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xp_logsPre-dated to allow Cora some online time to post an IC response. Silly time zones.
Amanda, as promised, visits Kurt. It's about as hard as expected, but then something happens to make it worse.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Amanda hadn't been in the medlab since after San Diego, visiting Nate, but it seemed like she'd never stopped being a medlab helper. The same chill, the same muting of her magical senses the metal gave her, the ridiculous cap and mark and gown for sterility reasons... But as she approached the isolation room they were keeping Kurt in, she noticed one change - a boy, obviously helping out to judge from the box in his hands, staring through the window at Kurt. She didn't recognise him as one of the bus trippers, but a sudden protectiveness of Kurt made her ask, perhaps a little more sharply than normal:
"Can I help you at all?"
The box dropped out of the clearly-uninvited visitor's hands and bounced across the tile to hit the wall. He stooped to retrieve it hastily.
"Pardon," the boy muttered, tucking the box under one arm as he rose. "Shift's just done with." There was a momentary flick of dull amber as the boy's gaze settled on Amanda, then twitched off again. "Just on my way out anyway."
The voice was dimly familiar, but Amanda's attention was already turning the window and the figure in the bed beyond it. "Right, then," she said absently to the boy. Oh, fuck, Kurt... Look at the state of you... She barely registered the boy's departure, steeling herself to open the door and not burst into tears then and there.
They'd been keeping up the morphine supply as far as was safe, and for that Kurt was sincerely grateful, when he wasn't drifting. It helped a lot, and not just with the physical pain - it helped him to not think about what was happening to him.
The last dose was wearing off enough to stop the fuzziness now, though, and he was left in the dark with his thoughts. The door opening came as a relief.
"Kurt?" came Amanda's voice, quiet but not so quiet he couldn't hear the tremble. She closed the door behind her and then stopped, fiddling with the mask and gown they'd insisted she wear - with the severity of Kurt's burns, infection was a real risk. But the action was a cover for her own shock at seeing him; even with the light gauze bandages covering the burned areas, he looked like hell. Literally.
He could hear everything, that sense not diluted by the input of his eyes now. He turned his head slightly towards her, voice muffled through the oxygen mask. "Amanda."
He was looking about two feet left of where she actually was, and a sudden lump in her throat made it very hard to breathe for a second. "Hey, Blue," she said, forcing a normal tone - mostly - into her voice. "I heard you got banged up and wanted to drop by. I would have been here sooner, only quarantine and all that. They just let us out today." She approached the bed, sucking in a breath as she realised just how extensive the burns were. "How... how are you feeling?"
Kurt managed a faint painful chuckle at that, but it turned into a fit of coughing after a moment. When that had passed, "I have been... a lot better. And you?"
"Fine. Just fine. None of us got sick at all." She desperately wanted to touch him, hold his hand or something, but the instructions had been strict - no potential contamination. And it would have only hurt him more. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday," she said, trying to find something helpful to say and coming up with inanities.
"That is... good", he rasped out, then attempted to at least pretend to focus on her better. "You could not help it. There will be other years."
"Yeah, there will. And I'll be there, ready to make you feel old at every one." The sight of his eyes skimming blindly over her physically hurt. "So, the docs... did they... do they know how long you'll be in here?" Have they told you how bad it is?
Kurt swallowed slightly. "They have not said. But I think it may be... quite some time." He hadn't been told much about his condition, but he knew how it felt.
"They'll do the best they can," she said lamely. "The docs here, they're the best, and if they can't help, well there's always Muir. You'll see." The optimism rang false even in her ears. "You'll be back on your feet before you know it."
"I know they will do their best", Kurt said quietly. "But there is only so far anything goes... and there are some things that will not be possible, even when I walk again."
"Don't talk like that," she protested softly, the tremble entering her voice again. It wasn't like Kurt to sound so... defeated. Her hand hovered above his bandaged shoulder, wanting to comfort him but knowing she'd only inflict more pain. "You'll be fine..."
"They say", he continued, voice low, "that I may regain some vision." He turned sightless eyes away from her, towards the ceiling. "But it is not likely to be enough... to use the trapeze again."
