InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Julien loves Devon"

tensor_mods (tensor_mods) wrote in tensor,
@ 2011-05-19 00:20:00

Entry tags:

ali_blaire, anna-marie_adler, callisto_leandros, domino_winter, jared_corbo, jay_guthrie, josh_foley, jubilation_lee, julian_keller, kevin_ford, kitty_pryde, open to all, petra_kristensen, piotr_rasputin, sam_guthrie

BOOM! at the Smithsonian (Saturday, May 21)
Though most of the week had been rainy, Saturday was shaping up to be a nice, sunny day. The change in weather had brought tourists and locals alike out of hiding, and the mall was buzzing with activity. The students and chaperons of the Xavier Academy were spread throughout the mall and museum buildings, having agreed upon times to meet up and check in before being sent off to see as much as possible in the time they had. By about an hour after lunchtime, a lot of them had breezed through at least one of the museums and were headed on to their scheduled tours or to their next destination.

Few, if any, really noticed the young man crossing the grass in front of the castle, wearing nothing that identified him as a member of any of the numerous school groups on the grounds that day. He was obviously disoriented, sweating profusely and staggering as he made his way out of the castle and across the mall. He stumbled once and nearly fell to his knees before he recovered, which prompted a girl nearby to stop and take notice of him. She asked him if he needed help, laid a hand on his shoulder as he turned wide, pain-filled eyes on her...and then they both disappeared in a blast of heat and light that ripped across the mall like a tiny nuclear explosion.

The people nearest the blast were incinerated almost instantly, though the heat dissipated away quickly as a concussive blast rolled across the lawn, tossing people in front of it like rag dolls thrown by a giant's hand. The west wing of the castle simply buckled at the impact, stone toppling down to crush the dozens of unsuspecting tourists in and around it before they even had time to register the explosion. The east wing buckled and groaned dangerously as well, its collapse simply slower and less complete as the shock wave continued on, buckling walls and foundations, blowing out windows and bringing down sections of roof in the buildings beyond.

But even as the initial explosion finally reached its limit, a domino effect magnified the chaos as hundreds of powered tourists, adults and children alike, reflexively powered up in response to the catastrophe, some of them losing control entirely. There were smaller explosions and tongues of flame here and there among the ruins as dust swirled in the air, and it was only a matter of moments before the first sirens began to wail in the distance. At the scene of the disaster, though, the sound of them was lost almost completely in the sound of panicked voices crying out in fear and pain.

(OOC: Please create sub-threads below for the events and immediate aftermath. Feel free to actually play out the actual explosion and how your character responds or to simply do a narrative of what happened to them and move to the aftermath if you're more comfortable with that. Remember, there's about a ten minute window of opportunity for heroism before local emergency responders and SHIELD will be on site and beginning to take over, though the cadets will definitely be co-opted into the rescue effort. The worst injured will, initially, be taken to area hospitals once rescued, but the Academy students will, once stable, be transported back to the school's med center for continuing treatment there. Parents are, of course, welcome to take their children home for treatment if they desire, but between the school and the SHIELD facility attached to it, they have access to pretty much the best healers in the country. This does, however, still mean a relatively slow recovery for anyone with severe injuries given the general caliber of even exceptionally talented healers does not begin to compare to the very very few omega healers scattered across the globe.)

ETA: GUYS, WE KINDA SUCK AND FORGOT TO TELL YOU THAT THEY GOT BUSED UP TO DC FRIDAY AFTER SCHOOL so they could have all of Saturday at the Smithsonian, and thus why they already got to see cool stuff Saturday before boom rather than spending it all on a bus. Also, for sleeping arrangements, if your roomie went you got matched up with them plus the 2 others you share a suite with (so 4 to a room, and if you have no PC/NPC roomies then NPCs will have taken the spots), other than the chaperons who got spread around in singles for supervisory purposes. Sorry!

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Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle

_touchless_
2011-05-23 06:43 am UTC (link)

"Don't. Please." He dragged himself closer, ignoring the pain as it bloomed past his powers, changing from a dull ache into something fierce and clawing in his chest and belly, ignoring, too, the way things shifted strangely and the position of his left leg didn't move or change beneath the rubble despite how he'd managed to alter the angle of his hips.

That didn't matter, getting closer did. He shifted his grip from Julian's shoulder to the side of his neck, needing to feel the erratic rhythm of his heart, wishing almost more than he ever had in his life that he could strip his glove away and just touch.

"I know. I know you didn't. It's not...not your fault. It's not...anyone's fault." Tears were the one thing that didn't ash against his skin and they tracked across his cheeks, leaving muddy channels in the dirt and ash coating his face. "Please, just...just hold on for him. For...for us," he whispered, voice anguished with the realization that it wasn't just for Josh's sake that he couldn't bear to lose Julian.

“I don’t want—you to die,” Julian managed to gasp. His heart felt strange. Too tight, too hard, as if it a hand had reached into his chest to squeeze it tight. There were three Kevins now, the center one glowing in the dim, the others slowly fading into black. “Please.”

"I won't," Kevin promised, quick and fierce. "Neither of...us will." He smoothed his thumb over Julian's pulse, barely able to feel the thready rhythm through his glove, and looked frantically around.

Light was filtering in from dozens of gaps in the rubble that encapsulated them, but they were tiny, the sum of them all providing just barely enough light to make out the details of Julian's face, the blood saturating his clothes and pooling around him washed almost to gray scale with only flashes picked out in vibrant crimson. It was almost more like a noir illustration than anything actually happening to real people. Happening to them.

"Someone...has to be...looking for us." Except neither of them had been where they were supposed to be...and who knew if whatever catastrophe had dropped the building had left anyone to look for them. "We just...need to help them...find us."

