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Boom
Jul 30, 2008 20:10:43 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Jul 30, 2008 20:10:43 GMT
His eyes were automatically drawn towards her hair as she pulled it back. “You're an explosionist, too? That's great! How does your power work?" Russ chuckled at that. Explosionist? Now there was a word he hadn’t heard before. Explosions controller, explosions manipulator, yeah, but never an ‘explosionist’. “I’m not too sure, to be honest,” he admitted. “I’ve only been at Orchid for a few months, so the specifics haven’t been worked out yet. Basically, it’s like…” He broke off for a second, frowning. “I’m not sure, but it’s as though… there’s some sort of thing – an explosive, if you will – inside every object, and if I want to, my gaze becomes the heat source to set it alight. There’s an element in me that I can switch on and off, and I can control where it reacts. Or something,” he added, with a rueful grin. “To be honest, it never occurred to me to think about how it worked until I came here.” He looked at something, it exploded. That was just how it worked. That was all he needed to know. “And yours?” he asked, intrigued. From being at Orchid, he’d realised that everyone’s way of exploding things came from a different source, and if Lynn had asked, then hers must be particularly interesting.
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Boom
Aug 2, 2008 19:40:31 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Aug 2, 2008 19:40:31 GMT
She grinned. "I'm a wave-controller," she said. "It's pretty rare - basically, I control anything - anything natural - that travels in wavelengths. So that's heat, light, sound and" - her grin widened - "nuclear radiation." She realised that she probably seemed like a psychopath, being so obviously thrilled by a power that most people would be repelled by, but she couldn't help it. Even in the darkest times, even when she found out what she had spent all those years learning to control the power for, even when she realised that most other wave controllers considered that aspect of their power to be a curse, she couldn't make herself hate it. It was too big a part of her by now, and Lynn didn't go in all too strongly for that self-hatred thing. "There's background radiation everywhere," she said, "and if I want something to blow, I manipulate those waves to gather inside the object and... well, it's kind of like a microwave. A really, really, really strong one." She paused. "Of course, I'm not immune to radiation or anything," she said, "and the waves have to be directed through the body somehow, so most people with my power can't actually use those waves that way without frying themselves. But I'm lucky, I've got a built-in shield." She raised her hand and waggled her fingers at him. A silver sheen appeared at the top of her fingers and quickly pooled down the rest of her hand, until the appendage was entirely made of metal. "Lead tends to be pretty useful for my purposes," she said, smiling a little less than she had been before. She never really knew how people would react to this. There had been running-for-the-hills situations before, and she wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of Russ doing the same. She could tell already that she liked him.
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Boom
Aug 5, 2008 20:56:55 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Aug 5, 2008 20:56:55 GMT
Russ frowned as the shiny grey pool at the tips of Sal - Lynn's fingers spilled down the rest of her hand, the coating rendering it shiny, silver, and oddly beautiful. Radiation? Well, that was... something. Definitely a first, anyway. It was kind of humbling, actually - you think you've seen it all, and then you arrive at Orchid Hill, and you meet people like this, who have powers that could... well, microwave you. He grinned, trying not to show how impressed he really was at that. "Well, remind me not to get on the wrong side of you, then." Dámn right. The thought of being microwaved wasn't exactly... the most appealing of things, even funny mental images (that made it practically impossible to take it seriously) included. Russ tilted his dark head, studying Sally's silver hand for a moment. Ha, Sally's silver hand. That sounded good - wait, not again! Lynn's silver hand. Lynn's. "I guess that comes in useful, then. That's pretty cool. But how did you learn all this? I didn't know they taught nuclear stuff here. I mean, it's not exactly... teenager friendly." Huh, it really wasn't. It was funny, all explosions were dangerous, but nuclear radiation sounded just that bit more so. Probably because standard explosions would just blow you up; you wouldn't be... microwaved. That word sounded so wrong in this context.
