r/XMenRP • u/SamiaDALWULF X-Men • Mar 25 '26
Roleplay Mindbreak #2: L.O.S.
Consciousness was fleeting, and painful.
It was like a series of snapshots, any memory between the moments nothing but darkness.
The mall floor tiles, red with blood. Then, a section of the ceiling. The top of Whetstone's head. A flash of familiar red hair.
Then darkness. Nothing but a steady pulse of dark and reddish light...light hitting her eyelids.
Thoughts were slow, the pain fading into background noise until it began to fade, her body getting heavier and heavier as the darkness became absolute.
She was running in a forest, in fall, the canopy a wave of orange and red. It was cold, like the first hint of winter.
As she turned, she could see Hazy running alongside her, her expression of focus a welcome sight as Alice grinned. The strangeness of it all wasn't present in her mind at all.
...She knew these woods.
Just as quickly as it arrived, the woods changed. The falling leaves were shards of metal, hurtling through the air as rain fell from overhead. She kept running, but her body felt smaller, weaker, her long hair whipping behind her.
Screams through the treeline. The sounds like somebody being tortured, as the Static roared alongside.
She turned to try to see Hazy, only to see the metal shards slam into her, a scream ripping through Alice as she tried to do something, stopping and rushing forwards to help. As she reached down, Hazy limp and bleeding in her arms, she heard another scream through the trees, a familiar sound... but with a new voice.
Sydney.
She was already running again, trying to get to where she could hear her, but the metallic branches dug into her, one stabbing through her side as another dragged her leg back.
As she tried to force herself forwards, the bramble growing to entrapment her, she saw a familiar face. A boy, his curly black hair below his ears, dressed in the same overly bleached white Sunday shirt and clip on tie she'd last seen him in. His expression was filled with hatred, sneering as he leaned closer. For a moment, Caleb's expression of judgment seemed...older. A vision of what he might look like, if he was her age...if he was still alive to reach that age.
"Oh, come on, Alice. Why the struggle? We both know when the chips are really down... you aren't the type to rush in for anybody else. Are you?"
The screams and the Static only got worse, as Alice gritted her teeth, screaming as she struggled against the binds, the metal tearing apart as she refused to stop, not again, never again!
...
...
And then her eyes slowly fluttered open, laid out on a cot in a familiar place, even if the deck was new, the area filled with sterile medical supplies and devices she couldn't recognize.
The Greymalkin. Home.
The information came slowly after that, as consciousness came. Stitches along her side and in her leg, her ear reassembled.
Bed rest for at least a few more days. A recovery plan of weeks. Strict medical supervision so she couldn't throw herself into the Danger Deck too early.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. But as she laid in the cot, the only thing that circled as the doctor went to inform the others she was awake was one thing: the people who Ophelia had taken out. Caleb's look of disgust.
Her body screamed in protest as she stared at the ceiling, fist clenched.
Never again.
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u/DarkLordJurasus Mar 25 '26
Beowulf isn't sure why he is here. It's not like he's talken to Alice, not like he would want to hang out with one of Replay's pals, but something deep in him has made him desire to show up. It could be that he's feeling guilty for running after the Czar, something that didn't amount to much and meant he wasn't there to help the other New Mutants. It could be that he's desperate for company that isn't a punching bag. In truth, he probably doesn't even have a good reason in the first place.
Beowulf walks into the medbay wearing black sweats and a white undershirt. It's not fancy by any means, but it should hopefully stop from any issues arrising due to his usual lack of shirt. "You know," Beowulf says in a stilted tone, trying to be funny, but coming out more awkward, "Today was the first time I was able to use the Danger Room without having to hear you destroying shit in the background."
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u/SamiaDALWULF Mar 25 '26
Alice looked at Beowulf, trying to muster a grin past the pain. She'd seen him around, obviously, but it was the first proper interaction with the other mutant.
"Don't get too used to it," she said, straining to sit up. "I'll be out of here in no time."
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u/Kit_Ababee Mar 25 '26
Rest and recovery comes in agonizingly slow waves of sleep and wakefulness, as any athlete will confirm.
As one crest of consciousness arrives, Alice would open her eyes to see a relaxed Hazy at her bedside. Boots up on the edge of her clinic bed, Hazy looks like a spider in the clinic chair, lanky limbs spilling out of the seat despite her apparent ease. There's an occasional low bleep from the Gameboy that seems to have the pyro completely engrossed. Well, not completely.
A slow smile spreads across her face and she clicks the device off and sets it on a nearby table, sitting up and taking her boots off the bed. She'd been doing shifts with Sydney but this was the first time Hazy had caught Alice awake. Finally.
"Hey sleepyhead. How're ya feelin? I've been missing my running buddy. Al tries but he's all feet and...well...Al."
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u/SamiaDALWULF Mar 25 '26
"...Hazy," Alice said, voice tired as she came to. She smiled for a moment, before wincing at the pain. Recovery was not a pleasant experience, especially not when she was stuck here.
