When Millie had gotten back, it had taken everything inside Jamie to not jump on her. Really, only two things had kept him from it: the fact that there were too many people around for him to get to her easily and she looked like she was hurt pretty bad. So, he'd sat outside the infirmary, waiting til he could see her. When Mr. McCoy let her out, he'd told Jamie to help her to her room because she needed to rest. So, Jamie had done that.

Now he was laying on her bed with her, in his brown puppy form, with his head on her lap. He'd put her Cookie doll on the pillow next to her head before he'd settled himself. He just wanted to be sure she was ok.

She cried when she was asleep. There were stitches on her chest and arm and lots of other little cuts that didn't need to be sewn together, but were angry and red on her skin. It made Jamie angry and he wanted to bite whoever had done this to her. She smelled like salt and blood and antiseptic.

Jamie didn't know how long he'd laid there before he fell asleep, too.

She lay in the infirmary, having a little bed in one of the tiny rooms all to herself. There was an IV attached to her arm that she was fairly certain was completely useless by now. She wasn't sure how long she had been laying here, days, maybe. But it was home, and whatever panic she had felt when she awoke was chased away by Logan's lingering scent. He'd been here, with her, and that was enough.

( Read more... )

The gardens on the institute's grounds were quickly becoming Terry's favorite place. It was so quiet and peaceful, the flowers smelled so sweetly. If you stood still enough you could almost imagine that nothing terrible could happen. Terry sat on the ground in the back of the gardens, singing softly to herself as she read.

Maeve was asleep, she could hear her daughter's even breathing over the monitor that sat beside her. She wasn't worried. She knew that if Maeve had started to cry, she'd hear it. Hell, people two states over would hear it.

Right then she was just enjoying the quiet. Trying to not think of the terrible things all the kidnapped people had gone through. She wanted to sit with them, to help them through but that was presumptious. She barely knew most of them.

Sighing, she continued to read. Eventually she would get used to it. At least she hoped so.

Doug's hands should've been hurting, but honestly? Painkillers were so his best friend in the entire world at the moment. He'd popped one before tucking the bottle carefully into his pocket and heading for the rec room.

This was where his determination to not let things ruin his life had kind of keeled over and died.

He'd come down with every intention of watching TV, or at least sitting and reading whatever book someone had left laying around. He'd picked up the TV remote from the coffee table only to drop it. Repeat five or six times before tears of frustration welled in his eyes and he slumped down on the nearest couch.

[OPEN]

Shinji was stood outside of the gates of the school, wondering if now was a bad time to call by, everything seemed quiet. He reached for the buzzer then caught himself, cursing lightly in Japanese. This was stupid, really stupid.

He'd done fine all this time by himself, why did he need to go getting involved with others like him?

Although he had to admit that he was tempted, so very tempted by the idea of being around people like him, people who understood and could help him figure his power out. Maybe even stop the headaches?

Shinji eyed the mansion again and even went so far as to press the buzzer before sure enough he was turning on his heel and fleeing like somebody had set his ass on fire.

What in the hell had he been thinking?

The grown ups had left what felt like days before, but really had only been a few hours. Jamie had sneaked into the hanger to watch the jet take off, but once it was gone he was at loose ends.

He'd tried to shoot some hoops, but hadn't been able to get into it. Reading and drawing had the same result. Even if he shifted, which usually made him very happy, he didn't feel anything but sadness and fear.

After a while he'd gone to the girls dorms and sat on Millie's bed for a while. It'd started to smell less like her and more like him the more he went there, but he couldn't help it. It made it feel like she was there or would be all right. He knew he was breaking the rules by sleeping in the girls dorm, but no one cared right now.

Jamie took her Cookie doll down with him and went to wait out on the front steps. He toyed with the doll's red skirt as he looked out at the dark sky. He wanted Millie back and ok. What was the point of God letting him find her if He was just going to take her away again? He wished that there was someone he could talk to, but everyone was so busy with everything else and he didn't want to be a bother. It was more important to get their friends and family back than it was to listen to him whine and cry like a baby. He knew that.

But that didn't make it easier to sit here and wait now that they knew where they were and had gone to get them.

Narrative

Evelyn was stood in front of her most senior of officers, being commended on a job well done. She'd managed to kill a high ranking senator without the press or anybody being any the wiser that the assassin was in the service of their very own country. The Irish in her wanted desperately to speak out of turn, but the soldier instinct was stronger, so Evelyn held her tongue.

"We have a new mission for you," her superior officer continued. "It's more subtle than you're used to, but I have complete faith that you'll complete it with as much finesse as you've shown on other areas.

