returned her gaze straight on. "That goes without saying" he said then. "this is about you and your story." He took a sip from his coffee before going on. "I´ve been working on an article about Xavier´s Institute for our very first issue. I know the man likes to keep things under the lid which is understandable. The last thing we want is to endanger other mutants. We´re out there to inform and connect."

[wallflower]

Laurie nodded again. "As part of the actual prophecy, I feel an obligation to do whatever I can to help, but I know other people involved don't feel the same way." The waiter delivered her drink and she took a sip from it. "Mmm... That's really good," she said, then returned her attention to the interview. "I'm sure you've gathered from my name that I'm the one that was mentioned as 'The Peacekeeper," she began, then waited for his reaction. Though she felt the connection was obvious, she didn't know if other people did.

[Golem]

Elias raised an eyebrow at her. He remembered what had been said at the Hellfire and the message had been cryptic, there had not been any names mentioned. He briefly tried to place her name - Laurie - trying to find a linguistic connection to anything related to what she had just said, and failed.

"I got to admit, I didn´t." he said.

[wallflower]

Laurie didn't miss a beat. Without any hint of embarrassment or aggravation, she explained, "There were four people mentioned by name in the prophecy that night at Hellfire. The first two were meant to be directly connected to the development of A.I. She said their names were Sarah and Jarod. Later, the young woman singled out three more people, referring to them as 'The Protector,' 'The Peacemaker,' and 'One who controls metal." She paused to sip from her glass, then continued, "At the very end of her speech, she asked for Laurie and Gambit to remain behind to speak to her. I'm Laurie." She hoped this was an adequate explanation, but wouldn't be flustered if she needed to go into more detail.

[Golem]

"Well," Elias said. "that merely narrowed in your identity. You also could have been the one who controls metal. After all there are more than one mutant with the same mutation." Not necessarily Magneto, he added in thought as he took another sip of his coffee, studying her briefly over the rim of his cup.

"Anyways," he then continued. "names aside, X Factor follows the policy that real names are not necessary, so if you like we can choose an alias or refer to you merely as ´the peacekeeper´in the next issue, to protect your identity."

[wallflower]

"That's true," Laurie replied, "I've had a lot on my mind lately, so sometimes I make assumptions when I shouldn't. I have the ability to manipulate emotions, so I was the one she referred to as the peace keeper." At his second comment, Laurie shook her head. "I don't use my alias. It was given to me in high school and not many people know it. I feel that people need to know who I am so they can come to me if they need me. I have reason to believe everything said that night was true, and I take my role in it very seriously."

[Golem]

"Point taken." Elias said, before elaborating. "but with Alias I didn´t mean mutant code names. I was more referring to what newspapers, the media, whatever, sometimes do and then there´s a little footnote which says ´altered names´. But either way is fine with me." He paused for a moment. "Why do you believe in the prophecy?" he then asked. It had aroused all kinds of different reactions ranging from fear to insecurity down to people who were denying that something like that was even possible. Elias was wondering where she stood in all this.