[OPEN POST] NEW BRO'HOOD

[fireaholic.livejournal.com]

Characters: John, Kevin, Logan, sons a'bitches, anyone feasible.
Setting: Brotherhood HQ, Vermont.
Content: EPIC.
Status: OPEN AND READY.


Feel free to comment to existing threads, make new ones, and generally create awesomeness.

IMPORTANT NOTE: REFER HERE before jumping in.

Comments

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

[Julian merely gives Kevin a cursory glance, feels a twinge of empathy for Ali's sake - for Jono's. He's alive, and he doesn't seem like a threat, and that's why she's here. Why Jono is. His best friends have Kevin again.

Yet the twinge is simply that - a twinge. He's relieved to hear Bobby's decision, again, for Ali. He doesn't have to argue the case, although he would have fiercely. It doesn't occur to Julian that these emotions - they are stilted, and numbed. It doesn't occur to Julian until Bobby looks at him, concern in his eyes, and asks about Longshot.

Julian's gaze centers on Bobby's, locks there - he realizes he hadn't been focusing on Bobby's expression, his face, on anything, until this second. Something in him, that hollow, numb part, starts to feel impossibly heavy, spreads throughout his chest.

Only his lashes flutter; he remembers Longshot's last few moments as if in fast forward, yet so sharply they stagger him. He sucks in a breath.]

He's dead. [He says nothing else, but simply looks at Bobby, his blue eyes somehow blank and full of quiet imploring all at once. He doesn't have the words.] I took care of him while Ali took Mortis.

[never-too-cold.livejournal.com]

[Bobby sees it. He sees the unidentifiable emotion beneath Julian's neutral surface. And all at once he feels impossibly old, impossibly tired, a strange kind of sorrow taking hold of him.

They're too young to have to see and know these things. They deal with so many things that they shouldn't have to deal with. Innocence is so easily lost in war, and Bobby knows this is the cost they pay with every new battle. And he's sorry Julian's had to pay it.

He expels a heavy breath and nods slowly. A few years ago, he would have been outraged - so idealistic, so sure that there's always another way, that X-Men should never kill.

But Bobby Drake has had to grow up. And accepting that sometimes there isn't another way - that's part of his trade-off. That's part of his innocence lost.

There is no condemnation or judgement in his icy blue eyes as he looks at Julian. No pity. Just understanding, acceptance.]

You did what you had to do.

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

[Julian doesn't know how to take that, how to respond. He didn't have any expectations, couldn't see that far - but that Bobby merely nods and tells him what he did - taking that knife and plunging it into Longshot's chest - was what he had to do? He's not sure it would've been that.

He wants to argue, tell him no. He's wrong. It was wrong. But he knows - has said it and heard it enough times - to know sacrifices are made. To know sometimes doing the right thing means doing the necessary thing, however awful it might be.

Despite Julian's numbness, the blankness of his expression, something changes about it. Something cripples inside of him and anyone looking will see it in his brows, the line of his lips.

His eyes flutter to the ground, then dart back up; Julian's jaw tightens, as if realizing he's showing his weakness.]

I know.

[never-too-cold.livejournal.com]

[What more can be said? Bobby knows that nothing he can say will make Julian feel better. This is something Julian will need to learn to deal with; nobody can make that easier.

He reaches out to put a hand on Julian's shoulder for just a second and nods - a wordless expression of solidarity.

Bobby folds his arms again and glances around - it looks like everyone's almost ready to get going. As he speaks, giving direction, he senses Julian shutting down the emotion for the last leg of their journey.]

We'll head to the Blackbird soon. Kitty and John will meet us there. Get everyone ready to go; I'll report to Emma.

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

[The last person Julian would expect any understanding from - any show of comfort from for anything - would be Bobby. Both of them, nearly always at odds, both merely responsible and dedicated enough to put aside their dislike and work together only when needed. But now here they stand, and for the first time Julian understands, during the course of their entire unsteady truce, how fucking foolish he's been, looking down on him, secretly envying his position and thinking he could do it better.

Disagreements or not, Bobby's the person to look to for a reason, the person ultimately calling the shots. He's seen more, done more. Understands things Julian, despite all his power and experience, doesn't yet.

Julian works his jaw at this, glances at Bobby's hand but doesn't shrug it off. He raises his eyes and nods, but his look says much more. He's grateful.]