"An' what's the mission?" Evelyn asked, her Irish accent lilting the syllables and making every word seem like a spoken word of poetry.

Her superior officer held up a finger and turned his attention to his laptop for a second, bringing up a picture of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning "Do you know what this is?"

( Insider )

Gaia didn't know what had hit her. She'd just sent off her email to Logan and was going to pack a bag to grab after work so she could head over to the mansion when she heard the first on behind her.

She'd turned just in time to see one climbing through her fire escape and another one's fist heading in her direction. She managed to duck by the simple expedient of diving out of the way towards her couch. Then she felt the pinch of a pin or a dart in her leg and another, and before she could even react the world was swimming out of focus.

The last thing she remembered was a man clad in black sitting at her computer.

There were lots of things Alex Summers was good at. Pool, drinking games, flirting with women, those were his areas of expertise. Reuniting with the older brother he was sure didn't like him? That was scary to him. Scott was his only family though and if there was one thing he knew, it was that he wouldn't forgive himself if something happened and he wasn't there.

Shifting his bag from one shoulder to the other, he made his way towards the institute. He snapped his fingers idly, releasing tiny plasma waves. Alex's powers had always been rather hard for him to control but he had grown a lot since he had last met the X-Men. He pushed the buzzer on the gate and stood back to wait.

He had heard rumblings about things going down and hoped that he'd be welcomed. The last thing he needed was to be told there was no room. He sighed softly as he leaned against the fence.

Looking around the grounds, he wondered how much alike this institute and the old one were. It made him slightly bitter, the idea that Scott had grown up in this sort of atmosphere and he had been forced to live with his crazy foster family.

( Rogue was dragged away from the cell... )

Who: Scott
What: Watching the others leave for the mission
When: Friday night
Rating: G?
Status: Closed

((OOC: This takes place directly before the rescue mission. :D))

Laura had refused to leave the relative safety of Matty's arms since the moment she had launched herself into them. Matty would rock her and quietly sing to her. The girl would sleep fitfully, whimpering as she tried to escape whatever nightmare plagued her dreams, and Matty would pet her hair, murmuring soothing words. When their meals were brought to them, Laura wouldn't eat until after Matty had taken her first bite, and then she'd stuff as much of the food into her mouth as she could. Matty figured the girl had been on her own for some time. She reminded Matty so much of the scared little girl she had been once upon a time.

( Read more... )

Who: The X-Men, abductees, NPC!Guards, NPC!Labcoats, Sentinels
What: rescue mission
When: Friday night
Rating: Gonna make this a strong R
Status: Open
Warnings: Rating is for violence, you know that'll happen in spades. It's going up now but don't feel like you need to tag in right away, while the action will only take place in the space of hours this'll be open all week to make sure everyone can get in and get their shit done.

Any questions? Shoot 'em our way.

((this post is extra-long because I tacked Brenna's torture scene on)

~~~~~

There had been no missions since the school had been rebuilt. It was almost unspoken that the X-Men needed to focus solely on their own after a time when so many of them had been lost inexplicably, and Logan had been loathe to break the status quo. Not really his usual state of being but his actions no longer affected just him.

( Read more... )



( Oh, was he begging? )

Who: NPC!Guards & Doctor, Bobby
What: Bobby and the new 'toy'
When: Mid-morning
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed
Warnings: Long-ish, 2,300 words. Also, Bobby is very not well.

Bobby had barely had a chance to get himself together. His collar hadn't been removed since he arrived and he was steadily getting worse, more and more sick. He could barely keep his eyes open for a lot of the time, his head spinning constantly and his stomach twisting. He was coughing his lungs up when he was awake, flushed and near delirious with a fever that coursed through his veins, making him feel like he was burning up from the inside out. It was not a lot of fun.

( Doctors and Robots )

Who: Kitty, NPC!Guards (Tall One and Short One), Lab Coat
What: Playing Russian Roulette With Kitty
When: Afternoon/Evening
Notes: Thanks to Mands and Jen for helping me with this

( Kitty wasn't asleep when they came to get her. )

Who: Doug and a crazy woman
What: Torture
When: Backdated to Wednesday evening
Where: Where they're being held
Rating: PG-13ish

Doug had lost track of what day it was. He'd lost track of the concept of a day. Easy to do, really, when your life had so quickly become a fight for survival.

He was one of the luckier ones, if by "luckier" you meant "least bothered." That worried him, actually. He was a mutant, so why hadn't they inflicted their creativity on him? But another part of him, a very guilty part, was grateful that he had such a comparatively uninteresting ability.

He should've known his luck would run out.

( Cut for mild torture )

Who: NPC!Guards (Chuckles and Stoic), Brenna, nameless Labcoat and minions, Sarah (and introducing the Terminator wannabes)
What: Brenna getting tested
When: Afternoon
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed
Warnings: Just the usual

She felt numb. tired. They weren't being fed but a little, enough to keep them alive, and she was definitely feeling the effects. Her head always pounded with the loss of her power and made her realize that the headaches she'd suffered from shortly before manifesting likely had some connection. She hadn't had a single headache since then, not until the past Friday when they'd been taken.

( Read more... )

Who: Logan and Emma Frost, Headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy
What: Snark and use of Cerebro
When: Thursday afternoon
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed
Warnings: None

