(no subject)

[idiosyncreant]

I've revised for VP--as good as it's going to get, I decided. To my immense relief. Once I'm decided I tend to be pretty stable despite my own character, a trait I'm sure other TCKs share.
The universe ends, and that's it. Drink up and get going, despite the drama previously.

So today's teaser will be private (not on UFF), as it's from a "sci-fi" superhero novel which I still love despite the long labor I have done and am not close to half done with. It's very short, also.

 

Scenario: the whole high-school worth of superpowered students and faculty have gone into comatose states, except four who were standing outside the nurse's office because one of them (Nick) had gotten a bloody nose. They've gone in the admin offices to check the odd silence out, and found the problem. Jude, Altair, and Nick are left, while Illiana has disappeared--literally.

"Go check the other buildings?" [Nick suggested.]

"Nicodemus gets to rule the world for merely being the nicest guy alive. No offense to Altair."

"No offense taken. Nicodemus is striving through a broken nose."

"Not broken," he muttered. But he was no longer holding the ice or his nose. He had used the condensation, as Altair had suggested, to clean up his face; now he at least looked less war-torn. "Where to first?"

"Where's the likeliest place for crazy falling?"

"I'd have to say...the lavs. Not to be crude..." Altair grimaced.

"Oh, Illiana will think to check in on the girls." Jude shrugged, "We don't have to worry about that."

"Not the guys, either?"

"What are we going to do with them now?" Jude was more heckling, when he was on edge, "They've fallen down."

"We can't just leave them, if they might be hurt."

"Nick," Nicodemus glared at him, "there's a limit to how much one can sacrifice for fellow man. If Orion's sliced open on some pipe somewhere, or broken pieces of a toilet he broke, I'm not in the least interested in bailing him out."

"Are you going to stay behind again, Jude?"

"No, I'm going to try and talk you out of it."

"Great luck with that," Altair said. "I'm going ahead to catch up with him instead."

Jude groaned, but they all went back toward the monolithic Kappe Building where three fourths of the classrooms were, as well as most of bathrooms. They went through all the classes, where they set unconscious forms on the floor, clearing desks toward the back of the room. The bathrooms did not muster any trials for Jude's love of his fellow man--and, as he stated, it wouldn't have taken much--but the whole ordeal felt so much like going into a scene of disaster and recovering bodies, like news footage occasionally showed, that none of them thought his preceding arguments as more than the occasion suggested.

As for current work, I didn't do anything mean to Jess today, but Pythian was devastatingly practical in this scene. I'm at 98 pages and rediscovering the pacing for a whole novel on this one, which is relieving. Hmm. I just had a thought of how to extend the "between" novel...

Shaim, however, has been forced to blow off his friend for Romon-the-gang-liaison, who was mad at him for disappearing to play the day before. Also, random girl attention.
How mortifying.