Marvel: Art of War

What: Vincent (as Roy "Vin" Tam) and Cecilia Reyes meet during the last morning of her surgical residency
When: December 20, 1962 (important backstory!)
Where: Our Mother of Mercy Hospital, N.Y.C.
Rating/Warnings: None
Status: Closed, complete. Apologies for length?

Vin waited patiently for Dr. Reyes to appear. She would by now have exhausted all her means to stay on the ward. She had finished her last surgery, and was scheduled for no more. She had performed her rounds, had had her two exit interviews. And her curiosity had been tweaked. Who was the mystery man, Vin Tam, who had supported her through her last two years of medical school, and given her those gifts at strategic moments of her surgical residency.

He grinned. Only the Shadow knows.

( The day of asking had come )

Who: Scott Summers and Haylie Collins
What: Scott hears the snow is all gone, and wants to walk a dangerous route, asks Haylie to help guide him, and set some ropes at the bad spots trail side by the cliff side and other 'dangerous' places on the runnable paths. They talk at length for the first time.
When: March 20, 1962 - 7 months after Scott was rescued in Louisiana
Where: Xavier Institute, Main Floor Hall and Grounds
Rating/Warnings: PG
Status: Closed; Complete

Scott was on the stairs, when he heard Haylie. Nearly zero squeak from her sneakers, that light but firm step, that had told him she was as dancer or a gymnast. It turned out she was a gymnast, according to Hank. And Scott had been up, unable to sleep, enough times, that he knew she was up a lot, too. Private person. If she had trouble sleeping, she would go out for a dawn run, when there was no snow or ice on the ground. Which was what made him call out to her.

( Are you going running? )

Who: Scott Summers and Professor X's Rescue Team--Jean Grey, Haylie Collins, Hank McCoy, and Logan. [NPC cameo by Professor Xavier]
What: Scott destroys his bomber and crew, and tries to survive the crash, badly injured and with eyes shut.
When: August 23, 1961, Starts at 8:44am to 11:30am CST - continues from that time
Where: 120 miles east bearing slightly north of Galveston, TX and north to shore to swamps south of Deep Lake in Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge and Game Preserve near coast of Louisiana
Rating/Warnings: R. Will note violence and death and deep emotional stresses of an highly injured man.
Status: Closed; Complete. Part 2 of 2

Eight hours.

It had taken them eight hours just to get close enough to the crash to find the area crawling with Air Force and Army personnel. And of course, Haylie’d spent the entire flight fidgeting with her gloved hands and tapping her feet impatiently - silently wishing they had their own plane so they could avoid the extra hassle of procuring plane tickets, rental cars, and going through check-ins. She had her pilot’s license... sort of. Once they’d arrived near the search and rescue set up, Haylie shifted on her feet anxiously and stayed behind Hank and the Professor. She hated the military - they made her nervous and if they knew what she could do? They’d turn her into some kind of weapon. And Haylie was no one’s weapon.

( We’re a... different kind of search team, Scott. )

Who: Alison Blaire; Scott Summers
What: Ali is on the street corner playing for some cash to afford food. She glows. People notice.
When: Sometime after Christmas, 1962
Where: Greenwich Village, New York City, New York
Rating/Warnings: PG
Status: Closed and Complete

The snow fell softly to the ground, but the temperature in the early afternoon was tolerable, although weather forecasted a drop in temperature once darkness came. December and January were always the worst part of winter.

( Read more... )

Who: Matvei Andreev and Jean Grey
What: A whooooole lot of hostility. And also, someone gets a bad case of dead in a superpowered attack.
When: January 12, 1962
Where: Brownsville, New York
Rating/Warnings:PG
Status: Closed; Complete

There wasn't much left in Brownsville.

On a cold winter's day, the neighborhood shut down. Children peered out of windows dusty and cracked, too poor to afford coats for snow. Street after street revealed homes that had been burnt and broken, the result of constant arson that had turned the neighborhood into a war zone a decade before. A few cars lined the curbs but those, too, were burnt out as well, flecked with red spots of rust, the tires flattened against dirty pavement. The snow falling down from the sky started beautiful but it ended, Jean noticed, just as dirty and tired as Brownsville itself.

She tightened her grip on her purse a little more, walking through this part of the city. And yet, she couldn't stop herself from walking through. There was a part of her that hated sanctuary. For once in her life, Jean wanted to protect herself.

