On the verge of... (Matthew)

[Matthew Craft]

Matthew can tell just by looking at her that Laurie is about as keen on her running back out into the riot as he is (not!). If it wasn’t for the pheromones, he’d be out there already, trying to calm everyone down. But at the risk of acting like the raging mutant the media would love him to be, he holds back.

“Um he doesn’t know I exist so I don’t see how he could recognize me and, er, I don’t think I could stop him even if I wanted to… I meant that I’d go back out there to tell someone since they don’t seem to be coming over towards us and I have no idea how telepathy works so I don’t know…could we get Josh’s attention somehow, um, thoughtwise?” Matthew frowns and turns to look back out at the crowd.

“I don’t know…I don’t think it works like that…” Thinking ‘out loud’ probably wouldn’t be very useful, especially since neither of them were telepaths.

“If we can’t I could be in and out really quick?”

“I—I don’t want you going out there,” He says weakly, holding her a little tighter, not willing to let her go. But it’s kind of ironic, because as he’s about to (nicely) point out that she might not be able to help very much, the din from the riot begins to quiet.

“I don’t even know who’s left to tell anymore…” Laurie points to the stage-side of the riot and Warren’s fumbling save of an unconscious Ms. Munroe. Matthew can feel a lump form in his throat.

“Yeah, definitely not letting you go out there now.” He squeaks before nervously clearing his throat. With Ms. Munroe out of the fight, Matthew could feel the sensation of dread flood him, even through the crowd had begun to calm.

“But no, no I really don’t want to go out there either…is there any way we can get someone’s attention without you getting close enough to the crowd to be affected?”

“Umm…yeah, I’m sure I can do something.” Matthew’s first idea, astonishing himself with his own obscurity, is to blow something up. Sure it would gain some attention, but probably not the best type of attention. “But we might end up making things worse if they,” he points to the areas where the riot hadn’t yet calmed, “end up coming after us. I don’t think I could stop all of them.” And if any of them tried to go after Laurie again, he couldn’t guarantee that his radiation wouldn’t start up for a second time. “But,” he says slowly, watching as different sections of the crowd stopped pummeling each other and stood around in confusion. “Maybe we won’t need to tell any of the others…it seems like they’ve got things under control almost…”

[Laurie Collins]

“Umm…yeah, I’m sure I can do something. But we might end up making things worse if they end up coming after us. I don’t think I could stop all of them.”

“And I could, well, maybe I could if I had time to concentrate, but then I’d just affect you too anyway.” she frowns, twisting her hands together nervously in front of her. “Everything would be so much less complicated if you were immune to me too.” she muses aloud, then blushes slightly. Oops. Hopefully he’ll just assume I meant the riot and crowd control stuff. Or else just forget this entire day and never ask me about my…about him… or anything else. That would be nice.. She turns her face away, quickly shoving the hormone-induced faux pas to the back of her mind as she scans the nearby buildings and rooftops as if the answer will be written there.

“Maybe we won’t need to tell any of the others…it seems like they’ve got things under control almost…”

Laurie looks back out at the crowd and feels conflicting surges of relief and dismay as the scene becomes clear- whatever it is has definitely stopped affecting the crowd for now, the riot has become a mass exodus and it’s evident that the alley they’re hiding in is about to get a lot more crowded. While increased calm can only be good (and the fact that she doesn’t feel like she should run out into the melee to play messenger is much better than good) the fighting has actually intensified towards the rapidly emptying center of the square. Mr. Worthington and Miss. Munroe seem to be on the sidelines and relatively unhurt but she recognizes John, Rogue, Josh, and some mutants she’s never seen at the school fighting amongst each other there. She winces as lightening and fire intersect in the air and one of the younger members of the fight is flung upwards like a rag doll. What’s going on? Wasn’t a riot the point of whatever was happening?