“Emma,” Julian breathed, weakly holding on to Kevin’s gloved hand.

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Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle

_touchless_
2011-05-23 06:44 am UTC (link)

Kevin shifted so he could squeeze Julian's hand back. "Is...she close?" he asked, straining his ears further, praying to a god he hadn't really believed in for years that she was, that she'd find them, as he looked for some way to draw attention to their position.

He tried to search for her with his mind, but it was getting difficult to think clearly. "Don't," he began, then simply let his eyes close. He relaxed back, succumbing to the incredible, terrible, smothering darkness that was steadily settling in around him.

"Julian?" It came out more a breath than a word, panic squeezing his chest as Julian's voice faded away and his eyes slipped shut. Kevin let go of Julian's hand and pressed gloved fingers to his throat again, nearly sobbing with relief when he found a pulse. Thready and erratic, but there.

It seemed darker now, like Julian's eyes had taken some of the dim light with them when they closed, and his own labored breathing seemed terrifyingly loud as Julian's went even shallower. Kevin looked away, he couldn't stand to see the pale, blood-drenched death's head of Julian's face without his consciousness to animate it. Looked away and tried, desperately, to think of something he could do.

He couldn't move whatever was trapping his legs, had barely managed to shift the few inches that let him reach Julian and even that had exhausted him. The dull ache of something terribly wrong in his belly and chest was slowly overwhelming the distracting buzz of his power, becoming sharp, stabbing pains, and the artificial boost of energy and awareness his power was giving him was gradually being counterbalanced by the blood loss that was creating it.

A few feet away, near where one of the larger chinks in the rubble let a thin ray of light in, the debris seemed to be littered through with wood, maybe studs from some interior wall, and he thought, dimly, that if he could just move those, things might shift. Might open up a gap big enough that someone, Emma, might see it. Might find them. If he could reach. But he couldn't. Not with his hands.

"I'm...sorry," he whispered, breath rasping louder and chest grating with the effort of talking. He shifted his hand from Julian's pulse and used it to strip his other glove off, the one farthest from Julian. Laid his bare hand to the cold stone next to him, on the shortest line between himself and the organic debris, and tried to feel it. Let his eyes slip shut and focused on bridging the gap of cold stone and metal, inorganic and dead to his powers, the way he'd managed a handful of times in training. Gasped quietly at the surge as his powers reached and pushed and then everything else was lost in the clatter of shifting rock and a choking cloud of dust and light streaming in, bright and strong.

Kevin blinked stupidly at the opening, blinded by the brightness, then groped for Julian's hand, squeezing it tight again as he slumped back against the rubble and closed his eyes. "There," he whispered. He didn't know if it was enough, but it was the best he could do.

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Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle

prima_frost
2011-05-23 07:35 pm UTC (link)

Emma had been with Jubilee when the blast happened, turning to diamond as soon as she'd registered the explosion. But in the end it hadn't been necessary as there'd been a curious field of calm right near them. So she'd cautiously dropped back into her regular form and cast out a wide mental net, looking for her friends. The resulting cacophony was too much for her and she shut it all down quickly.

She'd have to focus. Find one person and go from there. Because there was no way she was going to just sit there and wait for rescue. She opened up again, this time focused on the easiest person to find: Julian. Except he wasn't there just then. And then he was - faint but there. She started in the direction she'd sensed him in, carefully picking her way through everything until he faded again. In a panic she reached for whoever was closest. He'd had someone with him, another mental presence she'd barely touched. But now she could feel it stronger. Kevin. He was with Kevin and they were straight ahead.

She kept going until she saw a hole in a pile of rubble and knew that was where they were. And to get to them she'd need her diamond form.

"Julian?" she called as she shifted. Julian? Kevin? she broadcast to both of them, hoping for a response.

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	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle _touchless_ 2011-05-23 07:53 pm UTC (link)
	Kevin's eyes fluttered open again and he made a vague, inquiring noise. He wasn't sure if he'd heard someone or if he was just imagining it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle prima_frost 2011-05-25 02:42 am UTC (link)
	Emma dug through the hole a little, pulling bits of rubble out of the way. Julian! Kevin! she called again. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle _touchless_ 2011-05-25 02:50 am UTC (link)
	He was too incoherent to register that the voice was in his head, just that he wasn't imagining it. That it actually was a voice and someone was looking for them...someone had found them. "Here," he called, or tried to. It came out a dry rasp, barely above a whisper as he struggled to draw more air in past the pain squeezing his chest like a vise. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle prima_frost 2011-05-25 03:05 am UTC (link)
	She heard that. And she could get a sense of Kevin there, somewhere inside. She worked faster, clearing more of a hole. "Kevin!" she called out loud. "I'm coming through. Is Julian with you?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle

_touchless_
2011-05-25 03:13 am UTC (link)

Kevin squeezed Julian's hand harder and turned his head to look at him, straining to see the faint rise and fall of his chest, needing that confirmation even though he could still hear the harsh, shallow rasp of his breathing.

"Yes." It was more thought than word this time, as he'd finally realized who was there, though he probably wouldn't have without Julian's last words.

Hurry. Please. He didn't know if she could hear him this way, but he was too tired to try and make himself heard over the sound of shifting debris.

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	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle prima_frost 2011-05-25 03:28 am UTC (link)
	Emma redoubled her efforts, finally catching a glimpse of them through the hole she'd been working on. I'm coming, she assured him. As fast as I can. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Julian and Kevin (and Emma?) in the Castle _touchless_ 2011-05-25 03:36 am UTC (link)
	"Told you," he mumbled, quiet enough that Julian probably wouldn't have heard even if he'd been conscious. "Gonna be...fine. Just...hold on." (Reply to this) (Parent)

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