"Oh, Kurt..." Being an acrobat, it was everything to him. The memory of him bamfing her up to his trapeze in the gym, the simple joy he had in practising, made her chest hurt. "Even if it's that bad, maybe Forge could..." What? Make him a new set of eyes? Forge was a genius, but there were limits.
"Forge can do many things", he said dully, trying to fight back the rising burn behind his eyes and failing. "But unless he can give me back my sight just as it was, I do not think anything he could come up with would be the same."
The tears were rising in Amanda's own eyes at the sight of her brother brought so low. She tried to speak, but the words jammed in her throat.
The silence persisted, as Kurt tried to fight his losing struggle against the tears. He rarely cried, and still less often where anyone could see, but if anything would bring it on...
She had to do something. The sight of him, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling, the tears rolling down his face... something twisted painfully in her heart and without giving herself time to think about it, she lifted her hand, holding it above his chest. She'd been a healer, once - time to see if she could do it again. Closing her eyes, she reached for the healing spell, trying to recall that moment in July when she'd fixed Remy... And incredibly, the spell responded, her hand glowing fitfully. Power, she needed more power - her mutant power kicked in, drawing in energy from the nearest available source. Warm, strong, living energy...
Amanda's eyes snapped open and she jerked her hand back as if she had been the one burned. That hadn't been the city, hadn't been what she usually felt when her mutation activated now. It felt completely different... and horribly familiar.
Jean. Amelia. She'd been draining them.
Kurt had seemed to respond, for a moment, as if he was in less pain. He sighed now, though, accepting the return of it without understanding why it had ever started to go away.
Amanda tasted bile in the back of her throat and took a jerky step back from the bed. "I have to go, Kurt," she managed to choke out. "But I'll be back to see... to visit you again, soon. Just... don't lose hope, yeah?" Even as she said it, an idea, a horrible, monstrous idea was forming. No. Just go tell Jean what happened, don't even contemplate it... "Love you, Blue."
He gave her a tiny smile, trying to reassure her even through his own despair. "I love you too, jel'enedra. Come back soon." The last was more of a plea than he'd meant to make it.
The smile broke her heart all over again. So like him. And the name... "I will. Cross my heart and hope to die." Her voice came out strangled with the effort of trying to hold back the tears.
And then she was out the door, closing it as gently as she could behind her before stumbling blindly down the hall in search of Jean, everything in her focussed on not breaking down screaming.
Following the visit, Amanda talks to Jean. Or rather, makes a confession to Jean.
Amanda managed to hold herself together until she reached the door of Jean's office. Then she had to stop and take several breaths, one hand on the wall to steady herself. The memory of the power drain, the sensation burned into her nightmares, made her feel almost physically sick. Fuck, what kind of monster did I make myself into? But mixed with the revulsion was an equally desperate hope, that it might be possible to help Kurt. Only... she didn't have the power to do it, not by herself. Healing demanded a price, and it apparently wasn't one she could pay. The thing was, would anyone else, after last time?
You won't know if you don't ask, Sefton. Go ahead and tell the bloody truth.
Forcing herself upright, she knocked on Jean's door, so softly it was barely a noise at all. "Je... Doctor Grey?" she called, voice shaking. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Jean had her hands wrapped around a cup of coffee as she stared at Kurt's file open on his desk. She'd been trying so long to come up with a solution that her head had started to spin, which she'd put down to a lack of sleep and too much caffeine. Which didn't actually stop her from pouring another cup when the spinning went away. There had been something familiar about the sensation, but she didn't make the connection when she heard Amanda's voice, simply calling out, "Come in."
The sheer normality of the response was almost surreal. Swallowing, Amanda let herself in, closing the door behind her and then pausing, twisting the hem of her shirt nervously. "I, um, I just saw Kurt," she began, unnecessarially as it had been Jean who had shown her in, after all. "I think... I think I can help him."
And now connections were being made, slowly, uncertainly, and so Jean paused a second before asking, "How? I thought most of your magic was gone..."
