There was no way he could sleep -- not while the mission was underway.  He sat by the communications console, and just monitored, waiting for something, anything.

Eventually, he got it, and soon later, the jet was landing and all the injured students (and god, there were so many) were herded down into the medlab almost immediately. 

Scott had stood by idly enough and he couldn't any longer.  Heading downstairs himself, he steeled himself for what he was about to find. Everywhere he looked, there was a student in pain, a student crying, a student without any emotion.  It made him hurt inside to see the children (and they'd always be children to him) like this.

Clearing his throat, he tried to find something to do, someway he could help but before he could, his eyes fell on the first student he saw.  Rogue. She was cradling an arm and he winced inside.

Without speaking, he walked over to her side, and leaned down to give her a hug, careful of both her arm, and her skin. He just couldn't find the words to say anything yet.

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? )

Doug didn't want to get up, he really didn't. He was quite happy being sound asleep. Being sound asleep meant he didn't have to deal with... with...

Aw, hell.

Even just half distractedly thinking about it had woken him up.

He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He could barely remember what had happened, which was frustrating beyond belief. He knew he'd been at the museum, showing a couple of the kids an exhibit that was one of his favorites, but that was where clarity and his memory parted ways.

He bolted upright. The kids! Darren. Was Darren all right? Were the others all right? He had to get to them. Somehow. Not that he knew how, but he was resourceful...

Only not nearly resourceful enough, as the collar around his neck reminded him.

[Open to whoever wants to have gotten tossed in with him.]

Brenna had always had a thing for history, she was a bit of a nerd in that respect, so a trip to the history museum actually sounded like it might be fun. Granted, she'd have to keep an eye on some of the kids, but that was okay. And she actually enjoyed it when they asked questions and she found she could answer them; maybe there was something to this teaching thing after all? She'd never really been interested in that or kids before but a lot of things had changed since she'd come to Xavier's Institute.

The place was almost echoingly empty on a Friday afternoon, there weren't any other school groups exploring but theirs. It was rather nice to basically have the place to themselves.

She ended up taking a group of kids that weren't in Ororo's classes off to view the Egyptian exhibit. “Why did they wrap the bodies up like that?” Sarah asked, all but pressing her nose up against the glass to stare in at the sarcophagus. “And what's with all the weird pictures?”

“They wrapped the bodies to preserve them, the Egyptians believed in an afterlife where they'd need their bodies just like they did in life.” Brenna stepped up alongside the girl. “The pictures are their written language, they're called hieroglyphics. Each picture represents a word or a concept, usually related to the gods in some way; the Egyptians were deeply religious and included that in their every day lives.”

“I heard they stuck hooks up the dead guys' noses to squish up the brain so they could get it out,” Luke said, making a scary face.

Sarah wrinkled up her nose at him. “You're gross, Luke.”

“He's right, though,” Brenna told her. “Either that or they cut a hole in the back of the skull but they much preferred to leave the body otherwise intact. They also removed the internal organs and put them in canopic jars,” she said, pointing to a row of ceramic jars with various tops depicting gods like jackal-headed Anubis.

She looked around to do another swift head-count and immediately noticed two of the children, one being Jubilee, missing. “You guys seen Jubes or Frankie?” The other kids looked at each other and then at her, shrugging. “Go se,” she cursed in Mandarin. “Alright, let's go see if we can't find them.”

It wasn't until she turned as Sarah's hand was forcefully jerked out of hers that she realized something was terribly wrong. Her TK blossomed in her hands, crackling blue energy that was always there below the surface, but she didn't get a chance to use it. A cold metal collar clicked into place around her neck and the TK died along with the whisper of voices that was always shimmering just out of reach.