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Boom
Aug 6, 2008 10:17:03 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Aug 6, 2008 10:17:03 GMT
She resisted the urge to sigh. It was difficult - or more difficult than usual, anyway - dealing with the smart ones. She had to give Russ credit. It usually took a couple of weeks for that to click. And if she'd had her way, she would just have told him, but her family had told her not to. She realised that it made sense, of course. She knew people wouldn't take greatly to her if they'd known that at one point, she was going to be the person who would vaporise them all. But it was OK. She'd tell him the truth. Just... not the whole truth. "Aye, you're right," she said, holding her grin firmly in place. "Orchid isn't... greatly enthusiastic about teaching wave controllers about how to use the radiation, because people make mistakes while they're learning and, so far's I know, I don't think magic can cure radiation poisoning. Changes the DNA, y'know? But they're lucky - we have to be specifically taught how to deal with radiation. It's like some kind of survival instinct, or something. Radiation waves are the hardest of all waves to manipulate, so you can't use them by accident and hurt yourself unless you've already been trained how to use them. Here, they stick to just training the light-sound-heat aspect." Right. All true there. This was going well. "So, yeah, I didn't learn here - I only came to this school when I was fourteen. I used to go to another place that specialised in more dangerous powers. They... well, I don't know what they did, but I think they modified one of my powers so I'd be able to do the turning into metal thing and stop myself from frying. Which was good. Safer." OK. That was good. Now change the subject before he has a chance to ask any questions. She glanced around the room and pretended to be surprised when she saw that everyone else had started their sparring long ago. "Here, we should get going," she said, smiling back up at him, and being struck, when she saw him again, at just how big the height difference between them was. For a mad moment she wished she was wearing heels, but then she snapped out of it. The hiking boots may not have made her tall, but they were certainly more conducive to fighting. Even if the lack of added height made it clear that there was at least eight inches between them, which was kind of intimidating. "I wouldn't be surprised if we get put on clean-up duty for skiving, and I don't know about you, but I don't have psychokinesis."
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Boom
Aug 13, 2008 20:55:03 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Aug 13, 2008 20:55:03 GMT
"So, yeah, I didn't learn here - I only came to this school when I was fourteen. I used to go to another place that specialised in more dangerous powers…” That sentence reeked of half-truths and things to be told. A story. A place that specialised in dangerous powers definitely sounded interesting. When she’d finished, he opened his mouth to ask the question, but she cut him off quickly, reminding him of the task at hand. "Here, we should get going, I wouldn't be surprised if we get put on clean-up duty for skiving, and I don't know about you, but I don't have psychokinesis." “Eh, no,” he admitted. “I suppose electromagnetism’d help a bit, though.” Curiosity was killing him, now. A place that specialised in more dangerous powers. He’d heard about weird places that trained kids in things like bombs and shít, but not anywhere near here, and not recently. Rumours came through, sure, but no one ever believed them, because no one could ever back it up. But Lynn’s accent was thoroughly North Scottish, so there must be somewhere like that near here. “Where…” Most people weren’t as honest as he was. She’d probably left it out for a reason. He sighed inwardly, biting it off and changing his sentence mid-word. “Where are we going to, then?”
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Boom
Aug 14, 2008 16:54:12 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Aug 14, 2008 16:54:12 GMT
He was asking her? She hadn't read everything on the note that Madeleine had set out, but the messages must have contained details of what they were doing. She would have looked it herself if she wasn't conscious of the fact that to see it while it was still in his hands would involve her standing on tiptoes, which would result in her losing her balance, which would most likely result in her grabbing his shoulder, and she knew just how all the other girls in the class would react if they saw her do that to Russ Ford. So instead, she looked around again for a pile of unused equipment and quickly figured out where they were supposed to go. "Over there," she said, nodding her head towards the left-hand corner. "So," she said as she started to pick her way across the room, trusting that he was following her. "That's combustion and electromagne- Jesus!" She jumped out of the way of the hunk of ice that had nearly succeeded in knocking the nose off her face. "Christ, this place is worse than the battlefield," she muttered under her breath as she briefly scanned the room and identified the missile's source as an overzealous second-year who was now staring at her, his face cherry-red. She rolled her eyes at him, but the gesture was kind of ruined by her urge to laugh at the look on his face. "Anyway, sorry, yes." She looked back at Russ, resuming walking. "Electromagnetism and combustion - what's number three, then?"
