The days following the launch of my satellite were as usual. The other satellites would be launched in the following week due to the success of the first. Right now I was getting ready to hang out with Ororo.
She had called me two days ago and fixed the date and I wholeheartedly agreed as it was a change of pace for me rather than stay at home brooding on how I was going to absorb the essence of Space.
Since it was just hanging out, going with my favorite axe-tie was a no-no so I just settled for something plain.
I left the house in my car rather than just opening a portal and drove to the meeting spot we agreed on. It was a small bar mixed with a diner.
I would have picked a restaurant like anyone else with lots of cash in their pockets, but sometimes a quaint little place like this had its charms. It told a lot about the kind of person Ororo was.
I could already sense her static inside the diner bar as I pulled over. The inside was just as cozy as the outside looked with a few slowly spinning fans and dim lights with a slow song in the background. The atmosphere felt nice which was complemented by the small pearls of laughter in the background.
"Heyo, looking good." Let's just say a dark skinned woman with natural white hair could look good in almost anything and leave it at that. She wore blue jean pants and a white shirt, a look that was as casual as any but it complimented her.
"Hey there. You don't look too bad yourself." I sat opposite her and we ordered some food.
"So, how's the movement going?" I started after our order was delivered.
"We are off to a pretty good start if I'm being completely honest. Though I still think everyone's still on the edge with each other given how we were pretty much enemies at one point but I think we can make it work." She said.
"I just wanted to ask, but that's good to hear. But enough about that, what's the plan for today? You'll have to pull out a trump card to tally the score." I joked.
"I didn't know it was a competition and we were keeping tabs."
"Well now you know. Better up your game unless I'll keep raking in the points. So tell me, what do you have planned out?" She chuckled and put on a thinking expression with her finger on her chin.
"We'll just have to find out then, won't we?"
"I'm looking forward to it." We continued to engage in small talks before we left the bar diner. We left the car parked there and continued on foot with Ororo leading the way.
"So tell me, what is it that you care about? Other than Natasha and the others." She asked as we made our way through a park.
"That's a hard question to answer." I said after pondering on it for a while.
"Why so?"
I looked at her for a while, a look she returned, and then thought it over.
"Mhn, how do I say this? The reason I don't care for much is because at the end of it all, none of them were of any importance, and I'm not saying this to be nihilistic, no. I meant it in the most candid way possible… Ororo, what would you say if you knew the gods were real?"
"I already believe them to be real, I was brought up that way." She said and brushed her hands against the bark of the surrounding trees.
"Right. What if you knew how to talk to them? How to meet them? What if you knew how to locate their hidden realms within the stars?" She stopped at my questions with eyes wide open.
"You don't mean…"
"Obviously I can't go there. Pitifully weak to do so, and besides, gods are not like we make them to be except maybe a scant few." I meant how strong they were. Apart from some notable names in the history books, most mortals and metas could match the strength of a god but there were some that were above the others in every other way…
The Skyfathers.
The God of gods.
Leaders of their pantheon. These were people that no mere mortal could ever hope to match.
"How do you know this?"
"Let's just say different world views and leave it at that."
"Okay, so how does it correlate with you not caring much?" She asked again.
"What I know is vastly different from what 99.99% of the world population are aware of. If you knew a fraction of the things I know, many things lose their colors. I can't bring myself to care about others when I know for a fact that in the end they would mean nothing to me… except maybe a scant few. All I need are a few people around me and I'm good. I can't be like you, caring for an entire race and working for their good when it is assured that the vast majority of them might never know your name…" We made a turn and went deeper into the forest, leaving the park behind.
"I don't do what I do for recognition."
"I know that, but it's just impossible for me to do it. How you dedicate your life to it is a mystery to me, a very noble one."
She stopped in the middle of a clearing and turned to me, receiving a raised brow in return.
"Hold on for a minute, I want to show you something." She told me and closed her eyes.
I was wondering what she wanted to do when I felt the air shift which prompted me to look at the sky which was beginning to darken with little light seeping through.
"Come." Was what she said before flying to the clouds.
"Intriguing." I followed after her and we both ascended to the clouds and through it.
The view I saw was one, if not the most, breathtaking natural scenery I've ever seen.
Golden sunlight mixed with the blue clouds of the sky painted an image that anyone with little aesthetics of beauty would appreciate.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Ororo floated beside me, watching a scene she created.
"Very."
"It's something I've only ever done a few times since I awakened my abilities, but it still feels surreal every time I see it."
