All Shook Up ((Open))

[Sam Guthrie]

((continued from Dreams in the Darkness ))’

Sam had crept oh-so-very quietly down the stairs and found himself in the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and leaned up against the counter.

His first gulp of the water was almost desperate, as if the nightmare had left a bad taste in his mouth and he was trying to get rid of it.

All of it was so unsettling. The battlefield. The carnage.

He put down his glass and began to rub his temples. He was starting to get a pounding headache. It was like his brain was shuddering just like the rest of his body.

He picked up his glass and took another sip.

He just needed to settle down and relax.

It was only a dream after all. He just kept reminding himself that’s all it was.

((Open to anybody))

[Kitty Pryde]

Kitty didn’t like this feeling, this... weird feeling, and she especially didn’t like that she didn’t know even what she was feeling. It was all those dreams, those stupid dreams with the castles and the parties and the... the... she didn’t want to think about the rest. She couldn’t think about it. It was all those horror movies Bobby made her watch, that was all. Somehow they had crept into her dreams with disgusting clarity. She could still see the bodies...

Rubbing her eyes as if she could rub away the images, Kitty rolled over in bed and curled up into as small a ball as she could, willing the nausea to go away. She felt sick, and disgusted and confused and scared and responsible... drifting off to sleep again she could see it all happening, the same as before. She could see it playing out... she was there, she could stop it. She just had to... she had to... couldn’t... couldn’t reach... falling...

Letting out a scream, Kitty awoke with a start just before colliding painfully with the floor. Unfortunately for her, she hadn’t just rolled out of bed but had managed to phase through the bed, straight down into the kitchen. Fortunately she had brought the bedsheet with her. Unfortunately it was tangled around her and she could only stare up with wide eyes and pink cheeks at Sam who now stood suddenly over her.

“I, uh... hi?”

[Sam Guthrie]

The water wasn’t doing it. He just couldn’t shake the nightmare.

Sam sighed heavily. How the heck was he supposed to fall back asleep after all he had seen? Every time he closed his eyes he saw flashes of the dream. The war machines, the soldiers.

And all the bodies. Bodies everywhere.

Of course, that’s when a screaming body came hurtling down through the ceiling, crashing loudly to the floor. Sam yet out a less than manly yelp, and felt the icy claw of terror grip his chest.

That’s when he realized that he knew this particular falling body.

That was how he found his (very embarrassed) self staring down at a very embarrassed Kitty Pryde. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks.

“Uhm.. Does this…sort of thing… happen to ya often Kitty?” Sam said, letting the words awkwardly tumble out of his mouth, “Or uh…. are ya havin’ just as good a night as I am?”

[Kitty Pryde]

Oh, this was just great. Not only was she having terrible, sickening, disturbing dreams, but now she was doing that thing again. She had been doing so well with the control and the not falling through things and now, suddenly, bam! On the floor. On the wrong floor, and, as was usual with her luck, in front of one of the mansions cute boys.

“Yeah...” Kitty replied oh so eloquently. Attempting to extract herself from the bed sheet the old fashioned way, she attempted in vain to smooth out her bed rumpled hair. Noting the look Sam was giving her, she rethought the question. “I mean no!”

Wait, that wasn’t right either.

“I mean... the second one,” she amended again. Ugh, what a tool!

[Sam Guthrie]

It was good to know that Sam wasn’t the only one who sometimes had issues with his powers going a little haywire. It was only by the grace of God that he hadn’t blasted himself out of the kitchen and up into the night air. He understood that whole hornet’s nest pretty well.

And it was also good to know that he wasn’t the only person with chronic foot in mouth syndrome too.

And she was cute too, which really only added to Sam’s embarrassment about the whole situation.

“Well Ah’m glad ya could join me, even if it was a bit of a surprise…my heart near leapt out of mah chest…” Sam said, letting out a nervous little chuckle. He still was a little out of sorts from the shock of it all. The combination of the nightmare and Kitty’s sudden entry had spooked him good.

God, could I sound like a bigger dork? Sam thought to himself

“So uhh.. if ya don’t mind me askin’… what made ya fall through th’ floor?” Sam asked, simultaneously answering his own question,

[Guido Carosella]

Vivid dreams had always plagued Guido Carosella, for better or worse.

Most of the time they featured a hot tub crammed full of bizarre and random characters. Harmless enough, although Leonard Samson would probably have a field day if he ever told him about them. Lately though...

Guido rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and yawned mightily, thinking he needed a glass of milk to help him go back to sleep. This last dream was particularly unsettling, for more than one reason. Guido half-remembered himself doing acts of spectacular and bloody violence, strangely surrounded by bright lights and cheering.

