Welcome to Spokane! - closed - For Martini, Ophelia, Rogue and Ric

[movetheearth]

Getting permission for the four of them to go to Spokane had been pretty easy considering that Ric could just ask Emma outright and getting there had been a quicker event thanks to a poker game in his favour and the debt being called in as a lift into town for them all. Wandering down West Main Avenue away from the Cyrus O'Leary's Restaurant (they'

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[movetheearth]

Ric doesn't register the opps from Phe because he's too busy trying to square off to the asshole who didn't get the hint the first time. It's like someone has flicked a switch in his head that is telling him to just go for it and fight with the group, even though he's outnumbered. The warning system in his head should be screaming at Ric that this feels wrong, that he's no longer in control and edging towards the same precipice that had tipped him over the edge in Japan.

What happens next goes by in almost a blink of an eye. Without Ric realizing Rogue has managed to get herself positioned between him and that fucking asshole. Something is said, quite who or what escapes Ric but it's enough to make the guy grab at Rogue. His fingers curl into the material of her jacket and as he tries to yank her backwards it only serves to pull the sleeve up and expose skin.

The sight of the guy grabbing at Rogue is enough to make Ric want to lash out, so he does but it isn't the asshole he manages to make contact with. In the midst of the jostling his hand curls around Rogue's bare arm and bare skin meets bare skin.

For a moment nothing seems to happen and then Ric's eyes widen and the veins along the back of his hands rise and thicken as his powers and memories are absorbed, racing up his arm until his eyes roll back in his head. Breathing shallow and rapid and skin ghostly pale, Ric finally drops to the ground unconscious with a thud.

[marauding_miss]

She's stuck to the spot for a minute, and then everything is a blur; she doesn't know how she gets between Ric and Asshole Number One, she doesn't know when the asshole grabs her or even when Ric retaliates. Everything zones in on that one second, that one bare second when Ric's skin touches hers and Rogue is frozen in place, shocked and scared and worried.

The flow of power starts as a tingle, then a burn, then she's gasping for air as Ric drops to the ground, unconscious, while she's trying to push through the new personality there, this new barrage of memories, keep her cool and focus on the situation.

All around then, the ground shakes, parts of the mini golf course cracking and falling and the whole of the area evacuating as the tremors spread out. She needs to pull it back, focus on Carol's power and push Rictor's to the side. She knows how because Ric knows how, she just has to pull it back.

"Fucking mutie freak," the snarled words from the guy still holding her sleeve are what she needs and in a second Carol's powers are all she's pushing when she punches the guy out cold.

Then she remembers Ric, turning towards his sprawled out body but hesitant to get close. There's all this nonsense running in her head, and all she can focus on is how Rictor never believed she'd hurt him.

[time_schizo]

Things happen so fast. Later on, Mark will relive it again in his mind, slowing it down until he understands just what happened, but for now, all he can feel is first horror as Ric collapses to the ground and then terror as the shaking begins to start.

He doesn't even realize how hard he's holding onto Phe as the ground rumbles and cracks. All he can picture in his head is another situation like the one in Japan. That had turned out badly in more ways than one. He just shuts his eyes and hopes it'll all go away. By the time he opens them back up, the others of the group have fled seeing their leader taken out cold by Rogue in one punch.

Then Martini is already by Ric's side, kneeling on the ground as he cradles his head gently in his lap. His thoughts lay in his head in a jumbled panic. This was how it was supposed to have gone, dammit! He looks so still, lying there like he's dead. Rogue couldn't-- she couldn't have absorbed like she did with Carol. Could she? "Please. please wake up."

[mad_asahatter]

For the whole length of time that things went crazy, Ophelia blinked, and held her eyes shut. She didn't care that she only heard what happened, she didn't care when Mark's grip on her hand got painful, she didn't rightly mind either when he let go of her hand like he'd never been there either.

What brought Ophelia out of it was when she felt a sudden calm settle, an unnatural calm, and then she realised she was doing it herself. When she noticed that she felt Rictor twice -once in a mild sort of half-asleep way, and the other in an abnormal, cloned sort of way, Ophelia cracked open her eyes to see what had gone on.

With Mark on the ground and Ric cradled on his lap, and Rogue just standing there but feeling oh-so-very different from usual, Ophelia had no clue what to do. So she did the only thing she could possibly think on. She absorbed every emotion around her and sent out a long, steady, slow wave of pure calm and prayed to whatever spirit she was left believing in that someone could do something that helped.

[movetheearth]

There's nothing from Ric for a while as Martini cradles his head in his lap, pulse steadily getting stronger from a thready beat to something more substantial. Still it's not as healthy and strong as it usually is but it's better than none at all and the colour is slowly returning to his skin, no longer looking quite so pale.

Ric draws in a shaky but deep breath and then there is a muted sort of half moan, half murmur from him. Eyes shifting beneath closed eyelids, Ric isn't about to wake up and declare that he's alright and can someone pass him a drink but he's looking more like he's in a deep sleep than dead. Most people have evacuated from the area but one of the guys who'd been working in the booth comes sprinting across the mini-golf course to them, cellphone pressed to his ear as he calmly tells the emergency services that they need to come now.

"Are the rest of you guys alright? I've called for an ambulance and the police. I don't think they're gonna manage to catch the others." The guy gestures at the unconscious asshole from earlier. "But at least we can get your friend to a hsopital. Hey, woah. Are you okay, you really don't look so good?" The guys attention is now turned to Rogue.

[marauding_miss]

At the movement, however minimal it is, from Ric, Rogue at least manages a relieved sigh. There's activity, he's still breathing and moving on his own. It means he'll make a recovery, it means his powers will fade and she won't need to keep this tight control on his emotions. "Estoy bien, gracias."

It takes her a moment or two to realise what she just said, "Ah mean, Ah'm fine, ya'll don't gotta worry none." Although the ambulance is the last thing Rogue really wants right then, it might do well to get fluids into Rictor, since he'll probably exhibit the exact same symptoms as someone who was dehydrated. She really does hope she won't have to explain what happened to the asshole that she punched out.

"Mark, Phe, ya'll okay there, pets?" She was unreasonably worried about both of them, she understood that Ophelia's emotional stability could be shaky at best, and Mark would likely be worrying himself over Ric. All Rogue wanted to do was wrap the three of them up and stop everything right where it was. Maybe rewind it a little.