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xp_logsWhen you start at dawn, mid-morning is a long time - Amanda and Clarice run into each other whilst doing their respective bits and there's chat.
Clarice untied her red bandana and wiped the sweat from her forehead before shaking it out and replacing it over her purple hair. Red was still not her color. This was...a fucking disaster. Not as bad as it could have been potentially, but pretty bad. And if she had to help pull one more child... "Don't go there, Tink," she muttered, chugging down part of her water. "Just don't go there."
Being an EMT and a teleporting mutant meant she got to go places no one else went to - because they couldn't. In the time it took normal people to get down into some of the debris, it would be too late. She could get down there, if she was careful. She could save their lives. But she couldn't save everyone no matter how fast or hard she worked.
For her part, Amanda was busy making a difference the only way she could - using her medlab training to act as nursing assistant in the first aid tent. Fetching and carrying, passing equipment, checking on patients who were waiting either for treatment or for evacuation... Not exactly glamorous, but that didn't matter to her. Holding a squirming, screaming toddler in her lap as one of the doctors attended to the gashes caused by falling concrete - the poor little begger had been found under the remains of his house - she tried her best to be soothing so the doctor could work.
It was hot, it was sticky (the amount of water lying around after the tsunami was adding to the humidity) and Amanda was starting to feel like she'd stumbled into a bad disaster movie. Not to mention there was a slight buzzing in her temples that wasn't quite a headache but wasn't exactly nothing either. Still, she wouldn't be anywhere else right now.
"Here," Clarice handed the rest of her water to Amanda and took the child as the doctor finished his work. If they could match parents to the child then everything would be perfect in his little life. At least, for the moment. "Drink."
"Ta, Pixie." Amanda accepted the water gratefully - she was sweating like a pig out here. Not to mention the toddler had smacked her a couple of times with the flailing arms. "How're you holding up?"
"Ah," she shrugged awkwardly as the toddler went for her earrings. Apparently being obsessed with shiny objects was a trait exhibited at birth, until it was trained out of a person. Stupid mores. "Hanging in there. So much destruction... you know?"
Amanda nodded. "Yeah," she said softly, looking around the aid centre. Tents had been pitched as emergency operating theatres but things were still pretty rough and ready, with most of the victims out in the open. Then again, after the earthquakes she couldn't blame them if they had issues with enclosed spaces.
There had been rumours of what had happened and Amanda had been putting things together in her head - the fact the X-Men had been already on site was an indication things hadn't been altogether natural. Now to try for some confirmation. "Hard to imagine just one person did all this - almost makes me understand why people're so scared of us."
Her friend didn't disappoint. "Completely," Clarice didn't know the details, but she didn't really need to. If all the general public knew was that a mutant had leveled San Diego, then there wasn't any more they cared to know. "That's why it is even more important we be here. To show that we're not all capable of something like this, but regardless, we wouldn't. Not that the media would focus on that. They want the pretties who won't scare people."
"'Pretties'?" Amanda snorted, amused. "You're sounding like Sarah. But I get what you mean. The whole RedX thing's a perfect PR exercise." Although Amanda herself was avoiding the camera crews, going to far as to change the name on her name tag to "Amanda Seaton" and making herself as unremarkable as possible, hiding her hair under the bandanna and dressing like the rest of them in jeans and Red Cross t-shirt. Having her face and name plastered all over the place would make her non-public job a bit difficult. "The cameras would've been all over you like a rash, yeah?"
"Makes me throw up a little in the back of my throat, whenever the cameras get too close," Clarice confided in Amanda. It wasn't that she was camera shy or had anything to hide, the opposite in fact, but she had a job to do. "They interfere with the rescues, even if they mean well. So many dead though... and all the vultures want is a scoop to make their careers."
She jiggled the toddler around on her hip a little to get a better hold on him so he wouldn't fall, "If they want PR, I'll give it to them, but not when someone else's life is at stake."
