xp_logs | Mutants and Molotovs: Emerald City // The Hotel

At the hotel, Angelo and Rahne are watching the local news and discovering that what they were noticing at the airport is being reflected city-wide.

Angelo had been watching the news, having got into the habit some time ago, and he didn't so much like the tone of the report about the summit. The anchor had almost sounded worried, under the professional neutrality. Getting up, he headed for Rahne's room to see if she was watching the same thing.

Rahne was. She'd turned it on while leafing through the information on scheduling and their upcoming plans, and with half an ear on it had started feeling vaguely uneasy. Then she'd started listening properly.

At the knock on her door, she left the television on and went up to peek out the peep-hole. Angelo. She undid the lock quickly. It still felt odd and vaguely improper to let a boy into her room alone, but she knew they weren't doing anything they shouldn't and... well, nobody else really seemed likely to care. And it was a relief to have somebody else who might comment.

"Angelo. Hi." She held the door further open and stepped back, tilting her head inward. She was shifted very slightly, not enough for fur to do more than darken her skin but enough that she could smell him. Not that she could think of any reason for Mystique or anyone with, say, an image inducer like the ones at the school to be coming to her door pretending to be Angelo, but it couldn't hurt.

"Hey, Rahne." He waited for her to satisfy herself it was him before stepping all the way into the room, glancing at the television. "You were watchin' the news too, huh?"

"Aye." She shut the door again and flipped the lock, hesitating a little before adding, "Does the way you asked that mean I'm not the only one thinking things sound a wee bit... off?"

"No, you're not. When even the reporter sounds worried about what's goin' on, it's gotta be bad."

"Mmm. Well, I think I've heard some sound fretful about Red X even when they were trying hard to be polite and fair...." She looked over at the television again. "Still. More people than they were expecting, they say. Most or all could just be interested, but if anybody does go causing trouble, 'tis more people to get out of the way."

"Exactly. An' more who might not want to be got out of the way."

Rahne sighed. "This may be a more 'interesting' field trip than we were hoping."

Angelo grinned wryly. "Aren't they always? ...Guess we should tell Nate what's up."

"Good idea. Likely he's noticed, but then he'll probably have something to say on it, too."

Angelo nodded. "An' we should tell him on the offchance he wasn't watchin'."

"Aye, that too."

~*~

Nathan, alone in his room, finds out that it's his turn to have a Vague Precognitive Moment.

The patterns were spinning in his mind, almost aimlessly, refusing to resolve into anything that might be in the slightest bit helpful. Why was he too terribly surprised? Nathan thought, irked despite how deeply into a meditative state he was. It wasn't as if his precognition had ever been helpful.

Or anything but a fucking miserable curse. Ever.

Once upon a time, a thought like that would have evoked an aggravated hiss from Askani. But there was nothing but silence in the back of his mind - a sensation of weight there still, but no presence, or at least none that was responding.

Nathan sank his head into his hands, fighting back a mixture of frustration and fear as the patterns in his mind wavered and blurred. Useless. Absolutely useless.

#Askani, why won't you help me?#

Nothing.

Rubbing at his temples, Nathan went over the few scattered images that had come to him. People running down a street - not one he recognized. Faces of strangers, twisted and distorted by anger and fear. Streaks of fire in the night sky over Seattle.

So not helpful. Sighing, he slid off the bed and went to splash some water on his face.

~*~

Jean calls Scott to report on the situation, and they get somewhat pensive about the possibilities.

"This really is not looking promising." Scott's voice sounded worried, even over the phone from the other side of the continent. Barely discernible in the background was the voice of the local Seattle news anchor, suggesting that Scott was in the Situation Room where he could tap into the local feed. "What does the city feel like, to you?"

Hearing the news just slightly behind itself in the reciever was distracting, so Jean had muted her tv and now she stood, peering out the window. It was dark on the other side of the glass, so there wasn't much she could see, but Jean wasn't really looking with her eyes. "Expectant," she said at last. "Tense, but with this feeling that something is waiting. Or that they're waiting for something."

"From what I understand, situations like this generally turn at a moment's notice, if they're going to turn," Scott said. "Some sort of triggering event, that causes a ripple effect..." Jean heard him sigh. "Damn," he said, almost ruefully, "and this was such a good idea for a field trip, too."

"It's still a good idea," she said, holding her palm against the cold glass of the window. "We just have to be more careful. The summit will continue, regardless, because that's what you do. You don't give in to the mob mentality, and you don't let a bunch of bullies stand in the way of progress. It's just as important a lesson as 'see, kids, this is how global policy is discussed and not agreed upon'."

