Logs:451°F

451°F
Dramatis Personae Jade, Joshua, Polaris
In Absentia DJ, Hive, Wendy, Winona	2024-11-21 "...maybe, uh. Stay away from. Libraries for a bit."
Location <NYC> Hamilton Fish Park Public Library - East Village
Still, almost stale air passed through the door as it swung open and a fairly tall woman made her way through it, entering the library. It had been quite a long day for Jade already, she went to work at the Stygian library, having a rather uneventful shift, which was good, it was what came after that made the day stretch, in a sense. After saving the mall from ambulating fruits with Blink and figuring out there was no way for her to truly calm her abilities, Jade was feeling blue, bluer than the clearest ocean. Dressed in a black oversized hoodie, baggy fluffy sweatpants, and some regular black flip flops, the mutant slowly trudged to a seat after acquiring a good book. It was so unbearable for her? Why wasn't there any way for her to find some help with powers. The young woman felt cast aside as she laid her chin on the edge of the cool table, leaned the book up so she could see and commenced reading it. "Why can't it just be fuckin' easy? Why I gots to suffer with not knowin' what ta do?" Polaris has been sitting here reading for some time, though the others sitting nearby have probably clocked she is restless. She is dressed mostly in black save for a green tee with a plain black image of a monkey wrench, a great deal of metal hardware distributed across her heavily patched canvas jacket, belt, jeans, and boots. The green hair really just blends into her overall punk aesthetic. Every once in a while her leg starts to bounce, and with it comes a quiet jingling of superfluous D-rings and zippers that immediately reminds her to stop bouncing. She glances at Jade when she speaks, the sharp cut of her hazels eyes not hostile but perhaps just a little too alert. She quickly returns her gaze to her book. As the woman sighed, she stopped her reading, glancing over to see the other woman. Whoever she was, she had a good sense of style, at least to her. But then again she was very biased. Jade had always liked the alternative aesthetic, be it punk, scene, emo, goth, what have you. Her outfit could be described as a very lazy goth, as she had no makeup on, but then again she would never partake in the full face of makeup, well almost never. But anyways, Jade was thinking of rendering the other woman a compliment, as she had a good sense of fashion to her. Even with black clothing or mostly dark articles, putting a look together was still important. "Nice outfit, nice ta see another alternative gal hea." Jade uttered, wiggling her flip flops and almost wishing she dressed up. Polaris blinks down at her book before glancing aside at Jade again, her expression faintly perplexed. "Thanks," she says quietly, not a whisper but certainly low enough to indicate firm respect to the experience of those nearby. Although, for all that, her leg starts to bounce again. Then stops again as she pulls in a deep breath and turns the page. She nodded and went back to reading her novel. Although, something began to happen. As the thoughts in her cranium began to swirl, the anger, the fear, the sadness, even the happiness began to make Jade's head throb. As it began, with her left hand, the woman clutched her temples and began sighing a sigh of pain. After a few minutes of it, Sorcha placed the paperback down as silently as she could, now grabbing her head with both hands. Wisps of fire formed on the tables and in the librarians corner. Polaris looks over again, annoyance giving way swiftly to concern and then alarm. Gasps of surprise are going up all around as patrons snatch their reading away from the flames. "Hey friend," she does whisper this time, though in fact louder than previously, in order to be heard above the commotion that is not a panic just yet. "If that's you, you need to put it away real fast." The woman exhaled, huffing and puffing a bit as the headache continued. Hearing the soft but also loud whisper in her ear made her want to stop it. However, Jade couldn't, she was a temporary slave to this headache as it was causing her abilities to flare up. "C-can't, headache causin' it, won't be able ta...conceal it...in time." The woman replied, writhing a bit as her instability was now the direct cause of the bigger fires spreading to the pillars. "Yeah I think that ship's sailed maybe." Polaris starts out of her seat and looks up at the pillars, sucking in a sharp breath. Now there's panic as patrons scramble for the exits and staff scramble for the fire extinguishers. "Hey," she says again, kind of snappishly before tempering her tone. "Hey. Alternative gal, look at me." She's edging toward Jade, wincing at the licks of flame rising from the table. "You need to breathe, alright? Just breathe with me. You're gonna--" She looks around, lips compressing. "--need to get out of here. Can you walk?" The woman nodded as the other finished her first sentence. She began sucking in, trying