Logs:(In)Compatible With Life
| (In)Compatible With Life | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia | 2025-01-13 "{You kind of need to get a little more specific these days.}" (Shortly after some patching up.) |
| Location
<XAV> Library - Xs First Floor | |
Xavier's librarian might hope the library is a quiet place to sit and study, but with a school full of teenagers that is not always the case. Nevertheless, it is certainly a treasure trove of knowledge, well-stocked with a wealth of books on its high shelves. Its reference section is vast, though its fiction is as well (much to the delight of many of its students.) The wide octagonal tables and smaller armchairs are often crowded with students, though the whispered conversations that often take place leave some doubt as to how much work is getting done at any given hour. There aren't a lot of students in the library currently, and the ones who are here seem to be keeping reasonably quiet. Perhaps the librarian has also lost her patience and is kicking out anyone who causes a ruckus, or possibly the students just have better ~~things to do~~ places to brawl. Regardless, it's a peaceful afternoon here, and Tian-shin is just returning to a table she has all to herself with an organic chemistry textbook tucked under her arm. She's wearing a heather gray Xavier's School t-shirt with an also heather gray Xavier's School hoodie, black sweatpants, and her black cross-trainers she wears to...train. She probably did not think to pack extra changes of clothing before she got stranded here under quarantine, but then again, maybe she just wants soft, comfortable clothes that will fit over the glowing pink fungus sprouting in flat uneven welts over her body -- though there is significantly less of it on her than most Xavierites who hadn't assiduously locked themselves down from the jump. There's a shiver in the lighting, fitful and brief but coursing through several parts of the school before it finally settles in the library. When the electricity settles back down in the building it has resolved itself into a different unsteady shiver. Ion looks very much like he is here to disturb the library's peace -- wide-wild eyed, in filthy bloodied jeans, an unzipped parka (torn, too, and bloody as well) over his bare chest, small sparks flitting around him. He doesn't offer her any greeting -- just winds his hand back to throw a solid and lightly zappy punch directly at her jaw. Tian-shin is a highly skilled martial artist and generally fairly quick on her feet, but the precipitance of Ion's appearance, together with the fact that it is Ion who has precipitated, has thrown her quite off her guard and the blow lands squarely and spins her aside. She drops the book, staggers, but does not fall. Does not even finish losing her balance, actually. She keeps turning and rounds on him with an answering punch and a furious kiai, swift and hard, aimed at his solar plexus and not his face. Around the library there's a ragged wave of alarmed cries as the thus-far well-behaved students pop up like meerkats to spectate. Some are whipping out phones to take pictures or video. Some are whipping out phones to text their friends. Some are, in rising agitation, crowding closer and cheering their teacher on. Do they like her at all? Have they even taken any classes with her? Doesn't matter now, it's superhero showdown hours in the library. There's a sickening crunch, something shifting slight but noticeably grindy where it definitely should not in Ion's chest. A moment too late there's a heavy shock through Tian-shin and Ion is now on the other side of her. His teeth are bared, clenched hard. His hand presses down to the table to help keep his balance, though this is a fight he looks to be loosing. "{You said he was fucking dead}." There's a deep accusation in Ion's furious growl. It's only after he's flung it that he's looking around to the kids, hissing sharp -- he lifts his hook outward and with another jolt they're -- -- no longer in the library but down in the subbasement, where Ion is collapsing onto a bench in the X-Men's empty locker room. This time it's ragged, rough: "{You said he was dead.}" Tian-shin opens her mouth, probably to utter a profanity, but she's conveniently censored by being turned into electricity. It only comes out as a juddering "gaaaah" when they rematerialize. Her anger is rapidly turning to alarm. "{What the fuck happened?}" She starts to reach for him, then pulls back. "{And who the fuck are you talking about?}" She scrubs at her face and makes a startlingly dainty noise of distress. It isn't even the side he hit her on. She is clearly straining to keep her voice even, and though she sounds a little hysterical for it at least she isn't shouting, "{You kind of need to get a little more specific these days.}" Ion is hunched over, his elbows on his knees and his breathing shallow. His hook is clacking rapidly open and closed, his head shaking. "I seen Dusk." Tian-shin does not react for a full second. Then she collapses almost gracefully into a cross-legged sit in front of him. "You're--hurt. Maybe..." She swallows. "Did someone mess with your head? Or..." She trails off, uncertain where to go from there. "He died at Lassiter. I told you that because it's true." "Nobody mess my damn head." Ion's voice is sharper here than its usual, a quick snap that he quickly regrets, teeth gritting harder and his breath labored. "{Man damn near cave my chest in. Watch him fling a fucking Press Gang bruiser around like a stuff toy.} You said --" This cuts off; it's hard to tell whether his next inhale is ragged from the broken bones or some other pain. "You need medical--" Suddenly Tian-shin's eyes go wide and her clarification is very hastily. "{--oh no you can't leave! We're under quarantine.}" She indicates a puffy luminous pink growth on the back of her hand, and doesn't actually apologize, but even in this new era of her life there's a suggestion of it in her tone. "I'm texting Jean." She's already fishing her phone out, but lowers it now, gritting her teeth. "I watched him die." Her voice is tight and brittle. "I heard them declare him dead. I sat with his corpse for hours. I tried to--" She shuts her mouth firmly and clenches her shaking hands on her knees. Now she apologizes.. "I'm sorry! You weren't here, but we went over it pretty thoroughly. {I wish I were lying, but I swear to you, he was dead when they took me away from him.}" She reaches for him again, and cringes more than seems reasonable when she drops her phone onto the floor. "{Maybe...maybe they had someone else...like Joshua.}" "{Ain't fucking nobody like Joshua. Even the kid that power come from ain't like Joshua, how you think --}" Ion is working back up into anger and checks himself as his words climb in volume. Very deliberately he slows his breathing. Steadier, smaller. It doesn't really remove the anger or the hurt, just shifted in register when he speaks again through clenched teeth. "{He out there. He been out there. I don't know what the fuck happen to him. Almost fucking killed me.}" This does not sound half as bitter as his following: "{They cut his damn wings off. Scars an inch thick. Fuck your fucking quarantine we gotta find him.}" Does he mean right now? Through the pain and his not-yet-replenished depletion of blood he's struggling just to hold himself upright on the bench; his next effort to actually rise does not get far. "{You know what I fucking meant!} Tian-shin snaps back with uncharacteristic vitriol. "{I am not getting into no--} She cuts herself off again and tries to follow Ion's cue, breathing deeper and slower and actually swiping out her text finally. This effort falters shortly with Ion's next words, her face blanching. "{Cut off--wait no--I mean yes we need to find him but this shit crazy contagious!}" Then she has a stroke of inspiration. "{Scott ordered our fucking quarantine. Yell at him about it if you really want to start a pandemic that wrecks your impulse control.}" She steadies him when he tries to get up this time, and though she does seem fazed by the weak (too weak!) static zap to her hand, her expression goes even grimmer, her voice sobering. "Pero you can yell at him in the infirmary. If you can't stand up, you can't do war." | |