Then there was stunningly beautiful Asian woman with dark, almost purple hair. Guido had to wait a few minutes to calm down before he climbed out of bed.

Groping blindly on the nightstand for his goggles, he only succeeded in knocking them under his bed. Growling, he marched for the door. He was familiar enough with the house's layout to make it to the kitchen unaided. It was easier tonight, since the light was on.

Guido made a bleary note to yell at someone (Bobby) for leaving the lights on all night. The Professor was loaded and the electric bill wouldn't faze him, but it wouldn't kill the mook to shut the flipping lights off.

He marched into the kitchen, completely oblivious to the other occupants. He poured a glass of milk, gulped it down, scratched himself completely inappropriately, and turned back to the door.

It was then he spied the others. Well, the weird fuzzy blob-thing with two heads.

He marched closer, squinting and scowling. He peered suspiciously at them, grunted, and spun on his heel towards the door.

"Stupid shapeshifters."

Guido stumbled to the stairs, pausing to stare suspiciously at the front door. For whatever reason, he unlocked it, opening and shutting it several times. Satisfied with a perfectly functioning door, he relocked it and trudged back up the stairs to bed.

Frrrrrrrtttt.

[Kitty Pryde]

Finally done with the blanket, Kitty pulled herself up to her feet, attempting unsuccessfully to neatly fold the large sheet. “I’m sorry I scared you,” she apologized sheepishly. “It’s been a while since I’ve, you know...” Dropping one corner of the sheet, she made a falling motion with one hand.

In some ways, she was lucky it had been Sam she had managed to humiliate herself in front of. He was such a sweet guy, a real gentleman, and instead of making fun of her and laughing he was actually asking questions and sounding interested in her little problem.

“I... I’m not sure. I was having this...” she started to explain when the door suddenly opened and Guido lumbered in, completely ignoring them or maybe completely oblivious to them. Kitty really hoped it was the latter the way he was... scratching himself. Quickly looking away, she returned to fiddling with the bed sheet until he finally noticed them and came closer. Unconsciously, she took a step back. He could really be scary sometimes, especially when he was scowling and grunting and towering over her. And then he was gone again and she was breathing a sigh of relief.

“Shapeshifters? Do you think he was sleepwalk-”

But yet again her words were cut off, but this time by a rather loud and rather... unpleasant sound from out in the hallway. Her lips curling up in a disgusted look, there was really only one thing Kitty could say at this point. “Eww!”

[Sam Guthrie]

Sam could barely held back a laugh as Guido made his all too audible exit. He couldn’t help it, really. The whole situation had turned from dramatic to hilarious so quickly that Sam felt like he had some sort of emotional whiplash. What else could he do but laugh?

Fortunately, he was able to stop most of the laughter from bubbling up.

Although he wished that Kitty had found it as amusing as he did, because now he felt a little foolish.

"Sorry it's been an interesting night..." Sam apologized, " Ah'm kind of all over the place right now..."

He awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Uhhm… anyways…” Sam said, trying to regain his composure, “You uh… were sayin’? “

[Desperado]

Jacob led the wayward girl to the kitchen. He had only ever been there once, which made getting back there from here a little bit of a trick. It didn't help that his mind was now playing "Carry on my Wayward Son," by Kansas. Eventually, he found his way to the doors to the kitchen, made obvious by the fact that they were swinging doors.

Upon entering the kitchen, he found something that he wasn't expecting...again. Two people, a boy and a girl and a...bedsheet? They both seemed to have all of their clothes on (thank God, that would have been awkward), but it still didn't seem like the type of situation he wanted to walk in to.

"Oh," he said, a look of muted surprise on his face. "Sorry, didn't know anyone else was up." He felt kind of out of place, for some reason. It could have been because everyone was wearing pajamas except for him. It could have been because they were more unfamiliar faces in what was still an unfamiliar setting. It could have been because he wanted a sandwich, but generally didn't like eating in front of others.

On the bright side, one of them might be able to help the girl behind him better than he had.

OOC: tags Chris. Sorry it took so long for me to post, I thought I was waiting on Kitty for approval, but apparently she sent me a PM a long time ago that I don't remember reading. My computer remembers me reading it, though, which is why I'm a little confused.

[Christine MacTaggart]

OOC: oh, damn you, Desi, now *I* have snippits of that song stuck in my head.

