The Demutanator

[frost_queen]

The Demutanator

What's Up?

The residents of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters wake up one morning to find that their powers don't seem to be working. Like, at all. Though this initially leads to some distress (even though everyone is safe and healthy!), within a day they track down the source of the problem and get to work fixing it! They'll just have to deal with being normal humans for a few days whenever they're at the school. It's fiiiiine.

Volunteer Slots

February 21st: Jean Grey, unsure of what else to do, decides to head out for some outdoors time, and finds that about a mile away from the school, their powers suddenly start working again. Well, at least it seems to be localized.

Manuel de la Rocha is minding their own business in their room when they hear a loud bang outside. Almost like someone running into a door or a wall... They go out to find Kitty, and any others who have witnessed her mistake.

February 23rd: Scott Summers runs a game of tug-of-war (classic mud puddle included) with the kids since it's the only time they can truly play powerless. It's actually kind of a hit, and the students beg them to run more games in the future.

February 21st

On a bright, sunny day, the residents of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters awaken to a strange and somewhat troubling situation - all of their powers are gone, though otherwise everything is painfully normal. Kurt Wagner is the first to notice, and does some quick research and discovers nothing in the news about this phenomenon at all. In fact, no other mutants anywhere seem to be affected, leaving them even more baffled.

February 22nd

The team pinpoints a child's clubhouse in a nearby park, and inside they find twelve year old Buster McKeever and a strange contraption. He tells them that he built this because his best friend, Opal Owens, was struggling with her powers (the ability to possess inanimate objects for short periods of time), and he wanted to make her life easier. He was able to achieve this because of his powers, which give him super intelligence, but once he turned the thing on... well, he's got no idea how to turn it off since he's back to a regular twelve year old's IQ. Notes he wrote suggest that simply turning it off isn't an option, and while it will run out of power within a month, the X-men aren't willing to wait that long. But at least they know the cause! Kitty Pryde updates everyone on their findings.

February 23rd/24th

With the problem sorted out and anyone who wants to helping with disabling the machine, there's nothing to do but just go about life as much as they can.

February 25th

After a few days of work they're able to safely turn off and dismantle the machine, which used a piece of extra-dimensional technology to make it all work. Luckily, after that's destroyed, there's no chance of replicating it or its effects, a relief to everyone. After talks with Buster and Opal's parents, the two agree to join Xavier's to hone their abilities, and maybe be a little bit more careful with mysterious tech.

FEB 21 | FEB 22 | FEB 23 | FEB 24 | FEB 25 | OOC

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SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

"You may," Emma agrees easily, in her mind a silent thank you for Kitty actually taking the offered medicine. She does hate to see her so beat up, even if the cause of it remains hilarious to her.

Though her companion sits up Emma does not, finding her current position to be comfortable enough for the moment, even if it skews her view of the board a bit. She's going to let Kitty 'teach' her anyways. Taking the offered queen and setting her in her rightful spot, her eyes flick up at the question.

"Honestly?" She pauses, sighs. "I don't think I've ever been depressed a day in my life." She moves the pawn in front of her king up two spots.

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Classic opener, and offers Kitty some options. She chooses the Dutch defense, moving the pawn in front of her queen-side bishop up two places too. She is extremely relieved to remember what this is, and quietly comes to the conclusion she's a little smart at least.

Not smart enough to refrain from arching an eyebrow, painfully though this may be, up at Emma's answer. "You like. Know I know you're full of shit, right." She just smiles and shakes her head. It's fine. She can be, if that helps her get through the day.

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Emma takes the instructions easily, even as she watches Kitty to try to read her mood. She seems to be faring alright. This seems to be helping. After a few questions, she makes her next move.

"To be fair, I do actually think I've never been depressed. I always just get angry. Like right now? I'm livid." Not at Buster, not really. Just at the situation. At how hobbled she feels without her powers. She hates feeling off-balance and vulnerable because even here, even when they're not all sporting mysterious marks, she still feels like she needs to watch her back for outside trouble. She's not going to say any of that, though. She's going to twirl one of her knights on its square.

"How is your smartness assessment going so far, darling?"

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty, probably lucky for her, likes teaching people things. A few moves in, she's switched her prerogative from winning to getting Emma to beat her, someday. Okay. Still probably not today.

