Dark Clouds, Silver Linings

[astonishing_xmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The news of the day, brought to you live.
Where: Around any TV screen, computer, radio, or newspaper.
When: All week.
Warnings: Reference to major NPC death. If a thread goes into warning territory for anything else, toss it up in the subject line or take it to a new log.

"...not the cure that everyone has been hoping for, but researchers working with the virus ravaging mutant enclaves around the country claim to have reached a breakthrough -- a treatment which can stop the contagion from spreading from person to person. For more on this, we're joined by our medical specialist..."

"...ravaged by riots for the second time this year, District X citizens have been organizing to repair the damage that's been done not only the the buildings and infrastructure, but also to their sense of community. Several people are in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody in connection with the recent outbreak of violence, but few details have emerged so far..."

"...outpouring of grief from mutant communities and their supporters internationally after a high-profile member of the X-men's death was confirmed. Kurt Wagner, known to the public as 'Nightcrawler', was a long-time staff member at the Xavier Institute, rumored in recent months to have been suffering from the virus affecting mutants around the nation and the world. When asked for comment, a representative of the school asked for peace and privacy, and declined any further discussion..."

"...slight drop in mainstream support for candidates Norman Osborn and Graydon Creed attributed to their well-publicized outbursts against, among others, the mutant and pro-mutant protest groups that have been dogging them on the campaign trail. A video taken just last week of Osborn's rambling and incoherent response to a question posed to him by a mutant attendee of a meet-and-greet event went viral, prompting mockery even from some of the other candidates in the primary..."

"...international news, President Kelly has set a date for a new round of discussions with Genoshan leadership. Speaking with the press this morning, he said that he wanted to give his thanks to them personally for the help that their researchers have provided in the past weeks, and to continue making steps towards the normalization of relations..."

[OOC: As always, feel free to react to any of these prompts or even to related things that aren't explicitly posted here!]

Comments

Open!

[koukai_kirai]

[It's usual for Hijikata to stay in his usual classroom after class on days when he doesn't have kendo or team training to do. The collection of newspapers and the TV on in the corner, the notes to himself written all over the chalkboard (an analysis of polling trends, the viable candidates' strengths and weaknesses, numbers on Genoshan public opinion since the virus outbreak, diagrams of the most damaged areas of District X with notes on the efforts being made to gather volunteers for repairs...)]

[The unusual thing is that today, he doesn't stop.]

[He doesn't stop when his tea grows cold on the desk. He doesn't stop when he's smoked his way entirely through the pack of cigarettes he had on him. He doesn't stop at dinner time, or when he runs out of space on the board (erase anything no longer important, keep going), or even at nightfall.]

[He just keeps writing, like if he writes enough, he'll find some revelation that will bring them back. Jean, and Kurt, and everyone else he's lost in his life...]

[He doesn't stop, because right now, he can't stop.]

I'm not late or anything

[spes_phthisica]

[He'd waited for a while, wanting to give Hijikata space, knowing he most likely needed to feel like he was doing something useful. He'd waited, with Mikan in his lap, curled up in Hijikata's bed, watching the slowly move and begin to lengthen.

And then he gives up on waiting.

He knows where to find him, and that Hijikata is still writing, still working, is no surprise. Quietly, but making no secret of that he's there, he simply walks up to the other man from behind and places one hand over Hijikata's, stilling it.]

Enough. You've done enough today.

Open in any of the places mentioned!

[niepokonany]

[Anyone watching the news in the common rooms will find themselves bereft of one of the usual sources of peanut gallery commentary.]

[As a matter of fact, Feliks has been pretty scarce overall since coming home.]

[He's saving up his energy, he tells himself. He's got his very first classes to teach coming up soon, and he needs to be himself in them -- bright, vibrant, irreverent, energetic.]

[The students don't need him to be hurt. They need normal, and normal Feliks is sunshine and laughter all the time.]