"It is. Was. Is." Miserably, Amanda gave Jean a helpless look. "I haven't done a healing since Remy, back in July, and that wasn't so much a healing as... finishing what I started. But when I was in there, Kurt, he was so... and he was crying and I've never seen him do that before, and I tried..." Balling her hands into fists and shoving them into her pockets before she shredded her shirt, Amanda gave herself a mental kick and made herself say it. "I tried a healing spell. And it looked like it would work, only... only it wasn't the city I was using to power it. It was you. And Doc Voght. So I stopped, right away. I swear I did. I didn't know it would do that, honest to God." There was a certain expression in her face that showed she fully expected to be put into a wall now. "And then I came straight here, to tell you."
The spinning... oh, yes, it had been familiar all right. The fear and anger filled her mind and she pushed back slightly in her chair, wariness in her eyes. But it had stopped. The feeling had stopped because Amanda had stopped, and now she was here, looking almost afraid and sounding like she'd entered a confessional. It was a long moment before Jean said anything as she wrestled with the visceral, gut reaction she refused to deny, or to let rule her. Finally she said, "Thank you... for being honest." A deep breath. Another. "It... you said it looked like it would have worked?"
Amanda nodded, still feeling like complete shite. "I... I can tell, when something's working. It feels... right." The wrongness had only kicked in when she realised where the power was coming from. Who it was coming from. "And Kurt, he reacted, just for a second. Like he was in less pain." She bit her lip. "I think I can heal him, only... the spell, it needs..." She clamped her mouth shut - she couldn't ask that, not even on Kurt's behalf.
"A source," Jean finished for her, voice cold. "A volunteer," she amended, remembering the arguments on the journals, Jubilee's belated offer. Her face was completely blank - it was Kurt's life on the line and she was his doctor and she couldn't, she couldn't. Not this. Not with Amanda. Not ever.
So. She felt that way. Accept it. Analyze it later. For now... "Or volunteers? The damage is extensive, especially his eyes and lungs. How much power will you need?" Frank's small body flashed into her memory and Jean flinched slightly.
Amanda closed her eyes, mentally calculating. Going off the only data she had - Remy. He'd been torn apart, the damage extensive and involving bones, muscle, organs... And it had taken the energy of six people to half-fix him. "I-I'm not sure," she stammered, opening her eyes, not even believing she was contemplating this, not after that time. "Three or four, I think. Less, maybe, if it's someone with a lot of energy. But, Je... Doctor Grey, I can't ask this, not after... Maybe if I use me, I can get him part-way there before I pass out, or just focus on the worst bits..."
Even as she was saying it, she was remembering what had been told to her by more than one person. If you'd asked, I would have done it freely... She clamped down on the thought - how could she ask for what she'd stolen once before?
Jean frowned, shaking her head even as Amanda said it. "You fly a lot these days, Amanda. Do you ever pay attention to the safety instructions? 'In the even that the cabin loses pressure, masks will drop from above. Secure your own mask before assisting others.' It's one of the first rules of medicine - in order to be able to help someone else, you have to help yourself. What would happen to him if you lost power part way through? Worse, what would Kurt say if you hurt yourself trying to help him?"
She sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "Kurt's stable - not getting worse." He was blind, and needed the respirator to breathe, but they'd stopped the damage from spreading. "We... There's not the time crush there was l-last time." Jean damned herself for the stutter, but went on. "We can talk to Scott, Charles and Ororo, see what they think. None of the students are to be involved," her voice was fierce, remembering Moira's worry about Rachel, "but from the staff and the team, we may be able to find enough people." Amanda's suggestion about someone with a lot of energy immediately made Jean think of Logan, and she resolved to speak with the man. Possibly Cain as well.
"I wouldn't take any of the kids, even if they begged me to." There was a certain vehemence to the statement, even as Amanda bit her lip again, this time to stop bursting into tears. There was a chance. A small one, but a chance nonetheless. "I, uh, whatever you decide, I'll stick by. I promise. Hell, I'd swear by my name, if that actually meant anything any more. But if we can do this... I don't... Thank you." She took a deep, shaking breath, eyes fixed on the floor. "After what I did, I wouldn't blame you if you had me out on my ear, and I know it doesn't mean anything, but... I'm sorry. For... not trusting you. For hurting you." Looking up at last, she met Jean's eyes as squarely as she could, when her own were filled with tears. "I'll go back to New York, out of harm's way, and wait for what you lot decide, yeah?"