to find some way to stave off this feeling. Even with this horrible, terrible, mind twisting headache, Jade could tell that the person had something going on with them. The woman could stand just a bit to look at her. As she inquired to whether or not walking was an option, the goth shook her head. "N-not far anyway in this state." Taking her advice, Jade began breathing in and out, which only helped a little bit. Flames began coming off of her slowly. "Better go, is gettin' worse!" Polaris takes a step back as Jade starts exuding fire. "Okay uhhh can you--breathe in to a count of three, hold for a count of three, breathe out in a count of three." There are sirens outside, too many and too close. She's fumbling her phone from her pocket. "There are a lot of people in this building, friend, and the cops--" She takes another step back, coughing into her arm, which is really not helping her unlock her phone. "Please, just try to--focus on me?" The woman tried to focus on the others words, it was all that she could try to do at this point in time. Even with all the nagging thumping going on in her noggin, Jade could still hear the sirens were close to the library. That's bad, if she could hear it, the cops might as well have been outside the door. The woman nodded and tried breathing in for three, holding for it, and then blowing out for three. It was helping just a bit. "O-ok, gal, just lemme know what ta do, it's gettin' better." "Good! Good just, keep breathing..." Polaris gives on her screen lock and just taps the power button repeatedly until its SOS feature activates, blasting her location to her emergency contacts. "There's this pyrokinetic--" She coughs again, which jars the phone as its camera automatically records a brief glimpse of the reading room engulfed in flames, panicked people crowding the exits, sirens doppler nearer outside. "--lost control I'm tryna get them--" Cough, cough, cough. "--love you all I'll try to not die!" She hits the button again and pulls her jacket off. "Sorry friend please don't freak out but we gotta go." She wraps her jacket around Jade so she can grab her without immediately scorching her hands. She flings whatever metal debris she can find nearby at the largest window she can see and physically drags Jade toward it, coughing violently all the while. While the sirens are wailing closer and the fire is spreading, most patrons are fleeing the library. There is, very suddenly, a new person who is heading into the flames. Or, at least, a new person who has just appeared beside Jade and Polaris -- a man of average height and gloomy countenance, dressed in an FDNY Paramedic uniform and surveying the growing blaze with flattened brows and a scowl on his jowly-hounddog face. "Pigs'll be crashing in a sec." Joshua's tone is dispassionate, here -- he doesn't seem particularly alarmed by the fire or by the thought of the police imminently descending. He's lifted one arm to cover his nose and mouth with a sleeve, which only slightly muffles his next words. "Gonna teleport you somewhere less flammable." Not really a request, just a bland statement, that seems directed more at Polaris than Jade, really. The woman couldn't think, so much as try to focus on what Polaris was relaying to her at that exact moment. The only thing she could focus on was the fact that a jacket was wrapped around her and was being dragged towards the large piece of metal. It was a swirl of chaos inside her mind, as well as on the outside in the immediate world. Now all her fragmented mind could fixate on was the low tone of voice of this dispassionate, unfeeling sounding man. Jade had attempted to speak multiple times over the course of the few minutes that this was occurring, but something stopped her each and every time. It seemed as if this horrible migraine was somewhat shutting down her physical capabilities for this instance. All she could think about was getting out of this place before the police made their way inside, and getting a lid on these things so she didn't burn anything and everyone to smithereens, if she even could that is. Polaris hasn't made much progress toward the new emergency exit she just created, her charge being mostly dead weight and also inconveniently on fire. She cannot immediately see Joshua with her eyes squeezed mostly shut, but she's starting to turn toward him even before he speaks. Her "yes please thank God" is kind of hoarse, but the hand she's flailing in his general direction is clear enough. "Cool," says Joshua, still just as toneless-flat as before, his head bobbing in a small nod as if in answer to Jade despite the fact the panicking woman has said nothing. He reaches out with both hands, clapping one hand to Polaris's shoulder and the other to Jade's, heedless of any lingering flames or heat. The library -- -- very abruptly is not there. No more sirens, no more burning books. It's been replaced by a gentle sea-salt breeze, the air around them now far warmer and far muggier than the crisp New York December. It's humid and bright, a long