“I guess they’re still fighting even without being affected by…whatever it was.” she bites her lip for a moment, trying to decipher which way the fight is going and looks up at Matthew, “Do you think it’s the Brotherhood?” Never having knowingly met another mutant before coming to Xavier’s and having been- to her knowledge at least- a human much longer than a mutant the group’s name packs as much of a punch with her as the average human citizen and the idea of anyone from the institute, even if no one she knew beyond either a momentary and intimidating encounter or word of mouth was involved, facing off against the legends from the media and the stories other students have been only too happy to morbidly whisper to the easily impressed new girl is nerve-wracking to the say the least. And there’s probably nothing we can do about any of it…

She reaches out to take Matthew’s hand, threading her fingers loosely through his to reassure herself that he’s still there with her and not somehow in the midst of all this too, that they’re both here and safe, and alleviating her guilt over initiating another act of intimacy she can’t possibly hope to continue by telling herself that in a situation as stressful as this it can be excused.

[Matthew Craft]

“And I could, well, maybe I could if I had time to concentrate, but then I’d just affect you too anyway.” Matthew nods hesitantly. On one hand, he'd be affected again (but most likely not to the point of harming anyone), and on the other, she could potentially finally put an end to all this madness. Pulling a quote from Spock; ("The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few")Matthew makes an easy decision.

"Don't worry about me." He reassures, "These guys need you more than I need to not be acting like a stoner." Matthew grins, trying to act well-natured so Laurie knows he's not bothered by her manipulation of him.

“Everything would be so much less complicated if you were immune to me too.”

"No kidding." He mutters, oblivious as she shies away. Life would definitely be a lot easier if he was immune to her pheromones, the same way it'd be easier if she was immune to radiation. Oh the curve balls that life tosses us.

Matthew feels a glimmer of hope however, as large sections of the crowd pull out of their angry combat and stand around, shaking their heads or rubbing their wounds. Some cry in shock and pain, but most immediately begin to flee, the vast majority heading in their direction. A few more groups continue to fight, mostly unfazed by the disappearance of their brawl-mates. And there's a flurry of fire and electricity, and Matthew realizes that John's likely the source of said flame.

“Do you think it’s the Brotherhood?” He frowns, eyes scanning for the remaining combatants. It's not like he'd be able recognize most of them even if they were Brotherhood, but in any case it was worth a shot.

"I don't know...I'm not all that familiar with the Brotherhood. Doesn't seem like Magneto's style though. I've never heard of his stuff being so...chaotic." He knew of the major Brotherhood members, like Magneto and Mystique, but if there was a member who could cause all this sort of havoc, Matthew didn't know about them. "This could be a different group too..."

Just as the first of the square escapees rush into their narrow alley-way, Matthew feels comparatively small fingers tangle with his and he looks down at Laurie. The space around them immediately becomes overly crowded, so he tugs on her hand gently and pulls her over to the side, pressing up against the wall. Matthew tightens his hand on her as the hoard of bodies squeezes into the cramped space, a few stabbing elbows and hands urging him to move his body to shield Laurie's.

And then in the matter of a minute, the crowd is gone, giving them both some much needed breathing room. He pulls back, still holding her hand, and stares out into the still-populated Times Square, the remaining battles now relatively easily seen.

"Something tells me that whatever this is," he points to where John and another, shorter male are engaged, "isn't still being caused by the pheromones or whatever." But John's always been a hothead, so seeing that he's still in a fight doesn't really surprise Matthew all that much. "So...I suppose that means it's safe...right?" The rest of the dispersed fights were probably still continuing because of the residual rage--they didn't know that they weren't supposed to be fighting anymore. Or at least...that's what Matthew hopes. Naturally, there was only one way to know for sure... "I'm going out there." He decides abruptly, stepping towards the end of the alley way, his hand still clutching Laurie's like a lifeline.

He'd take it slow, just in case he did get affected, then he could try and put himself back into the safety of the alley-way. He didn't want to pressure Laurie into going back out into the square, and he wasn't too keen on leaving her behind, but he had to help clear everything else up. With Miss Monroe down for the count and the others busy with they're own qualms, Matthew felt he had to help at least get the rest of the civilians out of harms way.

[Laurie Collins]

"Don't worry about me. These guys need you more than I need to not be acting like a stoner."