Jean's own eyes weren't perfectly dry, remembering the girl Amanda had been, seeing the woman she'd become, but she simply nodded and said, "I'll call you as soon as we've made a decision."
Amanda, as promised, visits Kurt. It's about as hard as expected, but then something happens to make it worse.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Amanda hadn't been in the medlab since after San Diego, visiting Nate, but it seemed like she'd never stopped being a medlab helper. The same chill, the same muting of her magical senses the metal gave her, the ridiculous cap and mark and gown for sterility reasons... But as she approached the isolation room they were keeping Kurt in, she noticed one change - a boy, obviously helping out to judge from the box in his hands, staring through the window at Kurt. She didn't recognise him as one of the bus trippers, but a sudden protectiveness of Kurt made her ask, perhaps a little more sharply than normal:
"Can I help you at all?"
The box dropped out of the clearly-uninvited visitor's hands and bounced across the tile to hit the wall. He stooped to retrieve it hastily.
"Pardon," the boy muttered, tucking the box under one arm as he rose. "Shift's just done with." There was a momentary flick of dull amber as the boy's gaze settled on Amanda, then twitched off again. "Just on my way out anyway."
The voice was dimly familiar, but Amanda's attention was already turning the window and the figure in the bed beyond it. "Right, then," she said absently to the boy. Oh, fuck, Kurt... Look at the state of you... She barely registered the boy's departure, steeling herself to open the door and not burst into tears then and there.
They'd been keeping up the morphine supply as far as was safe, and for that Kurt was sincerely grateful, when he wasn't drifting. It helped a lot, and not just with the physical pain - it helped him to not think about what was happening to him.
The last dose was wearing off enough to stop the fuzziness now, though, and he was left in the dark with his thoughts. The door opening came as a relief.
"Kurt?" came Amanda's voice, quiet but not so quiet he couldn't hear the tremble. She closed the door behind her and then stopped, fiddling with the mask and gown they'd insisted she wear - with the severity of Kurt's burns, infection was a real risk. But the action was a cover for her own shock at seeing him; even with the light gauze bandages covering the burned areas, he looked like hell. Literally.
He could hear everything, that sense not diluted by the input of his eyes now. He turned his head slightly towards her, voice muffled through the oxygen mask. "Amanda."
He was looking about two feet left of where she actually was, and a sudden lump in her throat made it very hard to breathe for a second. "Hey, Blue," she said, forcing a normal tone - mostly - into her voice. "I heard you got banged up and wanted to drop by. I would have been here sooner, only quarantine and all that. They just let us out today." She approached the bed, sucking in a breath as she realised just how extensive the burns were. "How... how are you feeling?"
Kurt managed a faint painful chuckle at that, but it turned into a fit of coughing after a moment. When that had passed, "I have been... a lot better. And you?"
"Fine. Just fine. None of us got sick at all." She desperately wanted to touch him, hold his hand or something, but the instructions had been strict - no potential contamination. And it would have only hurt him more. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday," she said, trying to find something helpful to say and coming up with inanities.
"That is... good", he rasped out, then attempted to at least pretend to focus on her better. "You could not help it. There will be other years."
"Yeah, there will. And I'll be there, ready to make you feel old at every one." The sight of his eyes skimming blindly over her physically hurt. "So, the docs... did they... do they know how long you'll be in here?" Have they told you how bad it is?
Kurt swallowed slightly. "They have not said. But I think it may be... quite some time." He hadn't been told much about his condition, but he knew how it felt.
"They'll do the best they can," she said lamely. "The docs here, they're the best, and if they can't help, well there's always Muir. You'll see." The optimism rang false even in her ears. "You'll be back on your feet before you know it."