She pauses, finger on a bishop. She thinks she understands. Anger's easier to feel sometimes. That happens to her sometimes. "NEVER been depressed? Actually" She presses, "Like, you've never lost a pet or been sad about a breakup or anything? You're lucky." Both of these events have shoved Kitty into the bowels of depression, personally. "And you know? Don't think me and Buster have the same power after all."

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

If pressed, Emma would admit the distraction is nice. She listens intently to any instruction she's given, ignoring any of her previous knowledge of how to play. Sometimes it's nice to start fresh, and her friend is actually a good teacher.

"I've been sad, of course, but it's very fleeting. All my break ups have been on my terms, and I've never had a pet. Even with everything that happened with Manny I was never... depressed, really." She shrugs, smiling very slightly as she looks to Kitty, nodding to her assessment that yes, she and Buster do not share the same power. Obviously. But her smile fades quickly.

"...you're not even close to depressed right now, are you?" How plebeian to have to ask.

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty just blinks at Emma through her blackened eyes. Never had a pet? All her relationships ended on her terms?? And she was a hot millionaire? Some lives aren't fair. Maybe she's an alien. Kitty opens her mouth to float that hypothesis, but the next question sort of disproves it right away.

"No." She answers, truthful, "Why would I be? I have something to work on." Kitty knocks one of Emma's pawns off the board with her next move. "Are you worried?"

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

As Kitty thinks Emma can see the wheels turning in her head, and naturally she reaches out, trying to see what she can in her mind. Obviously, she comes up blank, eliciting a grimace that she tries to hide by staring at the chess board.

"Good; I think we all benefit from a task. And... I'm just used to simply knowing. It's hard not to worry. Especially when you show up to my room looking like a kindergartener." As usual, a loving jab.

Kitty takes one of her pawns. She moves to return the favor without waiting for instruction, just to see how it will go.

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty knows that Emma worries too much about them all, keeps them in line like these little chessboard pieces. She wonders sometimes if it's more a control thing or actual concern. But it's kinda nice to know that someone's watching at all. She shakes her head, lovingly.

"Okay. So I'm gonna teach you about a little thing called context clues. The rest of us have to use those. This isn't my Worry About Me outfit. You'd know that if you saw it."

Kitty sits back from the board. "Maybe you should take this time to worry about yourself. And your chess game. I could checkmate in three moves from here, do you see how?"

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

This actually makes Emma laugh, her mind running rampant with ideas of various ideas for Kitty's 'Worry About Me' outfit. If she and the other young woman traded outfits that would definitely be cause for concern. They'd both look insane and in need of some sort of intervention.

"I'm very good at context clues," she half complains, and then sits up a little more to look over the board. Her eyes trace the line of potential moves. It takes her a minute or two of quiet consideration before she indicates what she thinks Kitty is alluding to.

"...I actually refused to learn how to play chess for a very long time."

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty nods, and makes the first of those moves, smirking. "Good learning. But check."

She taps her newly won piece on the table, and considers that next piece of information. "Why didn't you want to? Leaning too hard into your brand?" White Queen and all.

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Emma sighs, making a move to put her king futilely out of check for the moment, as is required.

"Initially it was because my father wanted me to play, and I was resistant to anything he wanted. And then after that it felt too on the nose at the Hellfire Club. Tacky almost." Says the woman in a dramatic dressing gown covered in feathers. "When did you learn?"

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty doesn't move again, because she's too busy scrunching her face into something more apologetic, which is a little painful with her face arranged the way it currently is.

"Don't let me remind you of your dad. Ew." Kitty doesn't know Emma's dad, but doesn't want to be associated with terrible parents, in general. She's graceful enough to not ask Emma since when being tacky was a problem, but does think it in her head, and is kind of sad to remember that this jab couldn't be psychically heard.

"Professor Xavier taught me. It's how I started trusting him, when I first got here. Recent enough I thought it'd go away with things I learned, if that was connected to my powers."

SUNDAY: Kitty & Emma, early evening

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

"Darling, don't hurt yourself grimacing on his account. I've more than made up for everything he's done and he's absolutely miserable now." Emma can say this easily because it is true. She hates her father, and hasn't let go of the harm he's done to her, but it doesn't ache or cause distress. It is simply another piece of who she is.

"That's very sweet." And she means it - she's glad that most of the others can have that sort of relationship with Xavier. It seems nice. "Do you play with anyone else, ever? Anyone who can't cheat?"