Gonna burst into flame, go ahead

[myownbestfriend]

WHO: Anyone assisting in the Civil War Museum rescue thanks Lucifer
WHERE: the Civil War Museum, I hope
WHEN: 3/10, afternoon? correct me if I'm wrong
WHAT: BIG DAMN HEROES and/or screwups
WARNINGS: arson, civilians trapped in a burning building, will edit further warnings if necessary

Emma was more of a natural second-in-command, but she didn't see a leader emerging anywhere--civilian fire fighters or police officers hardly counted--and lord knew she had experience with getting a crowd of independent sorts to work together...by fair means or foul. Standing in front of the building, very visible in her impractical X-Men uniform, Emma reached out to the imPort minds she could feel nearby, the exertion of using her telepathic talent to do so many things at once starting cause the pink-white aura that was the visible signature of her power to dance in and around her eyes.

I'm Emma Frost. I'll be coordinating rescue efforts. Her telepathic voice came through strong and assured, along with a mental image of herself, tall, blond, and dressed in revealing white, with the encircled X of her team logo located rather questionably directly over her cleavage. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a telepath, and the joint leader of the X-Men, a superhero team in my home universe. For the moment you've been deputized, and given that I have high standards, congratulations are in order.

The speed of thought was fast enough for Emma's brand of dry wit not to use up too much time, but she switched to practical matters without more than a passing delay for banter. Our priorities are lives and keeping the fire from spreading, but after that we can let the local talent feel useful and put it out. Apprehending our arsonist can wait. If you need to talk to someone else on the team, just think it and I'll pass it on. This is functionally a mental conference call.

...All right, darlings, let's get started.

OOC: Right, so, this is a group log, and the threads don't have to include Emma. She's going to be a Useful Plot Device the way telepaths always are and make sure everyone has an excuse to thread with whoever they want and know things they might not otherwise not be able to find out. If your character is immune to psi or you otherwise don't want Emma in their heads, that's fine, too. Just specify so that no one assumes. And now I have to go cook dinner so I won't even be the first thread in my own log. ;___;

Comments

[myownbestfriend]

[After they've emptied the building and all that's left is firefighting, Emma leaves that to the fire department and the ice mages and focuses on the injured. Beyond dulling pain, she's more useful for the gravely injured, keeping their autonomous functions going by sheer telepathic skill until the paramedics can intervene. Once the worst cases are all on their way to the hospital or miraculously cured, Emma gets Jesse's attention by taking his hand where she can see he isn't manifesting any burns. Ordinarily she'd lay a hand on his shoulder in a less familiar gesture, but given the seemingly pyrrhic nature of his power, she doesn't want to take the chance his shirt is hiding more wounds.]

That's enough for now.

[hostage]

[Jesse raises his eyes to her when she takes his hand. He doesn't immediately register what she's saying, which is why he looks for a moment like he's been scolded. When he realizes she's telling him he can take a break, his expression settles into relief.]

...Oh. Okay.

[myownbestfriend]

[Come the day Emma decides Jesse needs a scolding, he will know.]

Mm. You're not thinking clearly...and who could blame you.

[She can feel the pain radiating off him like heat from the fires, bad enough that it's making her clench her teeth simply from being in proximity. While never the world's most compassionate person--or even in the top several billion--Emma doesn't want someone who's never done her any harm to suffer, especially when that suffering is giving her a headache. Though she's tired herself, Emma's experienced, and her own power doesn't take a literal toll, so with a soft brush of thought, she smooths away Jesse's pain, turning off, for the moment, his ability to perceive it.]

OOC: If at any point you want me to lay off the telepathy, tell me. Emma's ethics are seriously questionable, but I'll never do anything much more invasive than this without asking first.

[hostage]

(( OOC: You can go to town on his brain. He's got zero defenses against it. ))

[The sudden change is jarring. His whole posture shifts in an instant, from slumped and worn out back to his usual stance. His mind reels as it tries to catch up with the fact that his pain is totally gone; he has to look down at his arms to convince himself that his burns haven't outright disappeared. And he's still wheezing, so she hasn't healed him. Just...]

What'd you do to me?

[myownbestfriend]

I switched off your ability to feel pain, temporarily. Once I take my thumb off your thalamus, it'll return.

[Emma's physical voice is identifiable from her mental one, though there's something missing from it in an undefinable way, some telepathic dimension that mere speech can't reproduce.]

I trust those will heal themselves?

[She looks at his visible burns. If Jesse's just swapping who has the injuries, that's got to be one of the most counterproductive powers she's ever heard of.]

[hostage]

[He doesn't know what a thalamus is, but he gets the idea. And he's immensely grateful. But it does mean he has to be extra careful not to hurt himself further.

As for her question...]

I dunno. Um... I think so?

[Probably something he should have considered before voluntarily disfiguring his entire body, but somehow it hadn't seemed important at the time.]

[myownbestfriend]

[...Well, that's not good.

Emma has a wide variety of "you are an idiot" faces, and Jesse's now on the receiving end of one of medium intensity.]

You didn't have powers before arriving here.

[hostage]

[Jesse hardly notices because that's the face everyone makes when they look at him.]

Yeah, no. I'm kinda new... to this.

[myownbestfriend]

[Sigh.]

Well. If you have a complementary healing factor, it's certainly not a strong one.

[She spends a lot of time around Wolverine. It might be skewing her perceptions a bit.]

Next stop for you is the hospital.

[He can argue but it will be a waste of effort. Emma has bulldozed much stronger personalities than Jesse's.]

[hostage]

[Well, he doesn't really want to argue. That's a damn sensible idea. Just...]

I don't think I got enough money for three weeks in a burn ward.

[He'd have to start cooking meth again to pay those kinds of bills, he's thinking.]

[myownbestfriend]

[Oh, right. Inconvenient, having to think about money. Emma hasn't been anything less than filthy rich in so long she's forgotten what it's like to have limited resources.]

Their medical technology is better than what you're used to. I doubt it would be that long, and I don't recommend going into, ah, guerrilla chemistry, regardless.

[White collar, Jesse. White collar is the way to go.]

[hostage]

[He's not sure highly advanced technology is going to be any cheaper, and he's about to say as much - but then she mentions the other thing and his eyes get real wide.]

Whoa, hey, no - I was just kidding!

[He was not kidding. He was not kidding to himself privately in his brain. He would totally cook so much meth if he could get his hands on a lab and precursor. It pays way better than babysitting.]