stretch of beautiful white sands around them, a very tropical looking forest in rising up where the beach ends, the gentle slap-slap of a tranquil ocean lapping at the shore not far away. "You good?" Joshua is dropping his hands, taking a step back -- this very even question could be to Jade, or Polaris, or both. The one thing that Jade could tell, as well as the fact that her library-burning migraine was starting to calm itself, as well as the fact that she couldn't hear the sound of the sirens anymore. The absentness of the heat, the flailing and or screaming of the civilians was no more. Finally, the woman could begin to breathe after what seemed like ages to her. Jade made the most of her relenting migraine, and slowly but surely began to stand up on her feet, frustrated with herself. "Fuck, ah didn't know that would happen." She verbally lambasted herself while taking in the scenery and feel of where they were teleported. As the breeze hit her cheeks, and as the humidity made itself more apparent than ever, Jade looked back to the man that had gotten the duo out of that jam and nodded. "Ahm fine, thanks for what it's worth." She said, holding herself by the elbows as she peered at the beautiful white sand and the beach below. Polaris jerks away from Jade as soon as they've rematerialized, dropping her like a hot coal. Which is, admittedly, not very far from the truth. She does not answer aloud -- she's busy coughing and sucking in clean air -- but gives Joshua a spirited thumbs up as she staggers back from the pyrokinetic. Her hair is scorched and melted along the right side and there splotches of angry red burns along her arms. She bends over to brace her hands on her legs, then hisses and straightens hastily back up. "Thanks man," she manages, when she's slightly caught her breath. "Frak. I liked that jacket." Then, upon further consideration, "I liked that library." Joshua is ambling slowly over towards Polaris. He holds a hand out towards her, brows hiking. Meanwhile his healing sense is extending, silent and unfelt to take stock of both women and check for injuries. "S'the --" His cheeks are puffing out in a quiet poof of a sound, one hand fisting and opening outward to mime an explosion. "-- fire, uh, new?" She didn't take it in the wrong way as Polaris jerked away from her as soon as they were at another location. Jade heard the staggering footsteps, which in truth, almost made her cry, but she somehow managed to suck in her tears, she would probably save it for when she reached her bed. The silence between the two was very palpable, even though they didn't know each other well, this didn't bode well for what could've been such a great friendship, but then again that was Jade. Overthinking every single possible thing one could. It was too late for any thoughts of regret, what was done was done. The woman wasn't injured by the fire, but was holding back a cough from somehow inhaling a good bit of smoke. Polaris's burns are largely superficial, with slightly more severe patches along her forearms, all of which will hurt a lot more once the adrenaline wears off. The smoke inhalation is more immediately disabling, although certainly not life-threatening. She takes Joshua's hand gingerly, and only tries to hold back her coughing then, presumably to avoid coughing on him. "You didn't know what would happen?" she asks, still kind of breathless. Polaris's burns are healing over, quick and very unsubtle; less visible but just as noticeable to Polaris, the scorching along her airways and lungs is clearing up. Joshua drops his hand, wipes it absently against his uniform pants. He's wandering over to Jade next, offering his hand outward. "Making fire," he repeats, when he is first ignored -- patiently? Impatiently? It's nearly impossible to tell, neither his droopy mournful facial expression nor his flat even tone have changed one bit since he arrived, "-- s'that a new thing for you?" The woman looked over to Joshua as the other asked a question. Reeling from the shock and the horror of what happened and what could've been, she unintentionally ignored the other. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him reaching his hand, offering it a bit. Jade shook her head as she began to respond, "The flare up is a new thing, but I've had this power for a lil while. I didn't know it could even do that ta be honest whicha." She spoke up, answering his question this time around. It might as well have been the first day she had them, all that flailing about they did in the library and whatnot. "No, ah didn't. Never had em, flare up beforehand so I wasn't worried bout it." Polaris relaxes very dramatically with the easing of her pain. "Thanks man," she tells Joshua again, "you are the best." She winces at Jade's explanation this time presumably in sympathy. "I'm sorry, it sucks to be caught off guard like that. Kinda looked like you got a headache, and first bad pain can make powers go haywire." She lifts a hand to poke at her melted hair. "Guess it's time to make my hair even