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Face Everything and Rise; Tag // Jimmy
Topic Started: Dec 29 2014, 11:31 PM (152 Views)
Sarah Vale
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Technopathy
December 10
Just after Hot Potatoes



Still in the empty classroom, a few fragments of ceiling still dropping to the floor in dusty pieces, Sarah sat on a chair, grateful for the momentary quiet once Pearce and Chris had headed to the cafetorium. She’d made it pretty clear that she needed a minute before she would be heading there to see Mr. Summers’ explanation of what was going on. Once they left, she slumped a bit, running a hand through her hair and letting out a sharp, shaky breath. Closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead, Sarah glanced at Jimmy, fighting the urge to rub her ears. Logically, she knew the quiet she was feeling was mental, not physical. The technological voices she’d always heard were mental, after all. But still…She felt deaf, and at the same time, her hearing was so heightened that it was freaking her out, just how much she could hear.

“How’s your head?” She finally asked Jimmy, her voice super quiet, faltering just barely, because…Because she didn’t know what to do without her powers. Sure, she could function, she could do her technological projects, she’d never relied on them to be able to do her projects…But it was just wrong. It was like a piece of herself had been removed, and all she could think about was her failures. Prodigy poisoning her, Scott dying, the school getting attacked. Gritting her teeth against a wave of panic, she swallowed, gripping her jeans in a tight fist. A few seconds later, she heard the tell-tale sound of a seam beginning to rip, and she instantly released her pant leg, flattening her palms to her legs and looking at Jimmy with a wide, helpless look.

“I…I don’t think I can do this.” God, how pathetic was she. But she’d never been without her powers, not in any situation that didn’t end with either her almost-death or someone else’s. Even knowing she still had all the knowledge she always did, knowing that a lot of her technological skills weren’t just because of her powers, just augmented from them, the sudden loss was overwhelming. And every time she inhaled, she could smell dust and wood and other strange things she didn’t want to identify. Pinching the bridge of her nose lightly, she shook her head again, just at a loss.

The panic was subsiding into a feeling of helplessness, and she realized that her mind was…Well, it was doing the best it could to imitate the sectioning she’d been feeling lately. It was running on overdrive, overwhelmed by the information it was trying to process. Normally, her face and emotions would blank out, letting her function normally. But now, she could feel herself trying to shut down, only to find itself lacking that technological basework. So instead, her eyes kept darting around, hyper-focusing on things around her, finally looking at Jimmy.
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James Proudstar
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Empty was an excellent word to describe how he felt in that moment. For 25 years, James Proudstar had been virtually untouchable. It was part of him, the knowledge that no matter what was happening, he was strong enough, tough enough, to handle it. And now that was gone. His usual sense of poweress was replaced by this empty, sucking feeling. He was useless with these voices in his head and his inability to control himself. It was painfully similar to when he had been a teenager and destroyed everything he touched. For the first few moments after Pearce and Chris had gone, he stared after them quietly. It took another long moment before he realized that Sarah had spoken and he slowly looked towards her. It felt, honestly, like being drunk without any of the good stuff. He was stuck with the feeling of being sluggish and off kilter.

"I'm fine."

The words came out of his mouth like a reflex, before he had any time to show doubt of that statement. Because it wasn't true; he wasn't fine. The way he was restless in his skin, the blood on his face, the fact that he couldn't see where all not fine. He wasn't dying, or injured, of course but it still felt wrong. His powers weren't just a part of his identity as a person, it connected him to people he'd lost. To family or traditions or whatever the fuck it was that kept those goddamn powers in his bloodline. He caught Sarah's next words much quicker and his gaze returned to her in an instant, the grim look on his face softening just a touch. It was painful to know that it was, inadvertently his fault that she was in such discomfort and pain. Chalk another one up for the list of shit that had gone wrong that involved him.

He was glued to the spot he stood in for a few moments before he could will himself to walk over to the woman and then crouch down so that they were eye to eye. He wasn't good at this, trying to be soft. He'd always grown up with the ideology of 'bad shit happens, deal with it'. But that wasn't what she really needed, he felt. She needed to be comforted, and that was something out of his expertise. Where the fuck was he even supposed to start?

"You..." He let out a long breath and ran a hand in his hair. "You have to do this, Sarah. We both have to, okay? And I believe that you can get... get a grip on this, alright? I'll be here to help you, and you can help me. We're gonna be alright." The apache stared at her, looking for any sign that he wasn't just being rough about it. He didn't want to hurt her, not when she was scared like this. "I believe that we're gonna be okay. And I wouldn't lie to you." He reached out, albeit a little awkwardly, and put a hand on her arm. You were supposed to do that, right?

He had to hope so.
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Sarah Vale
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Technopathy
It was lucky that she was used to processing multiple things at once, and while normally she would be filtering through the hundreds of tinny voices in her mind, now it was focusing on the sudden influx of information from her enhanced senses. An inhalation had the scent of dust, concrete, even grass from outside, and someone in a nearby classroom must have poured on the perfume this morning. She could hear someone shouting outside, and someone else answering. Blinking, and she could see the dust speckling the air, and that was just weird. Snorting at his obviously automatic response to her question of his well being, she didn’t push the matter. There would be time for him to freak out after she was finished.

Squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing them, for a second, she took a deep breath, for once utterly unstartled when she opened her eyes to find Jimmy crouched in front of her. She’d heard every footstep, getting closer with each step. Searching his face with wide, dark eyes, swallowing hard as he tried to comfort her, convince her things would be okay. A part of her was terrified to hurt someone, anyone, so instead of touching him, she just drooped her head down to rest her forehead lightly against his hand, shaking her head slightly.

“It’s not…It’s not that. I just…” Her voice caught, eyes flashing with a moment of memory, and her fingers twitched, glancing away from him. “The last time I didn’t have my powers, I almost died. Scott did die. I can’t…I can’t be without my powers.” Maybe she was giving herself too much credit, but she couldn’t help it. Sarah still had nightmares about being stuck in a coma, unable to move, unable to stop her friends from dying, not that she told anyone. Lifting a hand to rake her hair out of her face, she frowned, uselessly dropping her forehead back onto his hand very carefully.

“Ignoring the fact that I’m afraid I’m going to break everything I touch, I don’t…I don’t anyone to get hurt because of me.” She hadn’t noticed when Prodigy poisoning her with nanites, and he’d used the school to attack her friends. It didn’t matter that she’d come out of the coma in time to stop him – he’d still gotten too far. Sarah could ‘what if’ herself to death. Absently, her fingers tapped lightly against her leg, in the need for movement. Finally glancing back up at him, she frowned. “If…If you try to concentrate on something other than the voices, they’ll fade into background noise until you focus on them. It’s why I always keep my hands busy.” She said quietly, twiddling her fingers in a semblance of how she tended to twirl her tools, or tap at a tablet or device.
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James Proudstar
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He was bad at this. Bad at gentleness, bad at trying to smooth things over. He'd never been raised to have those skills, and while he liked to think that he had gotten good at talking with people as he got older, there was still the fact that, at his core, James was kind of rough around the edges and fumbled around with the delicate art of talking. Lord knew it wasn't a lack of effort, but he didn't have the eloquence that he felt would have made this somehow easier on Sarah. He would have to make do, but by no means was he pleased with it.

He wasn't entirely sure what to do when she gently laid her head against his hand, so he didn't move. If it brought her some kind of comfort, he wasn't going to take that away from her. It was why he was there, after all. There was a sudden weight in his stomach at the mention of Scott's death. Sometimes he forgot that other people blamed themselves too, and suddenly he understood a whole lot better what had Sarah so shaken up. It was a thought that had fringed on his own mind, but he hadn't wanted to put too much into it; not yet. He had to believe that they were going to be safe, more or less, or else it was going to tear him to bits. He couldn't help that he was as protective as he was, and even the small amount of energy that he had put into the idea of being useless in a fight made him feel ill. He was a tank, a scrapper; it was his job to keep other people safe. So what was he supposed to do when other people needed to keep him safe?

"Sarah, listen to me." He stared back at her, locking on her gaze. "Nobody is gonna get hurt because you don't have your powers. And nobody is gonna get hurt because you have mine, alright? They're not hard to control and if I can do it, you certainly can." It wasn't going to be easy of course, but he believed in her. There were worse powers to be stuck with, after all, and as long as she didn't destroy the building around her, then she would be fine. He smiled just a touch at her suggestion and nodded a little. "They're staring to go away." It was another lie, but if it kept her calm, then he could deal with voices in his head.
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Sarah Vale
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Technopathy
Being emotional was never the most comfortable feeling for Sarah. Sure, she had her moments, but she liked to mostly remain rational. She didn’t cry during movies – tv shows, sometimes – and she always felt weird getting gifts, because she wasn’t that kid that screamed in happiness with each one. She liked to hug, but only if she was close with someone. And this whole semi-emotional breakdown over what was happening, that was not okay. She hated being this emotional, and she forced herself to take another deep breath, because Jimmy looks utterly lost at trying to figure out how to make it better. Closing her eyes, she focused on nothing in particular, forcibly relaxing each tense muscle. Meditation wasn’t new to her, fortunately, and she kept her eyes closed until he spoke, opening them to look at him. It helped, that he was so certain, so sure that things would work out. Even though she was pretty certain he was almost as shaken up as she was.

“…Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Lifting her head up, she bit her lip and nodded, doing her best to seem less upset. The panic was slowly wearing down, the more she shoved the memories of the past events aside. This wasn’t an attack. This wasn’t David, this was just some poor kid who had no idea how to control his powers. It wasn’t a precursor to anything worse, Scott would have warned them. Swallowing hard and giving Jimmy a shaky, uncertain smile, she very carefully leaned forward and gave him a quick, light hug around his shoulders. Sitting back and studiously ignoring the light blush she felt warming her cheeks, she arched a brow at his lie.

“…They never go away.” Sarah said quietly, but with a small hint of amusement in her voice at calling his bluff. “Nice try, though. I know my powers – tech is never silent. Do yourself a favor, stay out of the city and stay away from the student dorms.” Giving him a small, bashful smile, she tilted her head. “If you’re gonna help me with your powers, I can help you with mine. Also, I know about ten different ways to kill a migraine.” Being mentally derived, her powers tended to cause headaches when she overreached, especially before she had learned control. Judging from the nosebleed he had when she first came into the room, she’d bet he was feeling that aspect of her powers already.
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