The Whole Shebang
'kowtow', prompt for 6/11
Patricia never understands the relationship between Isabella and Chris. She calls him 'master'as if, if she doesn't, he'll throw her out. And Chris, in turn, accepts the title. When Patricia had first gotten here, she had thought that's how all of the younger mutants addressed Chris. He was basically Dumbledore, after all. Chris corrected her. Patricia thought it was because she was Jordan's younger sister. Then, upon becoming further integrated into The Cult, she discovered that most of the other mutants called Chris...Chris.
She still isn't sure how the whole kowtow from Isabella to Chris started. She's almost sure it's entirely one-sided, too. Like a neurotic behavior Chris had tried to correct but eventually forgot.
Patricia just accepts the act and moves on.
The Age Old Debate
'juggernaut', prompt for 6/12
"Who would win...Juggernaut or The Blob?" Max asks Jordan,
"Ah, the age old question," Jordan flips onto her back, "The Unstoppable Force versus the Immovable Object,"
"I don't think there's a right answer," Max warns,
"Well now I can't say it'll be a tie,"
Jordan flicks Max's ribs and he feigns being hurt,
"I won't hold it against you if you cop out," he taunts,
"I think Blob's been defeated more times...like way more times than Juggernaut. And Juggernaut's definitely smarter with the whole blocking his only weak point," Jordan chews on her bottom lip in contemplation, "Yeah, I say Juggernaut would win,"
So They Say
'vernacular', prompt for 6/13
Revi and Hunter are perched on the edge of a building. Batman style. Disguised amongst the gargoyles.
Hunter is busy listening and looking. Revi is mostly zoning out.
Hunter shifts his weight forward and Revi is behind him, free falling off the skyscraper. Hunter repels head-first off the building and onto a shorter one, nearby. Revi unfurls the wings drawn on her back and floats a few feet above him,
"Where to?"
"West side. Down near the good part of town,"
'The good part of town' is vernacular among mutants meaning 'mutant-free' zones. And 'mutant-free' is vernacular for 'lots of bigots with guns.'
"Fuck."
"Yeah. I don't even know why I take you on these," Hunter snickers, "You make my life so much harder,"
Revi rolls her eyes. She doesn't reply, they're getting close.
Do you need a breather? Revi throws a look over her shoulder,
No, Hunter shakes his head,
They drop, as one, behind the ring of thugs. It's already a mess. There's a girl with her throat cut. Hunter thinks she's alive, but when he isn't sure it can't be a good sign. They're working on getting another girl's pants off. They barely notice the thud and Revi and Hunter take out three of the thugs before the rest notice what's going on.
"Fucking mutants!" one of them screams,
"Did these two fucking tattle on us? Did they use their goddamn mutant mind fuck powers on you too?!" this one has a knife,
Shit says Revi's slight change in fighting stance,
"Ooh," Hunter feigns sympathy, "You just pissed her off,"
Hunter nearly laughs as Revi launches herself into the five other thugs. She doesn't have to worry about separating them from the other girl, now that they'd rather try to kill her. Hunter trots up to the girl, slowly, making sure he doesn't sneak up on her,
"Are you alright?" he asks, standing a large personal space away,
The girl looks up at him and he sees only fear in her eyes,
"I'm not gonna come near you," Hunter holds his hands out to his sides, "I just wanna make sure you're okay before I go check on your friend,"
He's not even sure if the girl can hear him,
"I think she's in shock," Hunter adds, "Can you tell me her name?"
"Elsie," after a long moment,
Hunter nods and leans down to check on the other girl. The cut is jagged and shallow, which is good in two ways. First, it means these guys are amateurs. Second, it means that the girl will probably live if they can get her to a hospital quick enough. Hunter can hear her heart when he's this close. But that means it's extremely weak,
"Rev!" he yells over the melee,
"Yeah, go!" she yells back, "I'll meet you there in 5,"
Hunter picks up the girl and is off within seconds. Her head is cradled so that he hopefully won't jostle the wound too much when he sprints.