"Reporters." Amanda said the word contemptuously. "I think they spend so much time looking at things 'objectively' they forget it's real people that are suffering. You're doing a lot of 'porting - you making sure you're not pushing too hard?" Because Clarice was an X-Man now, or at least a trainee and they seemed to include 'push your powers to the point your brain explodes and you fall over' as part of the training. Not that Amanda had a leg to stand on with that, given she'd pushed herself to the point she'd wiped her powers completely. "I'd hate to have to haul your unconscious purple butt off to the medics."
"I'm fine," Clarice waved on hand in dismissal, "I brought power bars and they have gatorade in the mess tent. Gatorade: mutant fuel. Think they could make that into a commercial?" The baby started fussing and Clarice let him happily suck on her finger. The baby thing wasn't as hard as people said it was.
"Talk to Jamie about that - he's the one with the future media career." Amanda chuckled a little. "It'd be bloody brilliant, tho'. I can just see the ads now. 'When they have to save the world, the X-Men refuel with Gatorade'. Don't let Lorna catch you eating those power bar things, tho'. She thinks they're evil incarnate." She reached out her hands for the toddler. "Here, chuck him over and I'll take him to the evac centre, get him signed up on the list of people needing relatives found."
Clarice handed the wiggly child over to Amanda, she had a nice break, but it was time to get back. "Power bars are evil, but they are the useful kind of evil. And completely nonaddictive, which is the best part. Other than the whole energy thing."
The little boy started grizzling as he was handed over and Amanda jiggled him absently on her hip. "There, there, there..." she murmured. "You take care out there, Pixie," she continued, pinching the bridge of her nose a little as the 'off' feeling intensified slightly. "Catch you later at dinner, yeah?"
"It's a date!" Clarice called, heading out of the tent. Talking with Amanda always seemed to bring out her opinionated side, but she usually felt rejuvenated afterwards.
"Just don't tell Shiro - I don't fancy being barbequed!" Amanda called after her with a chuckle and then turned her attention to the toddler. "Now then squirt, let's get you squared away." She sniffed as a particularly pungent odour wafted up as she hoisted him higher. "And changed and all too."
Clarice untied her red bandana and wiped the sweat from her forehead before shaking it out and replacing it over her purple hair. Red was still not her color. This was...a fucking disaster. Not as bad as it could have been potentially, but pretty bad. And if she had to help pull one more child... "Don't go there, Tink," she muttered, chugging down part of her water. "Just don't go there."
Being an EMT and a teleporting mutant meant she got to go places no one else went to - because they couldn't. In the time it took normal people to get down into some of the debris, it would be too late. She could get down there, if she was careful. She could save their lives. But she couldn't save everyone no matter how fast or hard she worked.
For her part, Amanda was busy making a difference the only way she could - using her medlab training to act as nursing assistant in the first aid tent. Fetching and carrying, passing equipment, checking on patients who were waiting either for treatment or for evacuation... Not exactly glamorous, but that didn't matter to her. Holding a squirming, screaming toddler in her lap as one of the doctors attended to the gashes caused by falling concrete - the poor little begger had been found under the remains of his house - she tried her best to be soothing so the doctor could work.
It was hot, it was sticky (the amount of water lying around after the tsunami was adding to the humidity) and Amanda was starting to feel like she'd stumbled into a bad disaster movie. Not to mention there was a slight buzzing in her temples that wasn't quite a headache but wasn't exactly nothing either. Still, she wouldn't be anywhere else right now.
"Here," Clarice handed the rest of her water to Amanda and took the child as the doctor finished his work. If they could match parents to the child then everything would be perfect in his little life. At least, for the moment. "Drink."
"Ta, Pixie." Amanda accepted the water gratefully - she was sweating like a pig out here. Not to mention the toddler had smacked her a couple of times with the flailing arms. "How're you holding up?"
"Ah," she shrugged awkwardly as the toddler went for her earrings. Apparently being obsessed with shiny objects was a trait exhibited at birth, until it was trained out of a person. Stupid mores. "Hanging in there. So much destruction... you know?"
