Forest Fright

[blauerdamon]

Forest Fright

what's up?

In the early afternoon on Saturday (3/1), the Xavier Institute is attacked by an unknown mutant who manipulates the surrounding foliage, trapping the X-Men and one of their students in a forested maze. The situation is quickly brought under control, and seems to be the result of a messy international custody battle. The incident doesn't even make the local news thanks to the X-Men's quick response.

the incident & volunteers.

Shadowcat is out for a brisk walk in the wooded area surrounding the mansion, something they’re very familiar with. Strange, then, when they notice that the path is trailing off, and the number of trees has grown hauntingly dense. They can no longer tell which direction the mansion is in, and before they can come up with a plan of action, woody vines erupt from the forest floor and entangle them.

Meanwhile, Empath is out on one of the verandas enjoying the afternoon and keeping tabs on a couple students who are messing around with their powers on the lawn. Suddenly they hear the distressed shout of their teammate from beyond the treeline. One of the students, Veronica Milanović, is a firestarter who’s always eager and never in great control of her powers. The second she hears the scream, she takes off into the forest.

Empath narrowly catches up with Veronica. She overzealously uses her powers to light several of the trees on fire, which causes the foliage to react violently, attacking both student and teacher. Empath and Veronica work together, with them helping Veronica to finally get her fire powers under control for the first time.

White Queen rushes outside, where more and more students have arrived to check out the commotion. The forest is visibly overgrown now, with thick trunks making it hard to enter. White Queen makes quick time by telepathically tracking Shadowcat to navigate to the thickest part of the forest, where they find Shadowcat knocked out and bound in vines. They work to free them as the team finally regroups.

When the X-Men corner the source of the trouble, they catch a glimpse of a normal looking man with a black moustache. Rather than fight, he makes a run for it, using his control over vegetation to assist his escape. Once he’s gone, all of the trees return to normal, and the overgrown plant life recedes. It’s like nothing ever happened.

Well, besides the trees that Veronica set on fire.

resolution.

Later they learn that the man behind the forest’s eruption was Thomas Cassidy, an Irish mutant who was mistakenly convinced that his niece, Theresa Cassidy, had been sent to Xavier’s in secret. It seems like he’s in the middle of a very messy custody battle over the girl, and had plans to steal her away from the American school.

He escaped the scene of the crime, and his current whereabouts are unknown. He likely returned to Europe.

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Comments

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty sees that immediately, that change in the climate, right when things start to be about something real. She thought this would probably happen, but also it's not her brain's fault that she wants to rush ahead. She keeps staring at the ceiling. "We'll just have to distract him from anything weird for as long as we're there." Kitty decides, "Just, like, inundate him with new good experiences so the old ones don't pop up." Surely that's how it works.

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of serious conversation. There are plenty of serious things going on." And it's all rather exhausting, but Emma's not going to say that. She reaches out to fuss with Kitty's hair a bit.

"We can try to distract him, but subconscious things will be hard to manage. Ultimately nothing bad may happen at all, but... I don't like the senseless risk-taking." She lets out a quiet sigh. "He'll have us with him, though, so he'll be alright."

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

She knows Emma's right, and stays in place, letting her friend fix her hair, knowing that's a losing battle. "I know." She sighs. She also doesn't like the idea that Emma will be the one, again, in the position to take on those memories, all the bad things that might come up.

"And usually I love senseless risk-taking so much." Kitty mourns aloud. She tilts her eyes a little further back, to meet her friend's. "He will. Both of us. All of us. She stresses, just to really hammer home that Emma, though she'd obviously have the front-row seat to Manny's mind wouldn't be alone, here. "And it'll be good to see what they've done with the place. Maybe it'll be so new it'll be different."

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Emma knows she remains bad at sharing burdens, particularly now that she's still readjusting to the idea of being on a team. Kitty's admonishments, both verbal and mental, aren't entirely disregarded. She scoffs quietly at her comment on risk-taking, continuing to play with her hair as she considers.

"We'll all take care of him, if necessary," she finally agrees. "And I am curious to see all the changes. Have you contacted anyone you still know there, yet?"

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

"Yeah, I reached out pretty recently. Jessa got back to me. She was my boss at the bar. It's still up. Doing really well. So if all else fails, we can take everyone out to get really drunk."

Clearly the solver to all their problems, but Kitty doesn't want to push the rest of it further. She'll quote this later, if also necessary. "Have you heard anything?"

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

"Obviously we need to stop by." Emma isn't certain about the getting drunk part, even if it already sounds deeply tempting, but she's not going to shoot down anything right now.

"I keep in regular contact with a few people since Frost International has some charitable works still going on. It all seems to be going well. I'll likely need to make a few visits while I'm there. Maybe I'll drag a director of something or other to your bar."

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

"And at Petra's. See if she'll talk to me again. She responded with a heart when I said I was coming back for a little, so that's nice."

That's Kitty's ex on Genosha. She runs a crystal store. She doesn't actually have a lot of hope that this will happen, but it's number almost last in her list of current concerns. She should probably contact some professional contacts, and she will, but she gets the impression they'd just put her to work immediately, which is the opposite of what she wants. "I won't be working there, probably. But if you need someone to actually make good drinks for all your directors, I could try to pick up a shift."

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

Emma's urge to say 'messy' is only overridden by the fact that she, herself, is horribly messy right now. With a quiet hum she finally sits back, still watching Kitty.

"Darling, don't do work. I just mean I can multitask; diplomacy and some time to play with you all. Since it's all charity work no one can expect me to be horribly buttoned up."

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[passingthru KITTY PRYDE]

Kitty notes the absence of Emma’s hand and turns on to her stomach, resting her chin on the sofa’s armrest to still be face to face. She smirks. “Let’s hope not. They’ve got to know you don’t even own anything with over two buttons.”

This is said with nothing but fondness. Not everyone can pull off that look but Emma sure isn’t everyone.

AFTERMATH: Kitty & Emma

[frost_queen Emma Frost ♕ White Queen]

This earns a laugh as Emma settles back into her chair. She always appreciates how easy it is to move between moods with Kitty without cheapening any of them.

"That one blazer dress I have has three buttons. But it's terribly short. Not business appropriate at all." As though she adheres to normal business attire standards.