[Which is exhausting, because no one's actually like that, are they? At least not always, not anyone who cares about people, and flippant though he might act, Feliks cares a lot. And Kurt... there might not have been anyone else on the staff who understood him so well. He scolded him sometimes, when his righteous anger or his urge to make fun of the people who hurt him got the better of him, but his good humor was infectious. He was always easy to talk to, about religion or about mutant rights or about the Costume Club and the theatre department, or just about life. Even when Feliks was a younger student, he wasn't just a teacher, wasn't just a mentor, he was a friend.]

[And, on a mission where he was leading children, he had to see a friend's lifeless body carried back to the Blackbird. Even days and weeks later, the thought turns his stomach with desperate anger at himself for not getting there fast enough, at the world that had allowed it to happen. Sometimes, it brings tears to his eyes, and sometimes he just feels dull.]

[But he can't hide in his room all the time. Every morning and evening, he comes out to the dining hall at least long enough for a small meal, then takes a mug of tea with him out onto the grounds to feed and brush his pony. Every now and then, he talks to her quietly in Polish, and sometimes he even has the energy to saddle her up and take a little ride around the edge of the forest with her.]

[In the teachers' lounge in the evenings, he sometimes turns the TV on, but even the good news doesn't get much reaction out of him, and the moment Kurt's name or picture turns up, he turns it back off.]

[jolie_aile]

[The second evening Feliks goes out for a ride, there's a pair of red eyes following after him. Red eyes and prismatic wings.

Flandre couldn't just turn them off.

But she was aware that they were kind of terrifying, regardless. So she kept her movements slow and careful, and called out quietly to Feliks when she was close enough to do so. She kept glancing away every few minutes in case looking straight at the pony scared her; cats didn't like that, and that was the nearest readily available memory she could recall.]

Will you be okay, Feliks?

[kinofwrath]

[Zancrow's running near the stables when he hears the Polish. Curious to see what Feliks is doing he pokes his head around the corner of the barn. Sees the X-man talking to horse. He walks over. He's got a lot of respect for Feliks, ever since he found out that he and Fai, the science teacher who's power reminds way too much of Master Hades, were fucking. He gave a shudder. That Fai really freaked him the fuck out. In Polish he began to speak to the other man.]

Does she understand Polish better than English?

[comparative_insanity]

[The days have felt mechanical ever since everyone returned from the mission. Fai isn't good at dealing with this sort of thing, has never had the right mentality to properly cope with loss of any kind, and so he usually just tries to ignore it. Pretend that it's not there. Pretend he's fine. He could keep it up all the time, keep it up until he cracks under the strain, and maybe if things were different, he might try to.

But conversely, Feliks doesn't need that from him. He doesn't need to come back to their room and have Fai pretending that nothing is wrong.

So as Feliks returns from yet another day of keeping it together, he'll find Fai waiting on the edge of the bed, simply holding out his arms as if bringing attention to the fact that they're incomplete without him in them.]

Open!

[martyrerkomplex]

[She still doesn't really feel anything about the incident.]

[She did, in the heat of the moment. An urge to protect Kisume and Kaede. Fear, anger.]

[Ever since then, though, she's thought that perhaps she should feel something, but she hasn't.]

[With the new method of containing the virus in place, she's still sick and weak, but she's allowed out of quarantine, at least. She's been taking walks in the afternoon, to try and build her strength up, but they leave her a little exhausted. Before dinner time, she's curled up in an armchair in one of the lounges, tiny and frail, watching the news a little listlessly.]

[Virus]

Thank God. It was worth it after all, if no one else will get sick now...

[District X]

I hope I'll feel well enough to go there again soon. They've been through so much recently...

[Kurt]

[Krista just bows her head during the news pieces about Kurt, not initiating any conversation, but not about to change the channel, either.]

[Campaign news]

[She watches with a very vague, detached sort of interest.]

...I wonder if it will do any good in the long term. There's still a long time until the elections, isn't there?

[Genosha]

...Good. If there was ever a time when we needed cooperation, I think it's probably now.

