A Slightly Dim And Not Quite Stormy Afternoon

[whatamithinking]

It is a fairly typical rainy August afternoon. Edie is lounging in civvies with a good book, and Emily is snacking on some leftover birthday cake while transformed and working on a metal sculpture.

"I don't know why you're bothering," Edie says of the copper-and-verdigris design. "I mean, the rest of it is going to go green too eventually, right?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Emily says stubbornly. "I could coat it with clear paint or something to prevent oxidation."

"Fair enough," Edie says, and returns to perusing her book.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Yeah."

Nothing more for a minute or so; then, "Okay, everybody's on the other side of the room now."

[whatamithinking]

Start with the weakest one, just in case.

"Psionic Blast."

[pythbox]

This opens a hole in the wall, not really big enough for any people to come through it, but big enough to look through and see the large open space with a crowd of people huddled together on the opposite side.

[whatamithinking]

Well, as long as it didn't hurt anyone, she can just keep blasting the wall until the hole is big enough, can't she?

[pythbox]

Yes she can! That works just fine.

[whatamithinking]

She steps through, surveying the room. "Is anyone injured badly? We have healing."

[pythbox]

"Over here," says someone in the crowd. Not the person who was talking to her through the wall.

[whatamithinking]

She goes over there.

[iamnotpolaris]

Emily follows! Two healers is more efficient than one on several levels.

[pythbox]

The huddled people get out of the way, revealing about a dozen people lying on the ground in various states of unpleasantness. Some are unconscious, some crying. Only one is visibly injured, a man with a huge bruise on one side of his face; the rest, apparently, had encounters with the walls.



A boy somewhere between eight and twelve years old follows them across the room, having apparently been waiting beside the former doorway while they blasted their way in.

[iamnotpolaris]

...Yeah, bruise man is the lowest priority here. Emily begins healing the rest, dotting one and healing them before moving on to the next--it probably wouldn't leave her nonfunctional to sympathetically heal several people at once who had been walled but she's not eager to try it.

[whatamithinking]

Edie does likewise, although she does note the kid who was beside the doorway. "Are you the person we were talking to?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah. Are they going to be okay?" he asks, frowning in concern.

[whatamithinking]

"Physically, yes. Mentally--they've been through a traumatic experience. How well they hold up depends a lot on them." She glances at him again. "...How much of this did you organize?"

[pythbox]

"Some," he admits. "We weren't sure Janine made it - her team came back unconscious."

[whatamithinking]

"She did, thankfully. She's at our house right now." Healing someone by Si Vales Valeo doesn't take a long time--they're down to bruise guy. Edie heals him. Edie catches Emily's eye, and glances meaningfully at the kid.

[iamnotpolaris]

"...You think so? Yeah, I can see it. Mercurial Metal Manipulation." A tendril of probably-steel, presumably from one of the guards, flows over and forms up into a rectangle about the size of a business card with an email address engraved on it. She hands it to him. "Give us a ring in a couple of years, okay? It's always best to have a mentor when you're just starting out."

[pythbox]

"...What?" he says, warily accepting the card.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Edie thinks you're getting magic when you're old enough. I don't disagree."

[pythbox]

"...I'm not a girl," he points out, in case they hadn't noticed.

[whatamithinking]

"Not everyone who gets magic is. Magical Boys are rarer, but they exist."

[pythbox]

"I guess," he says dubiously.

[whatamithinking]

"You'll see. Was that everyone who was hurt, or just the worst?"

[pythbox]

"Anybody else injured?" the kid calls into the crowd, and a few people come forward with bumps and bruises and one twisted ankle.

[whatamithinking]

Twisted ankle gets dealt with first because that could actually be an impediment, but healing for everyone. "Is there any particular reason that any of you know of for not just getting out right now?"