"I know they will do their best", Kurt said quietly. "But there is only so far anything goes... and there are some things that will not be possible, even when I walk again."
"Don't talk like that," she protested softly, the tremble entering her voice again. It wasn't like Kurt to sound so... defeated. Her hand hovered above his bandaged shoulder, wanting to comfort him but knowing she'd only inflict more pain. "You'll be fine..."
"They say", he continued, voice low, "that I may regain some vision." He turned sightless eyes away from her, towards the ceiling. "But it is not likely to be enough... to use the trapeze again."
"Oh, Kurt..." Being an acrobat, it was everything to him. The memory of him bamfing her up to his trapeze in the gym, the simple joy he had in practising, made her chest hurt. "Even if it's that bad, maybe Forge could..." What? Make him a new set of eyes? Forge was a genius, but there were limits.
"Forge can do many things", he said dully, trying to fight back the rising burn behind his eyes and failing. "But unless he can give me back my sight just as it was, I do not think anything he could come up with would be the same."
The tears were rising in Amanda's own eyes at the sight of her brother brought so low. She tried to speak, but the words jammed in her throat.
The silence persisted, as Kurt tried to fight his losing struggle against the tears. He rarely cried, and still less often where anyone could see, but if anything would bring it on...
She had to do something. The sight of him, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling, the tears rolling down his face... something twisted painfully in her heart and without giving herself time to think about it, she lifted her hand, holding it above his chest. She'd been a healer, once - time to see if she could do it again. Closing her eyes, she reached for the healing spell, trying to recall that moment in July when she'd fixed Remy... And incredibly, the spell responded, her hand glowing fitfully. Power, she needed more power - her mutant power kicked in, drawing in energy from the nearest available source. Warm, strong, living energy...
Amanda's eyes snapped open and she jerked her hand back as if she had been the one burned. That hadn't been the city, hadn't been what she usually felt when her mutation activated now. It felt completely different... and horribly familiar.
Jean. Amelia. She'd been draining them.
Kurt had seemed to respond, for a moment, as if he was in less pain. He sighed now, though, accepting the return of it without understanding why it had ever started to go away.
Amanda tasted bile in the back of her throat and took a jerky step back from the bed. "I have to go, Kurt," she managed to choke out. "But I'll be back to see... to visit you again, soon. Just... don't lose hope, yeah?" Even as she said it, an idea, a horrible, monstrous idea was forming. No. Just go tell Jean what happened, don't even contemplate it... "Love you, Blue."
He gave her a tiny smile, trying to reassure her even through his own despair. "I love you too, jel'enedra. Come back soon." The last was more of a plea than he'd meant to make it.
The smile broke her heart all over again. So like him. And the name... "I will. Cross my heart and hope to die." Her voice came out strangled with the effort of trying to hold back the tears.
And then she was out the door, closing it as gently as she could behind her before stumbling blindly down the hall in search of Jean, everything in her focussed on not breaking down screaming.
Following the visit, Amanda talks to Jean. Or rather, makes a confession to Jean.
Amanda managed to hold herself together until she reached the door of Jean's office. Then she had to stop and take several breaths, one hand on the wall to steady herself. The memory of the power drain, the sensation burned into her nightmares, made her feel almost physically sick. Fuck, what kind of monster did I make myself into? But mixed with the revulsion was an equally desperate hope, that it might be possible to help Kurt. Only... she didn't have the power to do it, not by herself. Healing demanded a price, and it apparently wasn't one she could pay. The thing was, would anyone else, after last time?
You won't know if you don't ask, Sefton. Go ahead and tell the bloody truth.
Forcing herself upright, she knocked on Jean's door, so softly it was barely a noise at all. "Je... Doctor Grey?" she called, voice shaking. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Jean had her hands wrapped around a cup of coffee as she stared at Kurt's file open on his desk. She'd been trying so long to come up with a solution that her head had started to spin, which she'd put down to a lack of sleep and too much caffeine. Which didn't actually stop her from pouring another cup when the spinning went away. There had been something familiar about the sensation, but she didn't make the connection when she heard Amanda's voice, simply calling out, "Come in."