She blinked her wide blue eyes and stared at the scene before her, before wrinkling her nose at the lingering scent of well.. some things were best left to the imagination. "Hi," she murmured quietly, tugging on a lock of dark brown hair. They looked familiar, but at the same time not. Some part of her knew them, but she didn't, couldn't understand why.

She offered a tentative smile to the other female in the room. "..Do I know you?" she asked quietly, biting her lower lip slightly. "You look familiar.."

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby stuck his tongue out as he concentrated on trying to find a good song on his iPod. Who would have ever imagined that hundreds of songs could all get old? He plucked the buds out of his ears and heard Kitty’s exclamation of ‘EW!’ coming from downstairs. With a smile, he headed that direction to investigate, passing a somewhat disoriented looking Guido on the way.

Just as Bobby hit the landing, the smell hit him full force. It was something that smelled so vile, so wicked that it was as if he were catching a whiff of the very essence of E-vil. “AW Dawg!” He rocked back on his heels and propped himself up against the railing for support as he pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose.

Kitty was making a face. Chris and Jacob were just pretending like nothing smelled like ass bubbles. Common mathematical deduction pointed to one of them as the ones who dealt it.

Now Bobby had a hard time picturing a chick squeezing a raunchy one out, so that led to just one homeboy.

“Jake, man…light a match!”

[Kitty Pryde]

What was it with boys and fart jokes? Give many of them a well plotted and cleverly written movie and they just stared blankly, but throw in some bathroom humour and it was the funniest thing in the world. Boys.

Oh well, at least it had helped to alleviate some of the tension.

“I...uh,” Kitty started to reply, before chuckling a bit herself. “I honestly don’t remember.”

Remember that thing about her being grateful for the dissipating tension? Well sadly it didn’t last very long. Soon enough two more people joined what was quickly becoming an impromptu kitchen party, one of whom Kitty had never quite warmed up to.

“You would be surprised how many people seem to be roaming around tonight,” she said to the other, Jacob. That wasn’t the really tense part, though. No, the real tension came in when Christine spoke and decided to play some sort of amnesia act. Looking at her like she had lost her mind, Kitty stole a glance at Sam, then Jacob. “Is she sleep walking?”

Enter tension dissipater number two! He drove her so crazy that she wanted to hit him sometimes... quite often, actually, but Bobby Drake was still one of Kitty’s favourite people in the world. Looking at him, all joking and Bobby-like, Kitty was suddenly overwhelmed with a very strange feeling. It was almost like... like she had lost him and he had just now been returned to her, like she had thought she would never see him again but now here he was, standing before her looking completely fine and not dead.

Dead?

Without even thinking about it or even taking time to wonder why, she had crossed the room and thrown her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

[Christine MacTaggart]

She lowered her eyes to the ground. "Oh," she said softly, looking helplessly at the men in the room. "I feel like I *should* know who you people are, but.. honestly.. I really don't remember any of you," she added just as quietly. She tugged a lock of dark hair, genuinely looking like she had no idea who she was, who they were, or why she was even there.

She sighed quietly and hung back, not wanting to get too close.

[Desperado]

Something was off. Something just didn't seem right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about what the short chick had said just didn't add up. And since all she did was ask a simple, if joking question, he had no reason to actually believe that what she said sounded wrong. It just did.

Jacob's instincts rarely led him astray. It was only too bad that he didn't listen to them that often.

"No, I think she's-" his reply was interrupted by yet another person who probably shouldn't be awake. A boy, taller than Jacob, but just as slender.

"Jake, man...light a match!" And that one statement was what Jacob needed. Everything was familiar. Not to him, he didn't know any of these people, but they certainly seemed to know him.

He was pretty confused. Even more confused when the smell hit him. "Jesus, Lord!" Jacob physically recoiled from the spot he was in, shutting his eyes against it (like that would stop the smell). Where had that come from? It hadn't been here a moment ago. Or had it? Maybe it was just hiding. Sometimes, the bad ones will do that.

He was so confused. There were a lot of people here, more than he thought. They seemed to know him, everyone except the girl he came in with, who didn't know anybody. IT made no sense to him.

Then again, neither did the fact that he had superpowers. Maybe things just weren't supposed to make sense, anymore. Given that his life rarely had made sense before this, he could go with it.

But now the shorter girls was hugging the boy who had just walked in like she'd met a long-lost lover or something.

Jacob threw up his hands. "Okay, could someone please explain to the new guy just what in hell is going on?"

[Christine MacTaggart]

She nodded. "Don't feel bad. I'm confused too," she confessed. Her eyes darted about, almost as if looking for an exit she could bolt out of.