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The woman held her gloved hands up, and it was fairly clear to Cafas what she meant. She was certainly not the only mutant who couldn't make contact with others. It seemed like such a lonely life. The X-man retracted his hand and nodded his understanding, more than a little of his pity leaking through. He hadn't meant to, but he wore his heart on his sleeve, as the saying was, so it just happened. He had to make a conscious effort to disguise emotions.

Cafas had not been expecting the Russian accent, but it fit her as well as she fit the role he needed her to fill. He wasn't really prone to asking strangers for favours, but in this case he was willing to make an exception. She just fired him up, made him want to keep pushing it. He was pretty confident he could find the right delivery with her to act against.

Huh, guess she heard me...

"Nice to meet you Svetlana, yeah everything's fine. Listen, I know it's a big ask, but if you're not too busy do you think you could help me rehearse for an audition? Nothing weird or difficult, just reading lines off the script. I'm having trouble getting to grips with the scene on my own." It sounded very simple, because it was really. Emoting was largely unnecessary when reading lines for someone. Just having someone else there to work with was often enough to find the mood and the rhythm of a scene. Of course, if the person helping you was getting in to character too everything was just that much better.

Cafas paced the circle he'd made between the desks, starring at the manuscript in his hand with a furrowed brow. It all made sense, he could sort of see the scene in his head, he could kind of grasp the way the lines should sound. It just wasn't right though. He'd already stubbed his toe twice in the process of walking the edge, and he felt he was no closer to being happy with his delivery than he'd been after the initial memorisation.

"Yes, I'm scared! Of course I'm scared. Is that what you want to hear? I'm scared. My Wife's leaving me, I'm losing my job, I can't afford a lawyer, and I'm never going to see my daughter again. What else could I be?..." He trailed off and sighed, tossing the script pages onto the nearest desk. It was no good, he'd just been going in circles, quite literally, for an hour. His delivery didn't feel right. It felt stiff, it was missing that spark of life to make it feel like more than lines read from a page.

"Yes, I'm scared! Yes I'm scared! Yes I'm scared! No, no, god why does this not want to happen?"

The X-man rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to run the line mentally a while. That really wasn't doing any good. He wandered over to the window, wan autumn light streaming through on to his face. Halloween was a week out, the leaves still clinging to the trees outside. He couldn't find the right mood out there. It was entirely wrong, children playing in leaf drifts and sunlight. Just not the right feeling. He stepped back and dropped the blinds.

This is no good. It's just not the same acting to empty air.

Skirting around the outside of his desk-ring, Cafas made his way to the shut door, fumbling the handle in distracted thought. It swung open towards him, opening onto the main classroom corridor. It was as much a thoroughfare as it was a dedicated hallway, and was for the most part clear of students. Cafas scanned who there was, but none were old enough for the script or the role. Damn.

As he watched, as if in answer to a prayer, a blonde came in to view. What exactly he'd been praying for, Cafas wasn't sure. It sure didn't like his prayer had been totally innocent. It was news to him, though unsurprising news. He felt a sudden surge of inspiration, and knew that he needed to run his lines with this woman. That was a great idea. She fit the psychologist's role so nicely. She fit a lot of things nicely, but that was the only one he could really capitalise on.

"Excuse me, miss? How are you? Cafas Johnson." He extended a hand to shake. It felt like a proper business transaction, and he couldn't help but act like it.

Cafas looked around himself with a degree of desperation. He knew he was in a bad spot. Surrounded by people trying to kill themselves and others, he could do little to nothing to prevent it. A woman in leather, perhaps from Goop, ran by him screaming. He grasped at her but missed. She pelted up the nearby steps, and Cafas could see the smokey fog on them. He tried to follow but was held up by the woman he'd thrown turning on him. He'd seen that coming a mile off, but cursed her bad timing.

His knee met her stomach, his fist drove down into her jaw. She went down and he felt like throwing up. These people were afraid. He knew afraid when he saw it, he'd spent years dealing in afraid. He'd been in a similar state when that photographer had snapped him and Isabel in the woods. They needed protecting, but he had to protect himself to protect them.

