[CENTER][hr][/center][sup][h1][center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/528055544267931661/1106717708877299722/image.png[/img][/center][b][center][color=black] P O L A R I S[/color]
[color=68AF5F]P O L A R I S[/color][/center]
[/b][/h1][/sup][indent][sub][COLOR=68AF5F][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] The Raft - Visiting Room[/sub][sup][right][COLOR=68AF5F][b]Post #2:[/b][/COLOR] How Long Are We Gonna Do This?[/right][/sup][/indent][hr]
[INDENT]Those same old words.

[indent][quote][b][sub]Last Month -- 2023[/sub][/b][hr]
[color=7DF9FF]“What’s new?”[/color]

Past Lorna clasped her hands together and let out a deep sigh.

[color=68AF5F]“I’m not cut out to be a teacher.”[/color] she says, bluntly, as she looks flatly at the table, [color=68AF5F]“I keep thinking of everything going on outside and I can’t stop being angry. It’s so hard. How can I inspire anybody when the world is almost ready to put them in concentration camps? Xavier keeps warning me about my temper. In front of Jean and Scott. Making a fool of me.”[/color][/quote][/indent]
The thoughts play in her mind like a tape on loop. Every time she came up to the prison they were ready, like god was refusing to let her forget.

Truthfully, the stress had been getting to her for a long time. It wasn’t just the last thirty days, but the long strain of years-and-years of dealing with a world that wanted her dead. Even with being seen as a member of the X-Men certain people still threw rocks at her head. The irony was the worst stress came from the people she cared about most. Scott lectured her when she messed up. Xavier admonished her in front of anyone if it’d put her in her place. Her own boyfriend would rather sit in prison than be with her.

It wasn’t fair.

[indent][quote][b][sub]First Visit -- February 2018[/sub][/b][hr]
[color=68AF5F]“It’s not fair!”[/color]

There’s tears in her eyes. Lorna’s five years younger; she’s still a teenager, though barely.

A chair swings over Alex’s head. The guards give a hearty laugh, though they keep their distance. They know if Lorna did anything [i]crazy[/i] she wouldn’t be able to come back ever again. Plus, they like the mutants squabbling. It’s fun sport for them.

[color=68AF5F]“You’re a hero! Yet you want to be here? What? Why? Because you feel guilty that you were tricked by him? Why don’t you feel guilty about [i]abandoning [b]me[/b][/i]?!”[/color] [/quote][/indent]
She takes a deep breath, her eyes forward. 

In many ways her feelings hadn’t changed from when she was a teenager. She was furious… but she was also lonely, scared, and anxious.

She wonders what Alex thinks of her. She’s said so many things in the last five years, showing how vulnerable and uncompromising she was. She felt awful about it. He always told her to look forward while giving her a look like he’s about to say something that’d destroy her. He never says it. She’s grateful that he doesn’t, but she can smell it like a shark smells blood in the water. He probably wants her to move on, but moving on is the last thing she needs. He’s all she has left: Her mentor didn’t respect her; her friends didn’t get her; and her father had disowned her. Almost killed her.

The only thing she really had was helping people from mutants who were even more scared or confused than she was. That and those who had been emboldened by the hate that the world swung at them, becoming shadows of her father in the process. The only thing she had was being a member of the X-Men, and that was… gone too. As of a few weeks ago.

She had not been taking it well.

[color=68AF5F]“The Professor took me off the team.”[/color] She utters, looking back down at the table, ashamed, [color=68AF5F]“Told me I was no good.”[/color]

An exaggeration, but not that steep of one.

A few days after she had talked to Alex last Xavier had called her into his office with Scott and Jean. In the most diplomatic way he told her she was off the team and that Jean and Scott were worried about her. They didn’t say a word, but when her eyes met theirs it told Lorna exactly how much they agreed with him. Absolutely. One Hundred Percent. It was followed by telling her she needed to ‘be better’ and ‘lead by example’. Then suddenly she was assigned as Sunfire’s teacher’s aide. 

A week later, one of her students, a peppy teenager named Kitty Pryde, took her spot on the team she had been so abruptly fired from.

[color=68AF5F]“I… he’s… what…”[/color] she tries to find the words. She fails to before Alex’s voice cuts her off.
[/INDENT]