Revi crouches under another punch because this guy keeps trying to pull the same trick. He ends up punching his friend for the third time that night. His friend has had enough and that's two people Revi doesn't have to worry about now. She smiles toothily at the remaining three and cracks her knuckles. One of them makes a break for it. While the other two are threatening him, Revi disarms the one with the knife, then rearms his wrist. He's in shock from the blood loss. She trips the other when he rushes her and knocks his head against the curb. It's an accident but she's more than willing to take credit for it. She knocks the last two out by clunking their heads together while they were arguing. Revi takes a beacon out from her belt and lets it automatically alert the police while she checks on the girl,
"You doin' okay so far?" Revi asks, her voice softening,
The girl nods. She's still plastered against the wall, shirt ripped and pants half-way undone,
"What's your name?" Revi asks, taking a slow step towards the girl,
"E-Erica," her voice cracks and she swallows nervously,
"Alright, Erica. Do you know who I am?"
She nods,
"Then you know I'm not here to hurt you?"
Another nod,
"Okay good. I want to help you, Erica, but you have to let me know it's okay, okay?"
"I-I don't...I don't know how,"
Revi nods,
"They said you were both mutants. Is that true?"
Erica nods again, she gestures to the empty space where there's still blood pool on the ground,
"Elsie...was...is a-a hydrokinetic. I'm a pyrokinetic. We're-we are best friends," Erica takes a deep breath, "We were supposed to go to M.R.C. together,
Revi senses the oncoming of tears and Erica collapses into her arms. Revi holds the younger girl as she cries. Revi counts the minutes in her head while the girl cries.
"Can I take you to the hospital, Erica?" Revi asks when the sobbing stops, "The doctors and I would like to make sure you're doing okay,"
Erica nods, wiping at the tears still falling with the sleeve of her T-shirt. Revi animates Amyntas and helps Erica climb on. Amyntas pushes away from the ground as the sirens come around the corner.
Revi finds Hunter after she drops off Erica,
"How'd we do?" she asks, leaning against the wall with him,
"Not too bad," Hunter shrugs, "Elsie's in a coma. She's all stitched up, though, and they gave her as much O neg as they could spare,"
"Erica's with the counselor now," Revi pauses, waiting for a few doctors to pass, "They were headed for M.R.C."
"Double rescue mission," Hunter smiles, "How many points is that? 100?"
"Oh yeah," Revi smiles back,
"Wanna take shifts?" Hunter asks,
"Nah, I'll leave Phaedrus and Nyx here," Revi taps her thighs absentmindedly, "We can come back later and see if their parents have shown up and ask permission to take them,"
"Now I remember why I take you with me,"
"Riiiight."
Quintessential
6/14 prompt
"Quintessence?" Arcane repeats the name,
"Right," Mark replies, "She's blonde and tall,"
Blonde means crazy. Tall means Mark's slept with her. Arcane used to be bothered by the Tree's incest, but now it's more like a science, trying to figure out who in the Family will make the most powerful offspring.
"Is she evil?"
Arcane is hoping she's not, the last thing she needs is another crazy woman.
"No...just...very crazy," Mark answers, "It would be like having Two-Face on your team,"
But Quintessence is powerful. Arcane would take that bet.
Mark shakes his head at her, but knows the decision is made.
Vocabulary II
6/15 prompt 'festoon'
"No, just festoon it," the set dresser tells her,
From the way the set dresser emphasizes the words and gesticulates, she thinks it was meant to clarify what she's supposed to do with the drapes,
"Uh. What?"
"You have to drape the drapes,"
The set dresser makes the same motions again. She shakes her head at the other woman, standing 20 feet below her,
"Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?"
She leans the ladder on 3 legs to get closer to the hooks installed in the set's wall.
"It's a technical term."
Indemnity
6/16 prompt, continuation from 6/14's prompt
"What's this?" Quintessence asks,
"Insurance," Arcane answers from behind her,
Arcane clicks the collar together around the taller woman's neck. Quintessence seems more curious than angry she is untrusted,
"What's it do?" she asks again,
"Astral dispersion collar. I figured decapitation wouldn't do much to stop you if you went all stabby on me," Arcane explains,
"Very wise,"
"I am a Drake. So wise and reckless would be more accurate."