>>”Watch it, ya big Moose!! That guy is trying to kill me!!”

Cafas looked around for this new, very much lucid, voice. It was coming from down. That didn't make sense. Another woman, Amazing-Lady, in spite of whoever might have told her not to do it, stopped by him and promptly evacuated her stomach. In hot pursuit, like a raging bull down the hallway, some skirted gladiator dude. He hadn't seemed to notice Cafas, and was headed right for the X-man's favourite amazon.

If I save one, it's not a waste...

"Sorry mate." Cafas stepped by the hurling woman, wound his hammer back, and drove it forward with both mutation and muscle. It met the charging man's chest with a heavy crunch. He all but backflipped from the force, landing on the ground gasping for air, momentarily stunned. The X-man turned his eyes to Amazing-Lady, inspecting a badly hurt knee, then to the floor, where he could just see a...

"Kiwi? Small world." Cafas glanced around, but as far as he could tell they were the only people not either completely out of their mind, or actively engaged in a fight. He couldn't help them all. It hurt, but they'd have to hope they could fend for themselves. "Alright you two, upstairs, we gotta get above this gas. I know it hurts dude, but you gotta reach down deep and find your strength. Live to cry another day." Cafas clapped her on the shoulder and gave her a push towards the stairs, carefully hopping over the kiwi, onto someone in the smoke. He stumbled, and tried not to think about it as he made sure there was a clear path to the stairs.

He took the stairs by fours, ready to fight at any moment, but found them empty. The door to the roof was swinging open, and outside more black smoke swirled about, completely heedless of the wind. The X-man burst through, eyes falling onto Sandy, so close to the edge, backing away in a panic. "Watch out!" He dropped the hammer and ran, but couldn't cross the distance before she jumped. His feet skidded on the gravel as he ground to a halt. The scream was bad, but he knew what the worst would be. He cringed when it cut out, hot tears of anger running down his face.

You have a job to do. Pull it together.

Cafas scanned the rooftop. It was covered in the fog, but a cackling drew his eyes. A swaying form in the epicentre of swirling blackness, dressed completely inappropriately for the freezing wind. Cafas frowned and stepped towards her tentatively. "Excuse me, miss, are you alright?" His stomach felt uneasy. His hammer edged towards him along the gravel, just on the edge of his influence. He felt a headache coming on.

Hauling it too long...

tag Charlie Sinclair

"Yeah they're in the elevator, which I'm fairly confident is disabled." Cafas stared at the fog. It swirled of its own accord in a way he found just a touch unsettling. Whoever the special effects director was, they did good work. Maybe too good, given all the talk of a snake from one of his shirtless partyboys. Shortsighted, even. Surely the hotel knew people took things before these parties. Cafas shook his head and hit the call elevator button once more.

"Cancel that, it just moved. How do I know? Well I'm a mutant that affects metal. Yes that one. Because no one ever trained me in dealing with these cases. Listen, I didn't ask to become an official part of the police force, it just happened around me, so honestly I have no idea what business people thought we had, but clearly it was mutual."

The second elevator opened, and it too was swirling with the darkness. From it came a scream as a sobbing "cowboy" tumbled out, lashing his fists at Cafas and trying to pelt away. He could see the fear in the man's eyes, and the sweat all over him. He was screaming incoherently, but Cafas caught snatches about chainsaws. The X-man threw a hand out to catch him. Trying his best not to injure the flailing party goer Cafas pulled him into a choke hold, then back into the elevator. The man scratched and scrabbled at the X-man's armoured arm, but quickly fell limp.

Sorry buddy, couldn't have you hurting someone.