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Boom
Aug 24, 2008 16:51:53 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Aug 24, 2008 16:51:53 GMT
Russ retorted to the piece of ice with a miniature explosion on a tiny of ice lying near the second-year’s feet, but not near enough for any damaged to be caused by it. The lump of ice hissed for a nanosecond, before the ice glowed white and pale blue sparks erupted, shards of glassy ice skittering along the floor. He grinned at the terrified look on the boy’s face, before answering Lynn’s question. “Wood manipulation. Don’t ask me how it works, I’ve no idea,” he chuckled. “I can mould it, I can carve it with my nails,” he said, watching her carefully for a reaction to that: most people grimaced or shuddered. He guessed that it was pretty gross; very nails-on-blackboard stuff, but then again, they didn’t know that when he carved, his nails didn’t make a sound on the wood. It was probably a good thing, Russ used to carve outside his trailer while talking to people, and if his nails had made a noise, he might have ended up quite anti-social. The others had started their practicing ages ago. He could see that someone already had a burn – Lauren… or was it Lucy? Whatever, she was in his combustion class. She was now being treated by one of the Warriors with healing powers, wincing as the healer’s cold fingers touched the burn. “So, aside from not having psychokinesis, and being able to microwave things, what makes you tick, then, Sally – aw, fúck, sorry, Lynn?” he cursed.
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Boom
Aug 31, 2008 9:39:39 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Aug 31, 2008 9:39:39 GMT
He moulded wood... with his nails? Ouch. OK, so if he did it often then realistically it probably didn't hurt, but it just... It made her think of that episode of the programme, the one where they were stuck on the beach and the soldier stuck little shunts of bamboo up that guy's nails to torture him. That wasn't an image that she was going to forget any time soon. "So, aside from not having psychokinesis, and being able to microwave things, what makes you tick, then, Sally - aw, fúck, sorry, Lynn?" She started a tally in her head. So that was one punch for Kennedy so far... She'd have to be sure not to tell him why she was doing it, though. Kennedy often ended up disliking people for the most trivial of reasons - his problems with Jamie leapt to mind - but disliking someone who caused him to get hit repeatedly from someone who was significantly stronger than him was, she had to admit, a pretty normal thing to do. She couldn't help laughing at the way he'd put it. "My other powers are that turning-into-metal thing that I showed you back there and... well, it's a kind of teleportation, but a really weird and usually useless kind. I can travel through reflective surfaces." She stopped for a moment as they arrived at the pile of equipment that had been designated for them. Surveying it for a second, she had to come to the conclusion that she had... absolutely no idea what to do with it. Well, she could ignore it for now, then. "But I wouldn't go saying that that's what makes me tick," she continued, looking back up at Russ. She didn't like talking to people without making eye contact; it felt strange.
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Boom
Sept 1, 2008 18:50:14 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 1, 2008 18:50:14 GMT
He grinned - it was hard not to; her smile was weirdly infectious. “Well, you’re different from most here, then. That’s usually the first and most important question asked – or so I hear, anyway. That’s all I’ve been asked when I meet people.” It really was the first port of call when you met someone new, apparently. Powers seemed to be what did make people tick here, as weird as that seemed to Russ. His combustion and magnetism didn’t really make much of a difference to his life; he just did things with those for the hell of it. Wood was a bit different; that stuff paid for his nicotine addiction, and anything else he wanted to get. And besides, carving was oddly good for him. If he focused on it a bit of wood when he was angry and unable to do anything about it, it usually took his mind off it for a while. ‘Course, usually he lashed out before trying the wood thing, but still. So he wouldn’t exactly say that those things ruled his life. He followed Sal- Lynn’s (he was determined to get this one right) gaze to the equipment, and laughed, because he had no idea what to do with it. Okay, the targets were pretty self-explanatory, but everything else... yeah, just no. “You know, I’ve no idea what the hell we’re supposed to be doing with this. Any ideas?”
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Boom
Sept 7, 2008 7:28:59 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 7, 2008 7:28:59 GMT
ooc: Right, so this idea for their power training is like entirely strange and random and I haven't run it past you yet because of computer faults *glares at MSN* - so if there's anything wrong, just let me know and I'll change it.