[droppedbucket]

[During the part about Kurt, there will be a little feral slipping up beside Krista and curling up beside her. Even if Kisume didn't know her well, after all that went down, she wanted to try and form some sort of friendship.

She also still didn't fully understand it all but..at the very least she could try and offer support.]

Re: Open!

[anythingspossible]

Joss approached Krista slower than a snail. Her gaze was forced to the floor, by the weight in her heart.

When she stood by Krista's chair she tried to force a weak smile to slowly cheer her up, but it degenerated into a cringe when she realized how insensitive it was.

All she could muster was a meek, "hi."

Open!

[stardustreverie]

[For once, Marisa isn't anywhere near the commons rooms or the TVs. She's been avoiding them, just to keep herself toghter. If she didn't, there would be tears and probably her leaving the grounds. If she was going to actually return if she did that was very questionable. The urge to wander off was very strong and at the moment, she was likely to follow that urge. For now, she's outside, by the lake to try and think things through.

There are times that she feels like she's falling apart, that everything is just going to hell. Kurt had always been there, since she started at the school and never thought she'd see the day he wasn't around..at least anytime soon. Her cell phone is sitting beside her as she knows there will be a call before too long. Right now, there is just time to make a choice that's been nagging at her for a while now.]

Re: Open!

[anythingspossible]

Joss walked through the grass alone, with her head down and her bangs covering her eyes. Joss didn't know Kurt, but everyone that was around her did and her empathy made her a sponge for all their feelings. She couldn't afford to be in low spirits. Not for long.

Joss' pulled the trigger on her grappling lasso. It wrapped around a tree branch and a second later she was swinging like Tarzan. The wind whipped through Joss' hair, as the pendulum affect thrust her in the air. In the brief seconds she hung in the air she whipped her lasso to another tree and swung. She swung from tree to tree. Normally she would be shouting with joy at the exercise, but somehow that still seemed wrong. Her heart pounding, she finally reached a tree by the lake, and took a breather.

She looked down, and saw a blond girl with long hair by the lake.

"Howdy." She said with a smile still catching her breath.

[niepokonany]

Stuff on your mind?

[Like Feliks is one to talk. He was on that recovery mission, and he's a mess.]

[But sometimes, all there is for it is to keep going and help with all the other messes. And when that's the path forward, he's never let it slow him down.]

Open!

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede still felt like shit. Less than she had, now that she had access to medicine that would help her headache subside, but still awful.

She had a tracking anklet on; she knew exactly why, to keep track of her powers more than her location, but still couldn’t help chuckling at the idea. It really was just like home sometimes.

But it was either wear that anklet, or a complete power-cancelling helmet--which covered her face and made her nose itch immediately when she put it on. It was more than enough to get her to agree to the first option. Her powers could get rather...messy, if they lost control. For her and for those around her. So she had accepted a higher dose of the treatment, even if it made her feel a bit dizzy sometimes.

Most of all was the fact that she felt...almost nothing, at the news. She'd seen that corpse, yes. She knew Kurt as a cheerful, sometimes annoying voice, vaguely present, but not personally known. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a dead body, either.

But even the news about Osborn's fuck-up didn't lighten her mood, as she thought.

She was sitting in one of the study rooms for the most part, rather than in the lounges. Even when the TVs were turned off, they still seemed so noisy. This early, the rooms were mostly empty of students--though the ones that were there kept fairly quiet.]

[droppedbucket]

[At some point the door would open and if one wasn't looking at the door, it was as if it just closed with no one there. But before long the intruder made herself known as Kisume came into view, looking worried and confused.

She makes her way over and just sits for the time being. She didn't understand what all happened still, it wasn't making sense. Hunting had her desensitized her to animal death but other beings? It was hard to catch on. For now though, it was best to stick around people she knew..especially since she was on watch somewhat.]

[martyrerkomplex]

[It took her a while to seek Kaede out.]

[For a little while after being released, she just stayed in her own room, feeling somehow unprepared to put up the face that she usually did. Something, something she didn't know how to explain or define, was out of place, and she didn't really know how to right it.]