The sheer normality of the response was almost surreal. Swallowing, Amanda let herself in, closing the door behind her and then pausing, twisting the hem of her shirt nervously. "I, um, I just saw Kurt," she began, unnecessarially as it had been Jean who had shown her in, after all. "I think... I think I can help him."
And now connections were being made, slowly, uncertainly, and so Jean paused a second before asking, "How? I thought most of your magic was gone..."
"It is. Was. Is." Miserably, Amanda gave Jean a helpless look. "I haven't done a healing since Remy, back in July, and that wasn't so much a healing as... finishing what I started. But when I was in there, Kurt, he was so... and he was crying and I've never seen him do that before, and I tried..." Balling her hands into fists and shoving them into her pockets before she shredded her shirt, Amanda gave herself a mental kick and made herself say it. "I tried a healing spell. And it looked like it would work, only... only it wasn't the city I was using to power it. It was you. And Doc Voght. So I stopped, right away. I swear I did. I didn't know it would do that, honest to God." There was a certain expression in her face that showed she fully expected to be put into a wall now. "And then I came straight here, to tell you."
The spinning... oh, yes, it had been familiar all right. The fear and anger filled her mind and she pushed back slightly in her chair, wariness in her eyes. But it had stopped. The feeling had stopped because Amanda had stopped, and now she was here, looking almost afraid and sounding like she'd entered a confessional. It was a long moment before Jean said anything as she wrestled with the visceral, gut reaction she refused to deny, or to let rule her. Finally she said, "Thank you... for being honest." A deep breath. Another. "It... you said it looked like it would have worked?"
Amanda nodded, still feeling like complete shite. "I... I can tell, when something's working. It feels... right." The wrongness had only kicked in when she realised where the power was coming from. Who it was coming from. "And Kurt, he reacted, just for a second. Like he was in less pain." She bit her lip. "I think I can heal him, only... the spell, it needs..." She clamped her mouth shut - she couldn't ask that, not even on Kurt's behalf.
"A source," Jean finished for her, voice cold. "A volunteer," she amended, remembering the arguments on the journals, Jubilee's belated offer. Her face was completely blank - it was Kurt's life on the line and she was his doctor and she couldn't, she couldn't. Not this. Not with Amanda. Not ever.
So. She felt that way. Accept it. Analyze it later. For now... "Or volunteers? The damage is extensive, especially his eyes and lungs. How much power will you need?" Frank's small body flashed into her memory and Jean flinched slightly.
Amanda closed her eyes, mentally calculating. Going off the only data she had - Remy. He'd been torn apart, the damage extensive and involving bones, muscle, organs... And it had taken the energy of six people to half-fix him. "I-I'm not sure," she stammered, opening her eyes, not even believing she was contemplating this, not after that time. "Three or four, I think. Less, maybe, if it's someone with a lot of energy. But, Je... Doctor Grey, I can't ask this, not after... Maybe if I use me, I can get him part-way there before I pass out, or just focus on the worst bits..."
Even as she was saying it, she was remembering what had been told to her by more than one person. If you'd asked, I would have done it freely... She clamped down on the thought - how could she ask for what she'd stolen once before?
Jean frowned, shaking her head even as Amanda said it. "You fly a lot these days, Amanda. Do you ever pay attention to the safety instructions? 'In the even that the cabin loses pressure, masks will drop from above. Secure your own mask before assisting others.' It's one of the first rules of medicine - in order to be able to help someone else, you have to help yourself. What would happen to him if you lost power part way through? Worse, what would Kurt say if you hurt yourself trying to help him?"
She sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "Kurt's stable - not getting worse." He was blind, and needed the respirator to breathe, but they'd stopped the damage from spreading. "We... There's not the time crush there was l-last time." Jean damned herself for the stutter, but went on. "We can talk to Scott, Charles and Ororo, see what they think. None of the students are to be involved," her voice was fierce, remembering Moira's worry about Rachel, "but from the staff and the team, we may be able to find enough people." Amanda's suggestion about someone with a lot of energy immediately made Jean think of Logan, and she resolved to speak with the man. Possibly Cain as well.