She felt the sharp prick of a needle and the last thing she saw before she went under was Sarah's pink hair, the little girl draped over the shoulder of a man dressed in black.

~~~~~~~~~

Jubilee had sneaked away with Brenna's group rather than pay attention to the Westward Expansion exhibit. American history had always bored her to tears, especially because she didn't consider it her history; even though thousands of Chinese immigrants had worked on the rail system out west, none of them had been her ancestors and she was much more interested in cool dead bodies.

After exploring the room with the Egyptian exhibit she'd hung around by the door, arms crossed over her chest while she blew bubbles with her gum. A hand tapped on her shoulder and she turned to find no one there. When she looked out into the hallway her eyes went wide but before she had time to shout or make another move she was already slumping down under the influence of some kind of sedative.

((You can either tack your posts onto this or make your own, it doesn't really matter.))

Who: Rogue and Logan
What: Logan giving Rogue a lift to the airport
When: Night
Rating: TBD I guess
Status: active

( Read more... )

Narrative

Rogue leaned back for a moment, resting her head on the side of the cold tub. Honestly if this is how bad a hangover felt she was sure she was never going to get drunk anytime soon. She was begining to feel better and she noticed through her talks with Bobby and John that her personality was starting to come back to her. Though she now learned how to say fuck in three languages as well as 7 other obscene words she hadn't heard of before. As if that'll ever do Rogue any good. She hardly ever cussed let alone did anything she wasn't supposed to.

Rogue rubbed her temples and fought the urge to punch the headache out of her. She hoped that it had something to do with the hangover rather than the guy. If only he wasn't so drunk...then it wouldn't be as big of a deal. She didn't even want to know what Logan was thinking of the whole situtaion. If the news of their missing had gotten to the other students already she was sure he had to have known by now. Well... he did say that he wanted her to get out more didn't he? So she fucked up and used her powers...it wasn't like she could control it...he had to know how much she hated using them...though now all she wanted to do was keep herself hidden from the rest of the world. She shook her head trying to get rid of those thoughts only to immediately regret it. She made herself stand up and thought perhaps John's banana milkshake sweetened with honey could work. He did seem experienced in such things anyway.

She began to walk down the stairs, using the railing for support when she heard a noise in the kitchen. Before she could even go through the door and focus on what was happening whoever was inside had already left. She decided to shrug it of. That sort of thing tended to happen in the institute; and instead went to grab the blender and a couple of bananas. Though the second she peeled the banana the smell made her stomach churn and she just threw it to the side and ran upstairs before she could make a mess. Though since she hadn't eaten much that day and there was no alcohal in her to get rid of, she ended up just succeding in dry-heaving. Groaning, Rogue dragged herself to her bed and just fell on top of it, not caring anymore.

As she tried to make herself relax she thought about Bobby and John. John confused her. He seemed to not be her biggest fan, but when the guy was going after her he got inbetween them and defended her. Though Rogue chalked that up to the fact that he probably just liked bar fights. Or something like that. As for Bobby he seemed rather nice. The polar opposite of John was quite obvious. Though she thought something more was there. Rogue wondered though if she would get to hang out with them again soon anyway. She did bitch at Bobby all the way back to the institute, granted she didn't mean half of what she said, but she certainly made a bad enough impression on them. If she were them she would ditch herself in a heartbeat. If anything Rogue felt like she was more of a hassle to them than a possible friend. Or it could be the fact that she was too busy beating up on herself at the moment. Either way she didn't think they would like her that much after how much trouble she helped bring on them.

Rogue rolled over onto her side and forced herself to go to sleep. Perhaps she would go away for a bit...she hadn't of been back home in a long time. There were still some things she left unfinished. Coming up with a decision to leave for a couple of weeks Rogue finally drifted off to sleep.

[Thread OPEN to: Bobby & Rogue]

It was a lazy afternoon, a few precious hours of freedom inbetween classes. Both John and Bobby were in the lounge, Bobby on the couch and John sprawled out on the floor as the other chairs were littered with bodies as apparently everybody else had, had the same idea. Not that John minded, the floor was comfortable.