gayer." Her eyes go wide. "Oh sh--crap!" She pulls out her phone and furiously swipes out a text to her other emergency contacts. (Polaris --> DJ, Hive, Wendy, Winona): btw I'm not dead ❤️‍🔥 Joshua drops his hand back to his side, fingers fiddling twitchily at the air there. There's a small twitch that pulls briefly at the corner of his mouth. His healing ability is extending again -- albeit with a lot more difficulty than he'd had with Polaris, silently riffling over Jade to fix the smoke damage to her lungs, too. His eyes turn out towards the water, one shoulder hitching. "Sucks," is his bland assessment. His eyes cut sideways towards Jade, then back to the ocean. "Gonna drop you back off in the city." There's a beat of silence, then: "... maybe, uh. Stay away from. Libraries for a bit. Bookstores. ... gas stations. Big tanks of oxygen. Y'know." The woman looked at the other as she saw her relax with the pain easing. She nodded as Polaris explained that it can make powers go haywire. Giggles came from her at the comment of making her hair even more homosexual than it already was before. They didn't stop as she saw Polaris furiously send out a text to whatever people she had. Jade looked at the lone hand Joshua had out, suddenly the damage and her slight cough was gone from the smoke inhalation. "Thanks, Mr. unfeelin, maybe if I was like you this wouldn't have happened." Jade snapped, realizing what she had said. "Ma bad, Ah just don't do well with...people." The woman said, reaching into her hoodie pocket and grabbing something. She took out a carton and then, a cigarette, putting it back in and pulling out a red and yellow lighter. The tobacco stick in her mouth, holding her left hand over the outward edge and flicking the lighter with her right thumb now, it took her two tries cause of wind before she could light it. Jade took it out of her mouth with her left hand and exhaled, looking down at the beach. "What the fuck," Polaris snaps right back at Jade, and subsides just as quickly. "You think this man is 'unfeeling', you got way worse problems than 'sets shit on fire' or 'bad with people'." She starts to run her fingers through her hair, and winces again when her fingers catch on congealed hair. "Look, I get you're having a rough time. If the migraines are new you might wanna try to get that controlled. So it's less likely to kick off any 'flare-ups' in the future." She looks back at Joshua. "As much as I wanna chill...wherever we are, you look like kinda like you're on shift." A crooked smile quirks her face. "Next time you swing by Evolve, coffee's on the house." Joshua's brows hike up, when Jade snaps, but aside from a small shrug he doesn't reply. Or, at least, he doesn't say anything. He claps a hand back to each of the women's shoulders, and in an instant, silent and smooth, the peaceful quiet beach has vanished, replaced with the louder colder smellier bustle of a grungy side street in the Lower East Side -- familiar to Polaris, given it's right outside Evolve. He lifts his hand to his forehead in a lazy salute, and vanishes. A moment later Polaris's phone is buzzing: (Joshua --> Polaris): She's right, though. That shit would NOT have happened to me. The woman wasn't phased in the slightest by this other woman's snapback, she already knew she was bad with people. As Polaris began to explain, Jade rolled her eyes as she offered no way to help, just a deal with it basically. She clutched her left elbow with her right hand and held the cigarette close to her face whilst looking at the other. It was the same every place she went, always her fault as she took it, no good help. What would it take for someone with the know how to help her, though it made sense. Not really any mutants known to her were fully able to keep a lid on their abilities, maybe even these two. Jade just sighed as she saw that they were in another place and then Joshua vanished. Polaris shoots Jade a sharp glare at the eye-roll, but just clenches her jaw until Joshua has gone before rounding on the other woman. "Excuse me for trying to share my experience? You don't wanna take my advice, that's totally fine! You don't have to roll your eyes about it." Her voice is rising, and she lowers it again with obvious effort. "Here's another piece of advice, take it or leave it: don't be an asshole to people who just risked their lives to save yours." She turns and storms away, though the scowl fades from her face when she checks her texts and she just continues on at a brisk walk. "You only said I need to take care of it, how the fuck am ah supposed ta do that?? Here's another piece of advice, don't fly off the handle whenever someone's just gone through a flare up and expect them to take it." She said, looking as she saw the other take off, shrugging her shoulders as she would probably see her again in some regard. Polaris didn't understand and flew off the handle, it happens, maybe she did understand, who knows. For now, Jade just stood there, walking back to her place whilst furiously inhaling on her cigarette.