"I wouldn't take any of the kids, even if they begged me to." There was a certain vehemence to the statement, even as Amanda bit her lip again, this time to stop bursting into tears. There was a chance. A small one, but a chance nonetheless. "I, uh, whatever you decide, I'll stick by. I promise. Hell, I'd swear by my name, if that actually meant anything any more. But if we can do this... I don't... Thank you." She took a deep, shaking breath, eyes fixed on the floor. "After what I did, I wouldn't blame you if you had me out on my ear, and I know it doesn't mean anything, but... I'm sorry. For... not trusting you. For hurting you." Looking up at last, she met Jean's eyes as squarely as she could, when her own were filled with tears. "I'll go back to New York, out of harm's way, and wait for what you lot decide, yeah?"
Jean's own eyes weren't perfectly dry, remembering the girl Amanda had been, seeing the woman she'd become, but she simply nodded and said, "I'll call you as soon as we've made a decision."
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Date: 2006-12-29 02:04 am (UTC)I was going to say Rahne was glad she's no longer one of Xavier's students, but the email later doesn't look like you're doing a call for volunteers.
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Date: 2006-12-29 02:47 am (UTC)Logan (or anyone with a healing factor) are of the 'can replenish drained energy quickly' camp. We're looking at it as not unlike a blood donation. The energy manipulators have a lot of energy, yes, but they tend to need it. See Jennie's Amazing Scary Weight Loss as an example of why you don't mess with their metabolisms. ;)
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Date: 2006-12-29 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 05:25 am (UTC)Alex, for instance, is established as a viable "magic battery," and while he was certainly traumatized it doesn't seem to have presented... metabolic?... problems. The solar-powered element probably complicates things there, though. Still, since the original draining-for-healing thing was derived from Selene's instruction, it would seem intuitively reasonable enough for Amanda to be able to power the healing spell off energy that might otherwise, I don't know, lift a plane, pitch fireballs, smash a wall, or hold back a breaking dam -- and, as after any of those, the individual supplying the energy would have to go replenish from external sources. (Well, and I guess the healing factor types have to replenish from external sources as well. Presumably food, although I actually wouldn't put it past Logan to be slurping up ambient energy somehow, especially considering what happens when Rogue drains him.)
However! Considering the way Amanda's magic has worked and the way sometimes (especially lately) the results of her spells depend heavily on the energy source, what I'm guessing is the idea here is for the healing to require something... closer to the heart, closer to the body, energy tied up in metabolism rather than skimmed off what might easily be projected as a fireball or whatever. And the healing-factor types are pretty robust that way, and have their powers focused in that area, so I could see them as richer sources if that's the case.
But I ramble, sorry.
Rahne, herself, is still iffy on the whole magic thing but, while she'd much prefer a warning and opportunity for consent, is way less spooked by the idea of uninvited draining (of herself, and nonlethal) than by the idea of somebody dying for lack of it. This is a visceral thing and doesn't take into account specifics such as someone deciding to sacrifice others to prolong his/her own life indefinitely, or whether she might be doing something (like driving) that would cause the draining to become lethal to her or someone else. But it's there.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 01:04 pm (UTC)Technically energy projectors would be just as good in terms of raw power (and that's something I'll keep in mind *g*), but it's really in terms of numbers. Logan and Cain (and Kyle, if he wasn't a student - Amanda wouldn't even contemplate using a student) can replenish themselves, so it's possible to take a bit more than you would from an energy projector, so she'd have to use more energy projectors to get the same effect. More people means more opportunity for a wiggins half-way through, personal angst and blah. And this really was essentially about establishing two characterisation points (Amanda's healing and... one other) without causing issues mansion-wide.
Heh. Maybe an IC/OOC post on XPP could be educational here? ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 02:56 pm (UTC)And I've got a whole explanation as to the IC and OOC reasons why general announcements weren't made, but I'll put it over in Matt's XPP post. ;)
Final log hopefully should be posted around 4 pm today, depending on Kate's schedule. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 02:17 pm (UTC)