“If I could even manage it again.” Laurie mutters, frowning down at the ground, “I think I could only make myself before because-“ there’s a brief pause as she chokes ‘you needed me to’ down and thinks to substitute it with, “I had to.” It’s really striking her now how very useless she is, how much of a liability. During the invasion of the school she’d done well all things considered, had managed not to get herself or too many of the soldiers killed and had found Matthew and Mr. Coleman soon enough that she hadn’t really needed to do anything but follow them about and then sit with Matthew in the medlab. She’d felt some guilt over not being able to scare away the soldiers before they’d hurt Miss. Craft but had felt that no one had really been expecting her to, least of all the teacher herself, and she hadn’t made the situation any worse either. Today, on the other hand, she’d made the situation much worse, albeit for a short period of time, and if she hadn’t had Matthew there to reassure her and give her a pressing reason to get herself under control she has the feeling the fear emissions would have ended around the time she got trampled. Alternately if she’d been able to control her mutation the situation could have been much better, she could have calmed large sections of the crowd, people- Miss. Munroe- might not have been hurt as they had been. Or I could learn to control it and then a few months from now be the one causing the riots…

"I don't know...I'm not all that familiar with the Brotherhood. Doesn't seem like Magneto's style though. I've never heard of his stuff being so...chaotic. This could be a different group too..."

Matthew’s voice jerks her out of the old argument with herself and she nods slowly, biting her lip and scanning the crowd again as if someone will be wearing a large name tag identifying their affiliation. She’s not sure whether to hope it isn’t the Brotherhood, because they do not sound like the sort you’d ever hope to encounter or to hope it is them because how many violent mutant terrorist groups can there be before you just give up and run away?

Then the crowd reaches them and Laurie lets herself be guided back towards the wall, responding to Matthew’s sudden pressure on her hand with a return squeeze and shutting her eyes as the crowd jostles past them, trying to remain as calm as possible since it would be a lovely example of tragic irony if she got everyone all riled up again just as whatever had caused their anger seemed to disappear. It’s not helping her attempts to stay calm that Matthew seems to take it as a matter of course that he’ll be acting as the human shield in all potentially physically harmful scenarios- she knows it’s logical since he’s both bigger (and therefore more intimidating) and less likely to feel pain from the mostly accidental jostling of the crowd than her but it still just doesn’t sit well. She’s used to people thinking they have to look out for her- after all Gail Collins is in the dictionary under ‘overprotective mother’ as evidenced by the wince that appears on Mr. Shepard’s face whenever mothers are mentioned in their mutual presence- but that doesn’t mean the protectiveness doesn’t run both ways and it’s a struggle not to distract Matthew with a protest about the arrangement in the midst of the stampede.

When it clears she moves next to him again quickly, giving him a rather sharp once-over to make sure he’s still whole and relatively un-bruised before looking up at him as he speaks-

"Something tells me that whatever this is isn't still being caused by the pheromones or whatever. So...I suppose that means it's safe...right?"

We obviously have different definitions of safe Laurie thinks wryly, though the humor at this stage is tinged with a bit of mental hysteria, and is about to say as much when he follows with-

"I'm going out there."

and starts for the center of the square, pulling her gently along with him. Do we have to? she thinks, looking longingly back towards the alley. Can’t they handle this? Or I could just wait there… but she keeps those ideas internal and merely nods, giving Matthew a shaky smile and tightening her grip on his hand, obviously not happy about the idea but willing to go along with it.

One of the small knots of fighting drifts their way as they get further out towards the center of the square- a few rather slight teenage boys hurling insults and punches and seeming less enraged now than puzzled but too proud to back down until there’s either a clear victor in their little skirmish or they’re forcibly separated. Laurie looks up at Matthew for a cue, not even wanting to attempt any decision making here, if he wants to help civilians this would be a good place to start, but if he’s intent on joining the main fight these teenagers probably won’t do any permanent damage to each other.

While she waits for that decision to come down she notices Mr. Worthington flying overhead and hops a bit in place, doing to the typical airplane-signaling wave as she realizes that the others might not have noticed them and that it might be good if they did- barring the need for any help she and Matthew are still definitely going to need a ride back to the Institute after this.

(end of this thread, cross posted over to 100mtoanchorage.proboards98.com/index.cgi?board=riot&action=display&thread=1173320710&page=3)