She laughed. He was making her do that quite a lot; it was almost as bad as when she and Kennedy were teasing Ari. Well, almost. He wasn't that good. Yet. "I, uh- Well, it's obvio- Hmmm," she said. "Right, scratch that, now is not a good time to pretend that I know what I'm doing." She surveyed the equipment. There were a few targets, yes, but that wasn't what she was trying to figure out. What she was trying to figure out was the great big machine stuck in the middle of it. She got down on her haunches and looked at it on its own level, trying to find instructions. Her search unsuccessful, she then moved to looking at it for buttons or something else that would make it clear what it was, but that didn't do anything either. She looked back up at Russ - and Jesus, was it really fair that she had to crane her neck quite so much? - and said, "It's just hit me - maybe this isn't an explosions test at all. Maybe it's mind games. Maybe all we have to do is figure out how this hunk of junk -" She hit it for emphasis, and then jumped back promptly as the machine started making worrying grinding noises. The sounds were followed shortly by a blur as a clay plate shot out of the machine and towards the head of a first year across the room. A stream of "sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tsh*t" poured from Lynn's mouth as she sprang into action, her entire torso immediately pooling into metal and her eyes shifting into her other vision. When there, she could quickly see the red haze of background radiation suffusing her vision of the room. She clenched her fist and the glow immediately shrank and concentrated into a bright red dot that followed the plate. The object fell into ashes a couple of feet behind the still-oblivious child, and she diffused the radiation still emanating from the dust back into a safe, low dose around the room. (An important part of her job, this - she doubted that Madeleine would appreciate nuclear waste in her arena.) Taking a deep breath, she morphed back into her original shape and sight. "I guess we have our answer, then. We get to shoot the clay pigeons." She laughed again. "Very aristocratic."
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Boom
Sept 13, 2008 11:59:19 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 13, 2008 11:59:19 GMT
When Sally – aw, for Chrissake – Lynn hit the machine, it jerked to life and started rasping, and making crunching grating noises. Jesus, how old is that thing? Suddenly, a pale blur shot past them – a clay plate, aimed straight at the head of a small kid over at the other side of the room. An impressive torrent of swearwords came from Lynn’s mouth, as the entire upper half of her body turned into liquid silver, and her eyes focusing out again. Yeah, he’d let her take this one. It was a bit weird, standing beside someone who was covered in lead, and looked vaguely like – yeah, he felt bad for saying it – a prettier, more feminine Silver Surfer, who he knew was silently sending radiation waves across the room. The plate crumbled into ash, collapsing to the floor, just behind the kid, who was still trying unsuccessfully to create a jet of water forceful enough to get rid of the clockwork thing that was approaching him, totally oblivious of what had just happened. Sally laughed, after transforming back into her non-Silver Surfer form. "I guess we have our answer, then. We get to shoot the clay pigeons. Very aristocratic." Russ laughed at that, grinning as he glanced back at the machine. "That was pretty impressive. So, do we need to hit it again, or does it just-" Another blur shot out of the machine, this time in the opposite direction. A curse word fell from his mouth as he focused in on it, concentrating his vision on the pale blur. Suddenly, white sparks spat out from it, before the plate was engulfed with a white flame for a split second, before black carbon landed on the floor. He laughed again. "We're making a bit of a mess."
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Boom
Sept 13, 2008 12:35:21 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 13, 2008 12:35:21 GMT
Lynn thought for a moment as she watched Russ take down the second plate. Clearly they weren't going to be getting much of a break, here, so really it would just make more sense if she stayed metallic for the rest of this session. After all, it did take time to morph, and time was something she didn't want to waste when dealing with what were basically missiles in a crowded room. Of course, this was only going on in one part of her mind. The other 90% was currently marvelling at Russ's power. Now that... That was proper explosion. So much less messy than her method - hell, he didn't even have to move! Lucky git. Her thoughts stopped when she heard Russ's laugh again. It was a nice laugh, wasn't it? Well, a nice voice, really. Kind of... growly, yes, but that was really better in the long run. High voices in men did stand to go a bit awry every now and then. "We're making a bit of a mess." "Ahhhh," she replied, chest and arms shifting back into metal as she heard the tell-tale grumbling from the machine. Was it getting faster? "But we can't be blamed for that, can we? I mean, for one," - another plate whizzed out of the machine; her vision shifted - "everyone's making a mess, and for another..." And she took it out just before Arihant's supposed invincibility was put to the test. He, at least, noticed - turned round to her, tilted his head questioningly. She just waved, grinning secretively: she'd explain later. Then she turned back to finish. "Well, to put it lightly - for us, it's either the mess of a bit of dust or the mess of someone's head being cracked open by a hunk of clay. And I like to think that Madeleine would prefer the former - but then again, you're her cousin. You'd know better than I do." The machine started sputtering again, but she'd let Russ field this one. It was going to come out of the opening at his side, anyway - apparently the plates were alternating. And even if they weren't... well, it was only fair to take turns, wasn't it?