[She had to leave her room eventually, though. Classes were starting, and she had work to do for the student council...]

[And after dealing with that all day, she found herself sort of wanting to see Kaede's face.]

[She entered the study room quietly, shutting the door behind herself. Finding that she didn't really have anything to say, she just walked in and sat down next to Kaede in silence.]

Open to either Common room or her running around the grounds.

[colorfulbrilliance]

[If the fact the Meiling was putting herself into overdrive was anything new, one didn't know her well enough. She stood and watched the news from the doorway, drinking a sports drink while giving herself a moment to rest. She was in workout clothes and the shirt shows she's been working out for some time.

She stays there the entire broadcast before heading out, running until she can't anymore.]

[psykick]

[Rinka is a pretty common sight to anyone who runs regularly. Mostly, she runs in the morning before breakfast, but occasionally after she gets back from her job at the cafe in town, she'll run a circuit around the school grounds. If she sees anyone else running, she'll pull up next to them to flash a smile and see if they want a running buddy. So when she spots Meiling out running, she does just that.]

Hello!

[knighterrantofthedragon]

Alric's preferred coping mechanism was, if anything, very much the opposite: he'd been spending a good deal of time processing his thoughts on things, and one preferred way to do that was to sit among the limbs of one of the trees out on the grounds.

...the third time the same girl sprinted past, though, with that look as though she was headed somewhere, he couldn't restrain the curiosity. Obviously, there was exercise for exercise, and then there was this; it was an all too familiar look, though, since burning himself out was his fallback. On her fourth pass, he cleared his throat a bit loudly as she drew near.

"Miss. ...are you all right?"

Grounds

[koukai_kirai]

[As she's running, a small orange cat rushes up to her, mewling to get her attention and following along on her run if she doesn't stop.]

[A few moments later, a deep, gruff voice calls out from a nearby garden:]

Mikan? Where did you go?

open

[endurancepoint]

[On the flight back from England, Alex had quietly slipped unconscious. Between already feeling awful and the way he'd pushed his power, his body needed a rest. After three days, he woke still feeling like he'd been run over by a lorry, but at least to the news he was no longer contagious and could rejoin the rest of the student body.

Despite the near constant exhaustion and the headaches still plaguing him, even without him touching his power, Alex throws himself back into his 'usual' routine. Wake up, take morning run (more like walk at this point), shower, eat breakfast... Once classes start again, he'll have that to keep himself occupied, keep himself from remembering what he saw. In the mean time, he reads in the library, grinds levels video games, and works on plans to help Tenma with the school soccer team. He spends what time he can outside, soaking up the early fall sun.

He avoids the common room and anywhere else a television might happen to be on. He also studiously ignores Sabina's attempts to contact him, likely over how he suddenly dropped off the radar (again), which usually means he's in trouble (again). More often than not, he simply doesn't answer his phone at all, no matter who's calling, and leaves it behind in his dorm. He doesn't hide away, but he doesn't make it easy to find him.

Over the years, Alex has had a lot of practice at not letting show how messed up he feels on the inside. But whenever he can't maintain the facade a moment longer, he heads down to the lake for some privacy. Sometimes he'll just sit on the shore, sometimes he'll dangle his feet off the dock, and sometimes he'll grab a boat and row out into the middle of the lake, until all he can hear is the water splashing against the side of the boat.]

Re: open

[griot]

Viti paced in the woods beside the lake, the fallen leaves and pine needles repeatedly kicked aside until a path was worn into the dirt. His gaze was pointed to the ground as his head drooped, but he saw nothing in front of him. Only his thoughts.

He mumbled, as quiet as a mouse at first, but over the minutes his voice rose, and pace quickened to a strong march.

"I'll show you what I can do, I show you what I can accomplish."

He was entirely unaware that someone might hear him.