Amanda nodded. "Yeah," she said softly, looking around the aid centre. Tents had been pitched as emergency operating theatres but things were still pretty rough and ready, with most of the victims out in the open. Then again, after the earthquakes she couldn't blame them if they had issues with enclosed spaces.
There had been rumours of what had happened and Amanda had been putting things together in her head - the fact the X-Men had been already on site was an indication things hadn't been altogether natural. Now to try for some confirmation. "Hard to imagine just one person did all this - almost makes me understand why people're so scared of us."
Her friend didn't disappoint. "Completely," Clarice didn't know the details, but she didn't really need to. If all the general public knew was that a mutant had leveled San Diego, then there wasn't any more they cared to know. "That's why it is even more important we be here. To show that we're not all capable of something like this, but regardless, we wouldn't. Not that the media would focus on that. They want the pretties who won't scare people."
"'Pretties'?" Amanda snorted, amused. "You're sounding like Sarah. But I get what you mean. The whole RedX thing's a perfect PR exercise." Although Amanda herself was avoiding the camera crews, going to far as to change the name on her name tag to "Amanda Seaton" and making herself as unremarkable as possible, hiding her hair under the bandanna and dressing like the rest of them in jeans and Red Cross t-shirt. Having her face and name plastered all over the place would make her non-public job a bit difficult. "The cameras would've been all over you like a rash, yeah?"
"Makes me throw up a little in the back of my throat, whenever the cameras get too close," Clarice confided in Amanda. It wasn't that she was camera shy or had anything to hide, the opposite in fact, but she had a job to do. "They interfere with the rescues, even if they mean well. So many dead though... and all the vultures want is a scoop to make their careers."
She jiggled the toddler around on her hip a little to get a better hold on him so he wouldn't fall, "If they want PR, I'll give it to them, but not when someone else's life is at stake."
"Reporters." Amanda said the word contemptuously. "I think they spend so much time looking at things 'objectively' they forget it's real people that are suffering. You're doing a lot of 'porting - you making sure you're not pushing too hard?" Because Clarice was an X-Man now, or at least a trainee and they seemed to include 'push your powers to the point your brain explodes and you fall over' as part of the training. Not that Amanda had a leg to stand on with that, given she'd pushed herself to the point she'd wiped her powers completely. "I'd hate to have to haul your unconscious purple butt off to the medics."
"I'm fine," Clarice waved on hand in dismissal, "I brought power bars and they have gatorade in the mess tent. Gatorade: mutant fuel. Think they could make that into a commercial?" The baby started fussing and Clarice let him happily suck on her finger. The baby thing wasn't as hard as people said it was.
"Talk to Jamie about that - he's the one with the future media career." Amanda chuckled a little. "It'd be bloody brilliant, tho'. I can just see the ads now. 'When they have to save the world, the X-Men refuel with Gatorade'. Don't let Lorna catch you eating those power bar things, tho'. She thinks they're evil incarnate." She reached out her hands for the toddler. "Here, chuck him over and I'll take him to the evac centre, get him signed up on the list of people needing relatives found."
Clarice handed the wiggly child over to Amanda, she had a nice break, but it was time to get back. "Power bars are evil, but they are the useful kind of evil. And completely nonaddictive, which is the best part. Other than the whole energy thing."
The little boy started grizzling as he was handed over and Amanda jiggled him absently on her hip. "There, there, there..." she murmured. "You take care out there, Pixie," she continued, pinching the bridge of her nose a little as the 'off' feeling intensified slightly. "Catch you later at dinner, yeah?"
"It's a date!" Clarice called, heading out of the tent. Talking with Amanda always seemed to bring out her opinionated side, but she usually felt rejuvenated afterwards.
"Just don't tell Shiro - I don't fancy being barbequed!" Amanda called after her with a chuckle and then turned her attention to the toddler. "Now then squirt, let's get you squared away." She sniffed as a particularly pungent odour wafted up as she hoisted him higher. "And changed and all too."
