Calling the Shots

334 - Vote

I find myself thinking about that meeting a lot these days.

There really is no more important decision to be made than determining what's to be done with another person's life. In a lot of ways, it's a lot more difficult to pass judgment on the existence of one other person than it is to send a hundred soldiers into battle or to decide policies that can affect the health or livelihood of thousands. When it's one person, it might be someone you'll have to look right in the eyes as you tell them you've made the decision whether or not they get to keep on living.

And yes, it's a different situation when you're facing a kill-or-be-killed decision. In the middle of a fight for your life, snap decisions are the only kind you can afford to make. Human nature is to choose continuance, to choose existence. It's hard to blame a person for making that choice.

Sitting in a meeting room at the top of Stark Towers, we were faced with all those kinds of decisions, rolled into one.

( Time to choose )

(802)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.

323 - Right and Wrong

"Use those eyes of yours to blast him-- fast!!"

The whole world seemed to stop in its tracks. I would have been the first person to admit that my life didn't exactly make for the happiest story ever told, but I'm not the kind to whine about my troubles. Okay, maybe I can brood or even sulk, but never anything like whining. But right in that moment, trying to remember just how my world had turned so bad so quickly, I remember not being able to come up with a single good answer except whatever it was inside my body that decided to use my eyes as cannons.

( Choice )

(446, not counting direct quotes from X-Men (first series) #40)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.

Responses to the press release and the big news can be directed over to Emma. She's fielding the family and friends, I've got the press. Hooray for me.

OOC: Follows this.

Parenthood.

It wasn't something anyone with any sense went into lightly, whether it was planned or accidental. There really wasn't any more important responsibility in the world, Scott supposed, than making yourself someone's mother or father. There were endless and unexpected and serious consequences hanging on the little decisions that all surrounded that one big choice. And that was true of anyone, let alone people who lived in a world like the one Scott and Emma inhabited.

Deep down, Scott didn't think-- and he definitely hoped-- that he wasn't and hadn't been a bad father. He'd gotten a lot more practice at it with Nathan, but there had been a fair share of parental moments with Rachel, Mike and even the Stepfords. All in all, he was reasonably sure he'd learned a lot from all of those opportunities and stood a good chance of putting that knowledge to effective use with a child.

But he didn't want to fool himself, either. If for some reason Emma had other plans, then he was going to be right there with her.

"I don't know," she replied honestly to Scott as she was taken aback by his calm, quiet attitude toward the entire situation. "I don't know what the bloody hell I'm supposed to be doing right now. This baby was created because I heard about Jean-Paul and the others trying to protest Proposition X. Within fifteen minutes of making my choice, the Phoenix... created..." Her hands went to her belly. "I'm a poor choice for a mother; take a look at how my girls turned out," she added wryly, not mentioning that thoughts of Jean Grey were dancing around her head.

( Read more... )

313 - Write about something old, something new, or something borrowed.

Names are a kind of funny thing. On the one hand, they seem absolutely necessary: things must have names if we're to identify them, especially when we're first learning to do so. Children learn the "what" of things long before the "why" or the "how": this thing is a ball, that thing is a cat, that person is my mother and this other person is my father, and so on. Just try to fix the idea of something like a car in your mind without thinking of the word "car".

( A rose by any other name )

(601)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.

301 - Wake up.

OOC: Follows the event described in this past prompt response.

Light.

Blue light.

One single point of blue light.

Weren't you supposed to see a blinding white light surrounding you, forming a tunnel between you and whatever it is on the other side of existence? That's what the movies always seemed to show. But then again, going into the light and into the Great Hereafter was not what I was intending. So I suppose I was relieved to see that point of blue light.

I say "I suppose" because I wasn't really feeling much of anything.

I was dead, you see.

( Lazarus. )

(451, not including direct quote)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.

300 - This is...

"This is a surprise." And Scott wasn't sure that Hank was telling the truth when his old friend had said those words.

( Read more... )

(521)

OOC Note: This is an RP-based prompt, part one of a three-part story written with shaman_x (part two found HERE) and queenemma (part three found HERE). See disclaimer.

297 - Crushed

Here's a recipe: take a group of people, ranging from late teenagers to young adults, and put them all in close proximity on a regular basis, maybe even living together. You make sure that all of these people are in prime physical condition and are constantly being placed in situations where their lives are in danger and often they have no other resources to count on except for each other. Pick them from some kind of insulated population, just to make it more difficult to expand their circles outside of the group.

And then mix in the tightest, most form-fitting clothing you can find.

Is it any wonder that X-Men have a tendency to look at each other as more than teammates?

( Do you like me? Check yes or no. )

(453)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. All characters mentioned refer only to canon versions. See disclaimer.

294 - Passing

There was one moment in class not long after M-Day when one of the students, Santo more than likely, made a joke about everyone still remaining at the Institute getting an automatic passing grade simply for still being mutants. I think I must have made some reply about how even when there were only five students in the whole school, it still didn't exempt us from finals or the New York State Regents exams.

( School's Out )

(393)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.

290 - You pass a complete stranger on the street and notice they are crying. What do you do?

There were a lot of strangers crying in the street that day.

One of the rec room televisions had been tuned into the New Warriors' show when the accident happened. I heard the explosion from the next room and rushed in, thinking one of the kids had gotten careless and smashed the TV. Instead, I found them staring wide-eyed and horrified at the static that was slowly re-forming into a helicopter view of the devastated area.

( Fort Sumter )

(540)

OOC Note: This is a canon-based prompt. See disclaimer.