~~~

"I'm astounded that you didn't contact me sooner, Logan." Emma Frost's voice was a throaty, cultured purr, modulated perfectly to elicit a response in whomever heard it. She'd upped the sultry tone of it until he'd told her, not so politely, that he wasn't interested in what she was selling. She'd rather haughtily informed him that she wasn't interested in him, either:

( I don't go for the knuckle-dragging lumberjack type, darling. Too much chance you'll shed on the furniture. )

Who: Adelaide Russell, Scott Summers
What: Catching up for the first time in years
When: Mid-morning
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed

It hadn't taken her long to realise that the mansion was too quiet. Way too quiet. It was an uncomfortable lack of sound rather than silence. The gaping hole where sound should be was glaringly obvious, she saw kids creeping down the hallways as if they were afraid to make noise, as if by that very act they would be bringing down the wrath of the worried staff on their heads.

Adelaide had been at the mansion for just less than a day, she'd unpacked and spent most of the time in her office, trying to get it just right. She allowed herself to be pedantic. Picky. The office needed to be just right so that she could do what she was supposed to be doing, that was helping the staff and students.

She might not have owed it to them, but she did to Xavier. And to Jean. Her heart lurched and her stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought. She was so upset that she hadn't been there to say goodbye, to be part of the memorial service.

She cleared her throat and raked her fingers through her hair, the long, red strands now straightened, not curly like they used to be. Teeth snagged on her lower lip as she walked out of her office, her shoes clicking gently on the floor as she turned and pulled the door shut.

She didn't lock it, she had no need to.

Time was when these hallways were crammed with students, wall to wall and you couldn't stand there the way she was without getting jostled by someone or having to duck someone else's errant use of their powers.

So far she had only seen Logan briefly. He had not been the most verbose of people but considering what she had heard about the abductees she couldn't blame him. She knew Ororo was around somewhere, and Scott... But she had kept to herself, really. She didn't know if she could handle the blast from the past that seeing them would offer, even if the sights would be what she needed. That touch of familiarity in a place that now seemed so alien to her.

She just stood in the hallway for a moment, trying to get her bearings. The layout of the mansion wasn't the same as it used to be and she closed her eyes, talking to herself under her breath and making small gestures with her hands, trying to kinesthetically remember the routes.

( Tours, Talks and Memories )

Who: John, NPC!Guards, NPC!Scientist & Bobby
What: John getting tested and causing problems
When: Morning
Rating: PG-13
Status: Closed
Warnings: Long, 7,555 words.


John had been hauled out of the cell by the scruff of his neck, quite literally.

He'd not gone easy, landing a couple good punches and managing to draw blood. Bobby slept like the dead, barely rousing as his friend created the most noise he could, John tried not to let that worry him as he fought against restraining hands and brutal pulls.

It took the two guards twice the time to get John to the lab than they'd had scheduled, grunting as the slight teenager continue to struggle. They were beginning to think they should have sedated him for this, the punch to his gut had barely slowed him down. The mutant had a scarily high pain threshold, apparently.

John murmured a few curse words as he continued to strain, jerking upwards the moment he was offloaded onto a bed, managing to take a nasty bite out of the nearby guard's ear, smiling a second later through a sheen of red as the man in question hollered in agony.

"Fuckin' mutie!" He snapped, forcing John back down with a hand around his throat. He closed his fingers, wanting to crush every smartass comment into the back of the mutant's throat, suffocate him with his own abusive sentiments.

John clawed at the guard's wrist, gasping and blinking his eyes hurriedly as his head began to spin. It was only when his struggles eased that the guard's grip loosened and a soft chortle could be heard. "Too bad that you gotta breathe just like the rest of us."

"Go... fuck yourself," John managed in a hoarse whisper.

( Mad Scientist )