"It really is something. I could get used to it. You really did pull this one off." I chuckled, still immersing myself with the view before me.
"Haha, so I guess that tallies the score then?"
"Definitely. Though you would have to pull something more than this to pull ahead."
"There will be more?" She asked surprised.
"I hope so." I liked Ororo, that much was certain.
"I see… then I'm looking forward to it." She smiled at the end, one that contrasted well with the picture of the sky she painted.
We spent a few minutes basking in the sunlight above the clouds before Ororo dispersed it. Wouldn't want the people down below to be panicking about a perpetual nighttime during the day now, would we?
We didn't descend at the location near the park but somewhere else and continued from there.
"So how long did it take you to plan all this?" We were walking by a stream when I asked her that.
"A few days actually." She was somewhat embarrassed as she said that.
"Well, it was worth it." Came my consolation.
"I'm glad to hear that. Regrettably, I don't remember doing all this when growing up. Never to this level at least." Ororo confessed.
"Then we'll have to rectify that along the way. Seriously, what do you do everyday? It's like you have a whole rooster for what you are going to do the whole week."
"Okay, that I do not." She said in mock offense. "Tell me something about you that nobody knows?"
"Classic question. Hmm, let's see… it's kinda hard now that I think about it. Ohh, I got one.
I died once." It was the only thing I could think of. Well technically, I've died twice, but she doesn't need to know that.
She stopped in shock and looked at me, wondering if I was still joking but I wasn't.
"When? .. How?"
"When Doom and Magneto attacked. Let's say they made sure I stopped breathing, and I did… not for long anyway.. Pity they couldn't survive the way I did when it was their turn… That's too dreary, my bad. Your turn."
"Well… I used to be a thief when growing up, back in Cairo." She said after shaking off the odd ball I threw her.
"And I half figured you'd join a jazz club or something, maybe rock even. But a thief? That's interesting."
"Why?"
"Well it's not something you'd expect to hear from someone. An interesting background, so to speak." I meant what I said. How many people from my world with such a background could probably say something like that so casually without facing some sort of judgmental stare.
"Thanks, I guess?"
"Any hobbies?"
"If you count trying to help the metahuman, that's one. Haha, I'm kidding." My deadpan stare at her as she said that made her laugh. "Reading mostly. I think you've established pretty clearly that I don't have an outside life. I also like listening to music, not jazz though… definitely not rock. Any?"
"Well if you count my recent obsession with Norse runes, that's one. Trying to live as quietly as possible? Well that's the end goal at this point. Cleaving heads? No, that's not a hobby. Getting stronger? A necessity. You can add making tea to that list, turns out I'm pretty good at it. That and whopping everyone's asses at home on game night."
Ororo chuckled. "That's oddly specific. You mentioned magic, why Norse runes?"
"I would have gone for Greek but they are not as rune focused as the Norse. They do have some pretty nifty runes though but not as much as the Norse do."
…
[Ororo Munroe POV]
The day had been a roller-coaster of emotions for her.
Truthfully, she had been quite nervous on how the day would turn out because different from any other day they met, today, even if not implied, was a date.
She had wrecked her head for the better part of three days, even contemplating on whether to ask Raven or Emma on what would be considered a fun activity when hanging out, because as Draul had oh so bluntly put it, she didn't have a social life outside of the Mansion.
The advice she had gotten to just wing it had come from Kitty. Three days of thinking and all she got was to wing it.
And that's what she did.
The diner had been the only thing she decided on and from there everything they did and everywhere they went had been what she just thought would be nice.
As much as she'd like to say she now knew more about Draul, she couldn't because there was too little to know about him which sounded ironic when the subject was about a man who was trying his best to live his life.
It wasn't until a few hours into the date that she realized that she was in fact with someone who could arguably be called one of the youngest successful entrepreneurs in the present day. Though she was sure the people who actually knew that were abysmal at least. The fact was that someone like him, someone who people would sell their souls to be. Someone with as much power as him, happened to find most of it useless.
"I believe this is where we end our little escapade of today." She was brought out of her thoughts as Draul pointed to a circle, a yellow portal leading to the Mansion. "Thanks for the amazing time, though I had a few doubts, it was fun."
"Then I'm glad." She stood stunned for a while as Draul kissed her cheeks before stepping back.
"See you later, Ororo." And with that, the portal closed, replacing her sight with the familiar lawn of the Mansion.
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