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Boom
Sept 13, 2008 15:34:38 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 13, 2008 15:34:38 GMT
She was back to the Silver Surfer-ness again. Clearly it was more practical, but Russ had to say that she looked better when not covered in metal. Not that she didn’t look nice as it was, but that was a thought for a time other than right now, seeing as another plate was shooting out across the room. He followed it, and this time as it exploded, it blew up with a little bit more of a bang than last time, the sparks spitting red this time and a little bit of smoke – but not much. Madeleine was constantly at him for the damage he was doing to the asthmatic warriors’ lungs. “Well, I haven’t actually been her cousin for all that long; there was a bit of…” Well, see, Sal – shít, Lynn, my real dad is actually a conman, and we had no idea who he was until a little while ago, and I was dating Madeleine at the time… “… confusion, and we didn’t know we were cousins until about two and a half years ago, and because we’re gypsies, it’s not like we see each other all that often.” The machine started grinding again and Russ nodded at Lynn. "I think your 'pigeon' is about to fly out." For all his honesty and “openness”, this wasn’t a subject he liked talking to people about, unless they asked. The whole shít with “Daniel-who-is-actually-called-Andrew” and Imogen and Oliver tended to… confuse people, a bit.
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Boom
Sept 13, 2008 15:53:40 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 13, 2008 15:53:40 GMT
Now that she was expecting it, she was much faster in vaporising the discs - the ash was falling less than a couple of seconds after it flew loose. It would have been admittedly faster if she'd just surrounded a ring of radiation around the holes that they flew out of, but that was a bad idea on two counts: one, she didn't really want to expose Russ's legs to a high dosage of radiation, and two, where was the fun if there wasn't a challenge? "Oh?" she asked. That didn't really fit, did it? But then she had to remind herself that surprise wasn't really the appropriate emotion to show just now. She'd known him for all of - she glanced up at the clock - half an hour (God, they had been late in starting, hadn't they?), she didn't have a right to be surprised. And yet still it did not stop her. "Sorry, I - well, I wouldn't have thought that. Seeing you two back there" - she gestured at the storage room - "I would have thought that you'd known each other since you were children." Inappropriate, Lynn. Deciding to make her speech a little more suitably for someone who she'd known for mere minutes, she smiled and added, "But then I guess I'm not the right person to judge. My experience of family relationships is... a bit unorthodox. Which is all Kennedy's fault, of course," she said, nodding mock-seriously.
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Boom
Sept 13, 2008 16:31:15 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 13, 2008 16:31:15 GMT
Russ laughed. “Kennedy being your brother who calls you Sally? Do I want to ask about that, by the way?” Deciding to go for speed rather than aesthetics this time, the explosion he blew up this new plate with was small and yellow; only lasting for a second before the charred remains crumbled to the floor a few feet away. Shame, he quite liked the big, loud explosions, but he’d been on clear-up duty for a fortnight if he did that. “Well, we have, we’ve always been… ah, friendly… we just didn’t know we were cousins. We were good friends, and we actually dated for a while, so that’s why we seem really close.” He wasn’t going to tell her that they’d dated three times; Madel would string him up by the balls if he did that; the thing was a sore in her side right now as it was, probably because he kept bringing it up at inappropriate moments. It was quite fun, actually, pissing her off, but he had the sense to know that if her Warriors knew about it, they’d never let it go – and he’d be on floor duty forever.
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