bakerstreet | Last night

Entry tags:

[meme] angst

Last night

the last night.

dusk has fallen, and your nerves are on fire.

you are not looking forward to tomorrow, for whatever reason - perhaps you're in the ending stages of war and the final battle is imminent, perhaps you'll be leaving for an extended period of time, perhaps you're set to go into a risky surgery. whatever's going to happen, it could be the very last night you have, whether it's in this city, in this dimension, in this life. how are you going to spend it? will you say your goodbyes to your loved ones, spend time reminiscing, or just go about your everyday life and try not to think about it?

the choice is yours, but you'd better make it soon. you don't have much time left.

instructions →
1. post with your character.
2. tag others.
3. spend your last night wisely.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Night before a big battle, night before some invasion (Sentinels or the like or whatever counts as an enemy in your character’s canon for cross canon), night before a timeline reset? ota for gen, m/f for shipping. ]

ota gen, m/f ship.

[ Since Erik and Charles eventually work together, maybe the night before some joined Brotherhood/X-Men offensive that ends with John’s lighter being part of lost mutants memorial and Rogue getting caught/made a mutant guinea pig?

Or something else entirely if that doesn’t work! ]

works for me - it's funny, i did think of his memorial lighter when i saw this.

Awesome… I’ll get a starter written up! lol bless the memorial lighter Easter egg.

Do you have a preference for brackets or prose? I can write either/or.

i usually use brackets, but not stuck on it.

You've got it — let me know if there’s anything you want me to change!

It’s eerily quiet when Rogue rolls out of the lumpy cot she’s been struggling to fall asleep on. How anyone can be sleeping is beyond her, and she’s been tossing and turning for the last hour, the debriefing from earlier that evening replaying in her mind, leaving her unsettled and anxious.

The school being seized months earlier had been bad, and the growing number of Sentinel-driven mutant arrests have given her more nightmares than she’s willing to admit to. But seeing the Professor lead Erik Lehnsherr into their makeshift bunker, the place that’s been the closest thing they have to a home now, as though it was the only logical solution had been entirely too much for her.

She’d turned on her heel and walked out of the large room they’d gathered in, only reappearing when it became clear that Magneto, and the dwindling members of his army, weren’t going anywhere. And when a plan had been laid out for them — one that seemed like a poorly constructed Hail Mary, scheduled for the next day — Rogue had listened quietly, leaning against a wall in the back with her jaw clenched.

It wasn’t like she had a lot of say in any of it. And she’d already been hearing muttering behind her back, wondering how smart it was to put her out in the field.l at all. What was she supposed to do with her powers? Was she a liability to whoever got paired off with her?

Probably.

She isn’t going to tell anyone how she felt about that either.

Now, she doesn’t bother slipping on shoes, just grabs her jacket and tugs it on over the long-sleeved t-shirt and cargo pants she practically lives in these days.

Looking cute doesn’t really matter when the entire world is trying to kill you.

The bunker’s still, and she’s grateful for that, thankful she doesn’t have field questions or make conversation, but they heavy door to the wooded area outside creaks as she pulls it open, the sound seeming louder than it actually is in the stillness.

If nothing else, in this matter at least Logan’s absence is a blessing. He would have heard it and investigated.

She grimaces, leaving door slightly ajar behind her, not wanting to risk waking anyone or drawing someone’s attention by closing it fully.

I did not take you for a runner.

[ the words are overly punctuated, would-be amused, but fall flatter. they follow her quickly — whether he'd been lurking in the woods to smoke or followed her out, he'd been quiet enough. quieter than he used to be, which is wearing off the more thoughts spin. there is a cigarette between his fingers, unlit. may as well be a threat, these days. he doesn't mean it to be one, yet he's earned the cold sweat when he waves one. arguably not nearly the most sociopathic the brotherhood has in stock. still done his share.

pyro has been more vicious than she and bobby expected, he thinks. made a fair few frustrated attempts on the latter. none on her, not directly. she didn't elicit the same kind of buckling rage. rather, disappointment. ]

Well.

[ a scrunch of a frown as he bites the filter, a shrug. don't antagonize her, magneto had warned. their leader had a way about words, low and even. one leaned to hear them, always searing truth. it had been spurred by nothing, pyro thought, just an observing look. don't antagonize her, he said, i won't help you. of course not. first rule if there was one. don't look back, don't pick up the fallen. what an odd warning, he'd thought.

magneto liked her, he knew that. liked the potential of her as a being. liked her spite of the status quo. that cusp of slipping. edging, pyro would call it, not to his face. ]

Suppose I did, you've all been running from this for years.

[ there's a pop on the first word, tightly. the world is all that the brotherhood foresaw and more. the x-men point fingers, place blame on the brotherhood for why their kumbaya of sympathy hadn't rattled the hearts and minds of lesser men. meanwhile it was by magneto's hand so many of them had survived the tides. what few of them have. xavier's people look so bitter, as though reality were on its head. as though they were not accountable.

he doesn't need the lighter anymore, he still carries it. shields it from the evening breeze as he ignites the end of the stick and claps it shut. ]

[ She hadn’t grabbed shoes in an effort to remain quiet, but as soon as she hears someone else she regrets her decision.

It shouldn't surprise her she's not the only one awake and unable to sleep. That the warehouse had been so quiet, with no one pacing or complaining, is the anomaly. But, for the first time in a while, she'd allowed herself to get her hopes up for a little peace.

Worse, there are only a few people she wants to see right now. Even Bobby and Kitty aren't high on the list. But out of the very long list of those she'd rather avoid until they're in the field together, John might be the one she least wants to make conversation with. She can't say it's not personal, because of course it is, but it's less that he'll piss her off (though he probably will) and more likely that he'll say something that will get in her head, or make her doubt herself, or make her doubt one of the few people left she trusts.

If she'd worn shoes, she could at least venture further into the woods and hope he doesn't feel like following. ]

Who's running? [ She wants to point out that she's not the one wh o left; he is. If anyone's the runner here...

But that will only make things worse, unsettle her even more, give him a crack to snake his way into. ]

There something wrong with not being able to sleep now?

[ By now he's used to the world changing. And used to others leaving or him leaving. He's used to battles through out all centuries as well. Armarus has also been known to 'retreat' and allow the vessel (Timothy) to take control of the body again. This could be his last night before he gives up the body (M/F. Preference for Gen. Very available through all timelines).]