Issue 1 Downtime

"God, this brings me back," Ryan muttered as they walked in for lunch, glancing around at the eerily familiar dining hall.

"Things haven't changed much.." she agreed, smiling as she made a fried egg salad, like old times.

"Food sure hasn't," Ryan said, smirking as he went through line, picking up his... rather extensive selection of high-protein (and likely greasy) foods. He chuckled, leaning over and kissing the back of Bear's neck as he passed. "It's good to be home."

"For sure. It's almost like we never left."

Ryan clung to that happy thought for a moment. It was nice to pretend that nothing had happened, even if it wasn't a thought that could last. He looked around, then settled his eyes on their 'right by the door' old table (or the table that was closest to where it had been, really) and headed over to it.

((Have we mentioned "Open thread"?))

Maggie was already seated there, eating some sort of chicken wrap and some carrot sticks. Thus far she was alone at the table, and looked kind of bored.

"Hi," Ryan said, smiling at the vaguely familiar-looking girl as he walked up. "You mind if we sit here?"

"Oh, no, be my guest!" She pulled her tray and food closer toward her. "I don't think I've seen you here before..."

"Haven't been here very long. Just for the past couple days, really," he said sitting down. "I'm Ryan."

"I'm Maggie, nice to meet ya."

Cute...but he doesn't really look like a high school student. Hm.

"So did you make it here before or after we got invaded by Ancient Egypt?"

"During," he said. "And... okay, are you sure I haven't met you yet? You look familiar somehow."

She blinked her (eerily familiar, grey-colored) eyes. "Uh, no. I'm not sure where I would've met you, unless you're from Alberta or something."

He shook his head. "Nah... man, this is going to bug me. Oh well," he said, shrugging. "So how're you liking it here so far?"

"Other than the big fight, it's been fine, I guess. I've never been this far from home, so that's taken some getting used to, you know? What about you?"

"It's sort of a homecoming for us," Bear said, smiling.

"So are you guys seniors or something?"

Ryan chuckled. "That would have been about... Oh, three years ago for me. We're X-Men."

"Seraph and The Closer, at your service." Bear added, with a warm smile.

"Oh, that's awesome! So are you planning on sticking around with us, then?"

"Yep!"

"Cool! Maybe I'll be seeing you guys a good bit, then. I'm gonna join the X-Men teams."

"Well, that's what we are here for, mainly- to help get the X-Men program up and running, and give the benefit of our experience." she replied with a grin.

"It's not all pretty uniforms and sweet battle poses, after all."

"Nope. That's just her part," he joked, nodding at Bear.

"I figured that that was what you were here for. So I've gotta ask, do you guys know a Rick Ferguson?"

Ryan smiled, was about to say something, then stopped. "That's why you look familiar!"

"Ooo, another legacy!" Bear added, smiling.