"I'm myopic and see only the security issue," Scott said wryly, "but then, that's why you're the brains of this outfit." The noise in the background changed, as if he'd switched channels. "CNN and the bigger channels aren't picking up on this yet. I wonder why."

"Willful gaze averting?" Jean suggested. Turning away from the window she twitched the curtains closed with a thought. "No, sorry, that was unfair of me. In truth, nothing has happened yet to merit cutting into the daily talking head parade. And if they're still managing to concentrate on the summit, well, I'm almost glad."

"I know I don't need to tell you - or Nathan or Wanda - to size the situation up tomorrow before you take the kids anywhere out of the hotel," Scott said. "Worse comes to worse, at least you're on the fringes of the downtown there, and well away from the summit site."

"You don't need to, but I'll pass on the reminder anyway. A lot of the kids are picking up that things aren't going well here. They were automatically doing a lot of sensible things - pairing up if they go out, and making sure we know, and so on - even before we put a couple extra rules in place. You'd think they went through crises regularly or something." They really were good kids.

"It'll be fine." Scott managed to not sound quite like he was trying to convince himself of that. "I have faith in you chaperone-types. And them." He chuckled, sounding a bit tired. "I should have come along. The suite is going to seem awfully empty tonight. Just me and Horatio."

"I have faith in them, too. And also a plan to lock them in their rooms if I need to." Sitting down on the bed, Jean pulled her legs up and leaned against the headboard. "At least you have Horatio. You can get in some quality turtle bonding. He's been looking very aggrieved at me lately. Thinks I've stolen all your free time, I'm sure." She eyed the pillow on the other side of the bed warrily, frowning at it. "I wish you were here, too, love. Stealing the blankets from myself is simply not as rewarding."

"At least you're in a nice hotel." Scott chuckled again, sounding more amused. "I bet you the room service isn't as good as it was in the inn, though."

"Not by a long shot. Fairly standard fare, but they did leave chocolate on the pillows. Wins them a couple points. I'm not convinced that an extra chocolate is a fair trade for not having you, although it was good chocolate..."

"You have an extra chocolate, and I have a sulky turtle. I think we're both screwed on that one," Scott said, laughing. There was real amusement in the laugh, even if was accompanied by an edge of tension. "I suppose it's still early there."

Jean smiled, glad she'd gotten him to laugh properly. He was going to fret, that was a given, but if she could get him to relax a little it was all to the good. "It is. They haven't even started the late night movie and the obnoxious night shows with the men who think they're funny won't be on for a while."

"You're going to be very bored, aren't you." Scott was quiet for a moment, but it seemed like a contemplative sort of silence. "Do you wish you were a delegate? Rather than a tourist?"

It wasn't fair, he wasn't here to see her giving him wry looks. "You know me too well," she said. "Aren't I supposed to be the psyhic? Anna Wilkenson is here for MWAA, just observing and not presenting. The look on her face when she saw me... Apparently word's gotten 'round in D.C. and they have been wondering when the hell I'll get in touch. I've been shanghaied into lunch in the city sometime this month."

"Maybe you can reestablish some old contacts." Scott definitely sounded like he was smiling. "If you keep an eye out for familiar faces at some of these events... would be worth doing, no?"

"I don't think Anna would let me not reestablish contact." But she didn't sound as though she really objected. "It would be good to get back into it. The urge to get up and smack some of the presenters is so much easier to sublimate into rebuttals than into class lectures."

"You in battle-mode," Scott said, and he was definitely smiling, even if she couldn't see it. "I've missed that. You were always the only thing that could get me to watch C-SPAN."

Jean blushed faintly, smiling. "Damn me with faint praise. It's not like C-SPAN is high quality journalism most of the time."

"You always lent it a little class," Scott said with a chuckle, but then was silent for a moment. "Just... keep an eye on things, okay?" he asked, as if he was trying to be flippant and not quite managing it. "I don't have a very good feeling about this situation."

"I will, I promise. And we'll be careful. But if you don't leave the sit room at some point tonight, Horatio will know it's not just me tearing you away from him... At least try to sleep?"

"I'll do my best. Saddle someone else with coms duty... although you took nearly all my trainees, sneaky woman. I wonder what Paige is doing."

"Hey, only a couple of them are here for my class. The rest are definitely Nate's fault. If you want you could even blame him for the whole absentee fiancee thing, too, since the trip was his idea to begin with."

"And believe me, so never letting him live it down if things go south out there. I should know better than to let Captain Calamity organize field trips."

Jean laughed. "I'm telling him you called him that," she told him. "Don't wor... Worry as little as you can, Scott. We'll be fine."

~*~