Okay, two guys he'd just met was one thing, but this guy? and from the elevator shaft he could hear further echoing sobs, screams, and scuffles. There was something more sinister at play. Cafas lay the cowboy down on the floor and put his phone back to his ear. "Listen, I just had another guy in a panic, apparently seeing things. Yeah that party. Look, there's this weird smoke, I don't know where it came from, but this was all normal before that. Another call? What floor? Because I'm a deputy, and on scene that's why! Thank you."

He slammed the button for the top floor and jammed his phone into his pocket, line still live. It sounded like he might need both hands.

The elevator shot off in that unique way of high rise lifts. He eyed the smoke with deep suspicion, doing his best to not breathe too close to it. It did him no good though, he was in the building already. He knew he should have just left the area until the gas-masks arrived, but it didn't agree with his sense of duty and urgency. He had to find the source. Maybe the air ducts? It sure would spread a gas. His brain raced trying to pin together a sensible conclusion. It was either a chemical or a mutant. If it was using vents that meant... That meant it was probably the roof? Or the basement. Or literally any vent access. They could be anywhere.

Who the hell would even do this?

The elevator slowed, stopped, dinged. The doors opened, and in front of him, chaos. He sent it back down with the unconscious guy and stepped out into a hallway of people tearing themselves and others apart. He hadn't seen the like since the riots. "Well shit." He pulled two people apart, each with deep scratches on their faces and bite marks. All he did was turn their attention towards him. He threw one and slammed his fist into the face of the other, sending her limp. Cafas cringed. "This is way too big. Need to cut it off at the source..."

tag Charlie Sinclair

Cafas sighed and turned pleading eyes to the sunny blue heavens. He wasn't a believer, but he was running very short on other options he could think of. Everything else started involving discipline, and he really wasn't in the mood. "Rowan!" It came out far harder than it was meant to, which shook him, "Rowan what did I say about throwing things at the pigeons?" The X-dad raised a stern eyebrow at the boy as he approached, but it was clear he wasn't being taken seriously.

"I dunno..."

"You do know, I made you repeat it back."

"I forgot."

The boy had him fixed with a smile that knew it was being cheeky, and knew it wouldn't be punished. Well Cafas had some news for that smile. He'd been dating Mom too long to be CafDad always too nervous of overstepping. He was CafDad the white, who knew Maya would forgive him if he was too harsh, because parenting was hard and confusing. Rowan still hadn't fully grasped that, clearly. Still, he wasn't being allowed to walk all over dad any more, and his behaviour when alone with Cafas was improving, little by little.

Baby steps.

"Rowan, please don't lie to me," His dad voice needed work, his dad squat did not, "And please don't throw anything at the pigeons. They get scared, and they feel pain, just like you, and it isn't nice to make them feel that way." He was trying his best to keep the actual frustration out of his voice, because there was a lot of it, and he wasn't enjoying repeating himself. "You never know, one might be one of us, and there'll be big trouble if you throw things at other people. So, you're not going to do it again, or there'll be no phones for a week, understand?"

Rowan's smile faltered in confusion, then there came a wibble, a sniff, and the tears. He didn't like not getting away with things. This wasn't the first waterworks Cafas had been the reason for. He suspected it was just the shock, and a plea to escape trouble. At least that was what Maya said, and he had no reason to doubt her. They didn't last long once it became clear the X-dad wasn't backing down.

"Okay dad."

The boy was playing him, he knew it, but damn if that didn't suckerpunch him right in the heart with happiness. Cafas let some of his tension vent as a sigh, pushed out by the swelling of love. "Good. Now come on, we gotta make it back from our walk in time to meet mom, and you already ran further than I said." God the kid was good. He had to stop falling for that trick, it was so cheap. Cafas stood and straightened his (fan made) X-men hoodie, and insisting his jeans a little higher. "And try not to get any more grass on your dinosaur shirt!"

He wasn't listening. Ro ran ahead, startling the pigeon flock into the sky as he bowled through them. It was exasperating, but Cafas didn't so much mind that. At least it wasn't going to hurt the birds if they only had to relocate. It just wasn't worth the fight.

---

Rowan left dad behind, racing off to see how far he could get before he got in trouble. He ran and he ran, checking behind to see how far he was.