Her heels clattered on the wet sidewalks as she walked towards the stone monuments of Zion Park. It was surprisingly silent today, nothing but the sound of distant traffic and her own footsteps. It set her on edge and she found her eyes wandering more than they normally did, alert and wary of the place through which she was traveling.

There was nothing like this place in the Soviet Union. Not that Matvei knew of, anyway, and he'd seen a fair bit of the country. Maybe some of the old ghettoes in the Pale, maybe, but there was something shocking about the way that New York built. It wasn't exactly the size of the buildings, and it definitely wasn't the function of them, but the number of them, he thought, looking up at a building that seemed, from this angle, impossibly large. Alone would have been one thing.

( The prejudices of home died hard. )

Who: Haylie Collins & Wade Wilson
What: First meeting
When: October 14th, 1962
Where: Front lawn of the Xavier Institute, dawn
Rating/Warnings: TBD; Will likely have some language.
Status: Closed; In progress

While it wasn't common for anyone to be awake at this hour - much less outside - it wasn't uncommon for the young Haylie Collins to be found roaming around the mansion at the crack of dawn. Outside, in particular. The morning frost was still fresh on the ground and the fallen leaves crunched underneath her bare feet as she padded out towards the main gate. It was freezing outside, and the brunette was dressed in trousers and a casual t-shirt. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and she took a moment to stretch before shifting her stance and launching herself into a series of cartwheels, backflips, and round-offs around the yard.

After several minutes of different gymnastic manuevers, she stopped and took a second to shake it out, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Haylie was fairly certain that the Professor wouldn't approve of her wandering around outside like this, but it was like she had told him several times: she was a walking furnace. And bomb. But she preferred the furnace part of it. Fall and winter were a cake walk when one's natural body temperature rested at an impressive 104.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Watching her breath fog in front of her, she started to just relax and take in the scenery until she heard the gates creaking.

Who: Scott Summers and Professor X's Rescue Team--Jean Grey, Haylie Collins, Hank McCoy, and Logan. [NPC cameo by Professor Xavier]
What: Scott destroys his bomber and crew, and tries to survive the crash, badly injured and with eyes shut.
When: August 23, 1961, Starts at 8:44am to 11:30am CST - continues from that time
Where: 120 miles east bearing slightly north of Galveston, TX and north to shore to swamps south of Deep Lake in Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge and Game Preserve near coast of Louisiana
Rating/Warnings: R. Will note violence and death and deep emotional stresses of an highly injured man.
Status: Closed; Complete. Part 1 of 2

( There's been a distress call. )

Who: Logan and Robbie Baldwin
What: the aftermath of an explosion and an accident
When: September 27, 1957
Where: A field in rural Connecticut
Rating/Warnings: R. Will likely reference violence (unintentional; involved children) and have language. Will update if other warnings are needed.
Status: Closed; complete

The smell of burnt grass rose from the field, a stench so powerful that it could be smelt from the distant road. A murder of crows had risen when the bolt of light fell, slamming into the damp earth so hard it left a crater three feet in. The ground had shaken, the telephone wires crossing overhead rippling in one giant wave before everything stopped once more.

The world went silent.

Miles away, smoke was rising from a different field, a field of concrete and tar. Sirens were screaming, lights flashing red and blue across twisted metal. But here, the only light that shone down on the body in the crater was that of the moon, heavy and full. His eyes had not yet opened to accept it.

Who: Hank McCoy and Jean Grey
What: First Meetings
When: November 3, 1957
Where: the gardens of the Xavier Institute, evening
Rating/Warnings: TBD, but likely not too high
Status: Open; in progress

There were times when Jean only wanted to sit in the garden. It was peaceful there, without Xavier near and the occasional raised voice he used on his telephoned conversations. The phone calls had been coming more frequently of late, and at all hours, to a man named Erik. More than that, she didn't know. The telepathy of her youth had given her an antipathy to eavesdropping and finally, she'd come out to the garden to escape it.

Time had passed more swiftly than she'd imagined, however, and now she was sitting on a stone bench, ankles crossed. A copy of today's Times rested on her lap, the corners dog-eared. Appropriate, Jean thought, since the headline shouted Dog becomes first animal to orbit Earth. Just looking down at it made her smile again, a soft, secret grin as if there was something about the universe that only she knew.