SINISTER FINALE

[astonishing_xmods]

WHO: Those who signed up for the punching dinosaurs Savage Lands mission
WHAT: Time to get a cure
WHERE: Savage Land Nature Preserve
WHEN: October 10th
WARNING(S): Violence, language, etc

The Blackbird was getting quite a bit of use, lately. It left the Institute early, before the sun was properly up—from there, it was a straight line from New York to Antarctica, with no stops between. The paperwork had been cleared, official permission granted for the team to enter an international wildlife reserve. There would be no scandalous headlines of border-crossing house parties this time, thank you very much.

The glasslike surface of the Antarctic Ocean stretched away endlessly beneath the plane, disappearing into a fog-clouded horizon.

They weren’t there quite yet.

But they would be soon.

Comments

OTA

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede was...actually about to fall asleep. And trying her best not to look like she was falling asleep.

She was even still grumbling and muttering at times to make it look like she was still perfectly awake, though they were inaudible and nonsensical things.]

[friendofdorothy]

[Liir was calm and still enough that you could mistake him for the furniture. Sleep-onable furniture. Well except that he's kinda bony.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede's head was starting to droop; a bump of turbulence made her head loll over. She smacked into Liir's shoulder with her cheek, waking from her half-doze with a start.]

-what?

[Was there a conversation she was supposed to be following? Or did she fall asleep in class again?]

Thirty-seven?

[Was that the right answer?]

[friendofdorothy]

[This amused him.]

Congratulations. You've found it: "How many roads must a man walk down/before you can call him a man?"

[long_live_the_queen]

[Even sleepy Kaede made reasonably believable incredulous sounds.]

...the fuck?

[No, this was still the plane. She'd been in it once before, of course--and recently!--but planes weren't exactly something she was at all used to. There was a reason she got a seat facing away from anything approximating a window.]

Did I fall asleep during one of your lectures?

["Again."]

[friendofdorothy]

No, you can't blame me or Lenin for it this time.

[He's his usual deadpan but he has such a shit-eating smirk on his face]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede grumbles as she rubs the residual sleep from her eyes, bopping Liir on thr shoulder with a vector. Multitasking!]

[friendofdorothy]

[Liir is indulgent about this. There's a lot worse things those vectors could be doing.]

We'll be there soon.

[kinofwrath]

[Zancrow was... frighteningly calm himself. It was mission time. His first mission with members of Gene Nation. It would be fun]

Either of you ever been?

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede dispels the vector with a thought, and stares at Zancrow somewhat incredulously instead.]

...Zancrow, it's Antarctica, what do you think?

[friendofdorothy]

...It's going to be so noisy.

[This may sound odd until you remember Liir's power.]

[kinofwrath]

[Zancrow looks at him oddly before remembering Liir's power and turns his attention back to Kaede]

Your point? I've been to the Arctic Circle for training missions.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Kaede's voice turned snappish. The long trip, combined with just waking up, made her unusually irritable.]

I aged out of flatscan orphanage. They didn't send us on many field trips.

[Not...entirely truthful, but far less traumatic to talk about.]

[kinofwrath]

And they haven't sent on training missions since joining the X-school?

[Beat]

What, they haven't?

[long_live_the_queen]

Until recently I haven't gone anywhere until they were sure I wasn't going to kill anyone.

[Anger issues? Of course not, whatever made you think she had issues.]

[kinofwrath]

[Zancrow just stares at her, her anger issues seem normal to him.

He turns to Liir]

See, this just proves my point. This school is run by morons.

[friendofdorothy]

Not morons. [He lowers his voice] People who are working at cross purposes to us. [As if it's any secret what Gene Nation is about]

[long_live_the_queen]

Or people who didn't want random strangers to die.

[The morbid but practical answer!]