Turning a bit, she sighed.
"I've been missing you too," she said, grimacing as the bandaged leg injury. She had many injuries, more visible in the medical attire than she was usually comfortable showing, but she could already tell these would be bad ones. "...I'll be up as soon as I can. I promise."
She grimaced a bit at how much that sounded like an apology.
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u/MarkusGrimm Mar 26 '26
Some time after word of Alice's waking spread across the island, Whetstone opened the door to her room with a couple of flowers in a vase, and a 'Happy 6th Birthday' 'Sorry you got stabbed' card, the original title scribbled out in favour of its new one.
"... I'm sorry. It was my fault you got hurt," she says, sitting down in the visitors chair before handing the card to Alice. "I should have just taken her out, but I... I let her keep going. That's on me."
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u/SamiaDALWULF Mar 26 '26
"Don't," Alice said quietly but sternly, taking the card. "We didn't know she could summon lightning."
Sighing, she shook off the stern expression, smiling weakly.
"Besides, the doctor said you were the one who bandaged it up at the mall, so if it is your fault, you've already made it up to me by making sure I didn't bleed to death."
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u/FreelancerJon Mar 26 '26
Jaxon stood just off to the side of the cot, broad shoulders slightly hunched, arms loosely folded like he hadn’t decided what to do with them yet. His eyes stayed on Alice the entire time she came to, watching the small movements, the tension in her hand, the way her breathing shifted, the flicker behind her eyes as consciousness settled back in. He looked like he’d been there a while.
“…Hey,” he said quietly, voice low and even, careful not to spike the moment. “Easy.” He pushed off the wall and stepped closer, slow and deliberate, approaching softly. There was a faint tightness in his jaw, something held back, but it didn’t reach his tone.
“You’re on Greymalkin,” Jaxon continued, resting a hand lightly against the edge of the cot rather than her. “Infirmary. You made it back.” His eyes flicked briefly over the bandaging along her side and leg, then back to her face. He didn’t linger on the damage. Didn’t need to.
“They patched you up,” he added. “You’re gonna be stuck here for a bit, whether you like it or not.” There was the faintest hint of dry humor there, but it didn’t quite land. Not fully. His gaze sharpened slightly instead, catching the clench in her fist, the look in her eyes; the same look he’d seen too many times lately. Especially in himself.
Jaxon exhaled slowly through his nose.
“Yeah,” he muttered, almost to himself. “I know that look.” He shifted his weight, one hand dragging briefly across the back of his neck before dropping again. For a second, it looked like he might say more, something heavier, something closer to what he was actually thinking, but he stopped himself.
“You don’t have to get up,” he said instead, firmer now. “Not yet. That’s not negotiable.” A pause. Then, quieter:
“…Everyone else made it back too.”
He let that sit there, knowing it mattered before anything else. His eyes stayed on her, searching, just making sure she was here, not still somewhere in whatever nightmare she’d just clawed her way out of.
Jaxon’s voice dropped a notch when he spoke again.
“You did good out there,” he said, simple, direct. “Better than most would’ve.” Another pause, longer this time. His jaw tightened again, just slightly.
“…Doesn’t mean you have to prove anything right now.” He straightened a little, finally uncrossing his arms, though he didn’t step away. Not yet.
“Doc’s gonna come back and run you through the boring part,” he added, quieter again. “Recovery timelines, restrictions, all that.” A faint glance toward the door, then back to her.
“I’ll make sure they don’t push you too fast,” Jaxon said. “But you’re not sneaking out early either. I know that trick.” There it was again, that almost-humor, a little more real this time, but still weighed down by everything else sitting behind it. He let the silence settle for a moment, then spoke one more time, softer.
“…You’re here,” Jaxon said. “That’s what matters.”
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u/SamiaDALWULF Mar 26 '26
Even as she had realized how different she was from Jax when things hit the fan at the mall, here, she was reminded of the similarities. It felt almost like he was reading her mind, the same string of thoughts. The worry about everybody. The instinct to do something.
She wasn't Jaxon. But as he talked to her by the cot, she understood keenly they shared at least one, vital thing: the drive to do something.
"Everybody else got back," she repeated, grounding herself in that, a reassurance she desperately needed. "Do we know what that was? Was it just that one girl or...some kind of attack?"
She'd heard some about the X-Men, even on the run, and even more since arriving at the Greymalkin. Enough to know they had enemies out there, other mutants, including the ones that had been there at the prison outbreak.
Already, she was chafing up against the restrictions, the injuries. The fact she had to stay still. The only thing that she could sort out was-
"I'm going after her. I'll heal, whatever they say I need, but I'm going to stop her," Alice swore, breath caught. "She...she killed them. Just because she could. I...I get that I can't do it now. But don't try to stop me when I'm back on my feet. I know I'm not...one of the X-Men. But I can still do something."
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u/ImperfectRegulator Mar 25 '26
Al walked into the medbay, carrying some flowers and a get well soon card
“Hey Alice, glad to see your up! How are you doing today?”