Lorna and Mags

[Polaris]

"How do you know that?" she asked, curious. That was a big question in the news whenever mutants came up: how many were there?

[Erik Lensherr]

"I have a mutant friend who knows exactly how many," Erik assured her. Although Charles was not just simply a 'friend,' but it would be the best term for this discussion here. After all, he did not want to go into such a long story.

[Polaris]

"...Oh." She paused, blinking back her odd vision as it abruptly skewed when someone else came into the vicinity that affected magnetic waves. Most people did, she'd found out, just by their presence. Something to do with the trace elements in people's blood, combined with the natural forces generated by the Earth itself. But some mutants in here didn't have blood, exactly, and the effect was made worse. With Magneto in front of her skewing her vision and someone else around them doing the same, it was visually confusing. As a result, she looked like she was shaking off a buzz as she replied. "I...didn't know anyone could do that. See how many there are, I mean."

[Erik Lensherr]

"Yes, there are several million of us," he assured her. Looking at her blinking, he turned to see someone else coming into the vicinity. "It gets easier, you know," he said, guessing she was being disoriented by the magnetic wave distortion.

[Polaris]

Her brow furrowed; she didn't quite understand what he meant. Did he see what she saw? "What do you mean?"

[Erik Lensherr]

"The distortion of the magnetic waves," he explained patiently. "Everything will balance out when you get better control."

[Polaris]

Her mouth fell open into a round O, then promptly shut. "You see them?" As soon as the question was out, it sounded ridiculous: of course he saw them.

[Erik Lensherr]

Erik gave a bit of a smug grin at that question; of course he saw them. He was the master of magnetism, after all, wasn't he? This girl was a greenhorn, literally, when he looked at her hair. But my, she did have delicious potential. "Yes," he said confidently.

[Polaris]

"I didn't know if...our powers would be exactly the same like that," she said, hesitantly.

[Erik Lensherr]

"They seem quite similar enough," Erik said with a small shrug.

[Polaris]

"Doesn't make it easy, you know," she said, still hesitant. "Because of what you...what happened. Having the same powers, I mean."

[Erik Lensherr]

Erik nodded. "I can assure you, Dear, that I know that better than anyone."

[Polaris]

"But...you did it. You started a war," she said, bluntly. "I didn't do anything. I just have these powers." She didn't really know if she wasn't trying to offend him, and probably wasn't. She just didn't know what else to say. She didn't like the sense of injustice, as if her powers made her like him.

[Erik Lensherr]

"I know," Erik said simply. "Everyone suffered for my mistakes. I feel that very keenly, my Dear." She acted as if he, Erik Magnus Lensherr, could simply ignore what he had done--unable to feel the crushing reminder of all his failures.

[Polaris]

"You don't act like it," she pointed out.