As always John had his trusty lighter and was continually playing with it - flicking it open to display the flame for an all of five seconds before snapping it shut again, only to repeat the process all over again. "So," he drawled, tipping his head back to look at Bobby from beneath a strand of hair. "Can I actually convince your sorry ass to skip class and go to town with me?" It wasn't like they needed to go to their last class of the day, it wasn't that important.

John shifted, curling one of his legs up towards his chest and as a result he opened a tear of denim across his knee. "It's not going to kill you to miss one lesson, Bobby boy. You gotta live a little." His fingers drummed out a beat on his knee whilst his other hand played with that lighter again. "You might even have fun you never know."

"Just one lesson."

The weather had taken a turn for the worse after a couple weeks of warm temperatures, so Jubilee was bundled up in her dayglo yellow trenchcoat.

She definitely didn't need any caffeine, but Rogue was her best friend and they hadn't gone out in a while.

WHO: Rogue and OPEN to anyone
WHEN: Late at night, past midnight
WHERE: The Rec. room
WHAT: Can't sleep...needed to do something to get her mind off things
STATUS: active and open
RATING: TBD.

Rogue had an interesting day. She was starting to not handle the whole being held in one room very well and decided to go out only to find herself facing the very things she was running from head on.
Now when she needed sleep pretty bad; nightmares seemed to plague her mind. Rogue was starting to get annoyed with herself. Frustrated she got up out of bed and wandered down to the Rec. room and fell back onto the couch. With nothing else to do she grabbed the remote and started to flip through the channels, not really watching what was on them.

The talking heads were at it again. Usually Logan didn't turn the TV on but he'd needed something to distract him from the pile of papers on his desk, a pile that had gone from a neat stack to something decidedly less organized as he worked his way through it.

I need to hire someone to do this shit, he thought as he came upon the bills. Money wasn't an issue, not with Warren Worthington III's money smoothing the way, but someone still needed to sort through them and make sure all the numbers were right.

And what good was a healing factor if it didn't take care of stress headaches? He could feel one blooming right between his eyes.

A familiar cultured voice caught the edge of his attention and made him look up. The news station had gone to a split screen with the reporter on the left and Eric Lensherr on the right. He wore his signature red and purple, regal colors that spoke to the position he was in as the ruler of Genosha, a position he'd remorselessly shed blood to attain.

"Of course homo sapiens are not welcome in Genosha," Lensherr was saying, his thing lips curling back in a snarl, hatred evident in his words. "This is a haven, a stronghold, for the true race. Here we can live without fear that you baselines will break down our doors and take us in the night, just as the Nazi regime did so many years ago." It was something Lensherr understood firsthand, had the marks on his body to bear testament.

The reporter seemed a bit startled. "But don't you worry about being attacked? All someone has to do is push a button and missiles could be airborne."

"My dear, you forget what I am capable of, what all mutants are capable of. Nothing enters or exits without my knowledge and express approval." His eyes smoldered with contempt. "To come against us would be folly of the highest order. All we want is to live in peace without outside interference."

"And if the rest of the world were to take up the cry that mutants should be registered and catalogued, if the bill being discussed in the Senate were to be put into law, what then?"

"We are above human laws."

The reporter stammered, clearly shaken by such fervor as she stumbled for words. "Do you not worry that your attitude will spark further violence against your kind?"

The mutant known as Magneto smiled, and it was ugly. "There will always be violence, always be hatred. Soon enough it won't matter."

Disgusted, Logan grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. It was bad enough Lensherr was running free without the damn media giving him an outlet to spew his doctrine to the masses. It gave Magneto an inflated sense of self-importance which, given the size of his ego, was already enormous. And having one of the bad guys as the most visible specimen of mutantkind wasn't doing anyone any favors.

Logan groaned and leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands. How the hell had he let himself get roped into this? Ororo and Scott had both survived the blast that took out the original Institute, why not them? The former at least was aiding him in running the place; the latter had taken off for parts unknown, switching usual roles with Logan. Even a year later everything was still chaotic, the new Institute having only opened two months ago.

He needed beer. Several beers. Anything to drown out the frustration.