Open

[kinofwrath]

[Zancrow's out and about the school grounds, running. He feels... out of place. There's a lot grief in the school and it's something he's not sharing with them. He didn't know Nightcrawler. He didn't talk to Nightcrawler. All he knew about him was what he was taught by Master Hades. So he's not grieving. But... he feels out of place, in a way. Death had been a constant during his tenures as part of Grimoire Heart and the MLF, and hadn't grieved then when people died. Fuck, as part as Grimoire Heart he killed more a few other members just for pissing him off. No one grieved in Grimoire Heart. The MLF had had some members who grieved for fallen comrades, but it just as many that didn't. Here... here it seemed like everyone did. It almost made him feel guilty for not sharing that grief. Almost.

Keep his head down. That's what Renko said to do. And it wouldn't do any good to cause trouble when a popular teacher had died, so he spent his time running. He had his hair tied back, and shirt off, tucked into the back of his gym shorts, water bottle in hand as he ran.]

[friendofdorothy]

[Liir doesn't appear to be grieving Nightcrawler's death. Then again, how would anyone around him be able to tell? He's not running to vent his emotions but as part of his precisely scheduled physical fitness training. It always irks him that despite his carefully controlled diet and precise exercise schedule, Zancrow remains stronger than him.]

Well it shows the value of a good death, at least. Knew that already though...

Open!

[droppedbucket]

[The fact that the little feral girl was easy to find inside was strange. Ever sense the team and the sick returned from the mission she'd been fairly quiet and actually staying inside.

There was a few times she was alone, normally staring out the window and being quiet. Not eating much and not going out to hunt like normal. As far as the feral understood, it was best to stay where one could find her- less she become sick.

At one point she's singing softly to herself- No words as she can't figure out where the song came from or the words to it.]

Re: Open!

[eternalprincess]

Hey there...

[Look who beat Patchouli to talking to the little feral girl.]

Open

[totallystoned]

Reki looks at the news then down at her lap. Right there, and she...

"I couldn't help him."

Her wings fluffing out are the most visible sign of her surprise when she realizes she has company. She visibly puts her Cool Big Sis face back on.

"Hey. Doing OK?"

Re: Open

[griot]

"No!" Viti snapped. "I failed to cure the virus, nutcases might still take the presidency, and someone died!"

Viti sighed as he took his place next to Reki, collapsing on his butt with a plop.

"oi."

Viti then looked to Reki. "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't ask how you were. Actually..."

Viti dug into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a box like device.

"...I can use this to check you're emotions. That way there won't be anymore misunderstandings. I'm sick of misunderstandings!"

[Closed to me and Droppedbucket.]

[griot]

I hope Kisume is ok, Viti thought. He sat in the lounge on the couch. The TV sounding like a distant mosquito to him. I didn't see her in the infirmary, so I don't think she was hurt on the mission, but...

Viti grumbled. The more he sat, the louder the news Mosquito seemed to become. He gritted his teeth harder and harder, tensing his head into his shoulders, as the noise built up and up. Finally, with a grumble, he shot up off his chair and stormed out of the room.

He plopped down in the shade of a tree, with bushes next to it. Viti sighed, letting his head fall back against the tree. He was kind of glad it hurt.

[droppedbucket]

It had taken a bit but someone eventually convinced Kisume it was alright to go outside. She had taken off so quickly but kept close to the mansion as told for once. So it took some time for her to get to a point in stopping. She spotted Viti and slowly made her way through the foliage before sitting in those near by bushes.

After a moment, the feral peeks out of the bushes and speaks softly.

"...Look upset. Sad?"

Open, in the library.

[knowledgeandshadow]

[Patchouli is currently attempting to bury herself in work right now, as she is wont to do whenever she gets upset. Seeing someone she knew, sort of, drop dead in front of her isn't exactly something she could have prepared for.]

[colorfulbrilliance]

[Even after tiring herself out by running until she couldn't someone still couldn't rest. After showering and changing into another- not so sweat drenched, t-shirt and pants she mad her way into the library to read. She really wasn't expecting anyone there but..She was mildly surprised.]

Oh!...Patchouli..How are you feeling?

[She got so lost on that recovery mission..she was found after everything was said and done..and was highly embarrassed.]