Oscitant
6/17 prompt
"I'm tired," one of her kids yawns,
"No you're not," Jordan pokes at the child,
He rolls over so he's face down on the stage. Another child across the room yawns,
"Oh gods, you're spreading it now," Jordan stresses, "Hurry and get up, before it becomes an epidemic,"
But it's too late. There's an empath somewhere in the theater and yawning is contagious enough by itself. Within seconds all of the children are yawning and Jordan thinks she can line them up so they yawn in order.
Another round of yawning starts.
I'd better make it a circle, Jordan thinks to herself.
Hegira
6/18 prompt
"Where are we going?" Tristan asks,
"A much better place," Brass answers,
"Oh fuck," Arcane slaps her hand to her forehead,
"Precisely, my dear," Brass smiles, "Lubreland and my estate,"
Arcane leaves her hand over her eyes as they pass through the gaudy entrance with more lights than an entire travelling circus and more phallic symbols than...She doesn't even want to think about what else would have this many dicks all over it. At least Tristan looks mortified, too.
"Why are we here, Brass," Arcane growls,
"This is where the portal to my dimension is," Brass explains, "If you get there...I've got a special surprise for you, dear,"
"You are literally my father," Arcane gags, "Or literally the opposite. I don't know how Ragnarok fucked that one up,"
Brass shrugs and wiggles his eyebrows lewdly at her.
"So where in hell do we need to go to get to your dimension, Brass?" Arcane asks,
"Finding out is half the fun!"
The dwarf is already out of sight when Arcane tries to kick him.
"Fucking Brass," Arcane says,
"No, please, no," Tristain mumbles,
The now-pair comes to what seems like the center of the park, but the whole thing is shaped like a fun house, so who really knows.
"Well we can try the Tunnel of Love, the Ramrod or the One-eyed Weasel," Arcane grimaces as she reads the ride names,
"I can't believe he only thought of three innuendos," Tristan replies,
"You are no help. Love Tunnel it is. Sounds the least painful,"
They set off in a random direction because navigating by any logical sense would be useless here.
"They all sound...I think I'm gonna need a raincoat or something,"
A robotic dwarf ushers them onto the swan-shaped boat and doesn't offer them a raincoat. The seats are sticky and both adventurers grimace. The ride starts and the swan boat is propelled into a pair of lips and the darkened tunnel. Once the light from the beginning of the tunnel is gone, things start to go sour. Tristan yelps as him and Arcane are picked out of their seats by robotic claws. Both are placed in giant glass tubes overlooking a cloning machine with a conveyor belt attached. Brass is in a lab coat and goggles and has the audacity to wink at them. Both Arcane and Tristan are pricked with needles and their blood taken into long test tubes. Arcane curses at Brass, but the noise is lost against the glass. Tristan also looks livid.
The cloning machine hisses and groans as the two samples are added into the machine. It ruminates on that for a while and then beeps. The machine starts turning out Trivians, combinations of Arcane and Tristan literally split down the middle. Sixty four go into Brass' pocket dimension. Sixty fucking four. With their combined genetics that's a shitstorm waiting to happen.
Brass waves goodbye at them as their tubes begin to lower to the ground.
"It's a trap!" Tristan exclaims belatedly.
Amok
6/19 prompt
Jordan never thought she would be a teacher. She had actually decided that teaching would be the last thing she would be doing. She hated-- still hates-- kids, so why would she ever teach them? What would she even have to teach them?
Then she went to college for theater and had to have an actual day job. Turns out, most theaters run shows at night, which conflicts with her...other...engagements.
Chris offered her a job, of course. He was starting a normal high school, after all, and normal high schools have musicals once or twice a year.
And that was probably how Jordan ended up in the midst of fifty or so teenage mutants while they scamper around the theater, desperate to finish painting the set or focus a light or test choir mics or find a lost prop or strike something off the punch list.
It's hell week/crunch time/the week before opening night. It's also their second hell week, so that's really not an appropriate title.
Jordan can't complain, even though she's spending more time in the theater than in her bed. Well, she could complain. But she won't because she loves the chaos of it. She loves standing still and watching her kids run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Jordan's at home with chaos.
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