So far! He heard Cafas call out, but it wasn't angry, just a warning. It didn't count.

Up ahead he saw something. Someone holding a tree. They were all pink and in a sweater. He didn't know what they were doing, it looked weird. Maybe it was a game and they'd play with him. He bet he won!

As fast as his legs could carry him, ignoring the second warning, Rowan ran to the tree. He tugged on the sweater. "What are you doing? Is it a game? I wanna play too!" He insisted, tugging the sweater more.

Okay, he could get himself together. He had to, for his own sake if nothing else. He was in a new situation under awkward circumstances. That didn't mean he needed to compound the issue by getting all nervous. Seriously, it was just Rebecca. Yes, she was hot. Yes, her swimsuit left little to the imagination. Just take a deep breath, and deal with it. He needed to take some awfully personal measurements, and they were only likely to get more so as the process went on into other phases. He wrestled with his brain for control.

This is going to be hard enough without you using up brainpower on gutter.

Not that the topic lent itself to that. Cafas ignored several thoughts that flew through, then jotted down "Cupless lingerie - Research" on the bottom of the notesheet. "Mhmm, so you've heard, well I'll look into it I guess. I'm about to have a real interesting search history." He figured that was going to involve some pretty interesting measurements to do properly too. He went back to measuring. "Touching." The waist measurement required him to take a knee in front of her. "The legs could hamper mobility, but I'll try to work something out. Touching." High hip, shuffling around to find an angle that wasn't too awkward. "I figure it'd take some of the strain off your muscles to keep them elevated in some positions. It will possibly let you use a seated position in the air too, take the pressure off your groin."

Cafas left a deliberate pause, then "Touching." Underarm to hip. He jotted that down, then added a line for shoulder to hip. He threw the leg measurements on as well. "So, this is probably going to require several fitting sessions as well. Gonna need to know what sorts of times and days are good for you at some point. Touching." He stood and took shoulder to hip. That was the last one he could think of that wasn't in some way going to be awkward.

I should probably warn her.

"Okay so, not that this has been super comfortable thus far, but these measurements are gonna be a little more personal. I just want to let you know these in advance. Gotta do over, under, and around your bust, your hips, thighs at the top and near the knee, in seam, outer seam, and because this is a harness, around your hip joint or whatever on both sides. Are you okay with that?" He wasn't sure if he was. He had to be though, he had to get some professional composure, not stick his foot in his mouth, and try to keep his brain in check, because if it was uncomfortable for him he didn't want to imagine what it was like for Rebecca, who was handling it so much better.

It was a good thing she'd been willing, otherwise he was at a loss on how to take measurements. Lasers, probably. He didn't have lasers to hand. It would have been a delay at the very least. As to nothing weird, he wasn't entirely sure he could promise that given some of the support points she was going to need. He scribbled down what measurements he could predict needing on the pad.

"Okay, well I guess let's start with the simple ones." He could manage that. Still holding both pad and pencil, Cafas extended the tape and began. Nice and easy one, shoulder width. "Touching." He drew the tape out and noted the number down. "So, I've got some idea, just want to run it by you, get your thoughts." Cafas figured he may as well do it then. Distract them both from their situation. "First, I'm thinking we run this some way down your thighs. Maybe have it cinch, touching..." He took a measure around her left shoulder joint for the arm hole. "Like, an inch above your knee? Touching." He took the opposite arm measure, forcing his eyes to remain firmly on the tape, and reminding himself constantly that he was very much spoken for, trying to drive distractions from his head.

There are going to be way more awkward measurements yet...

He skipped the bust measurement for the time. He hadn't quite recovered from getting lost in though while staring at her chest, he didn't need to aggravate that embarrassment. It was already distracting enough that he was close enough to smell her. He was really trying not to. Still, he could have picked her shampoo from a line up. "Also, there's the matter of how many rings you, touching," Neck, which didn't help him with not smelling her hair, "need, and where you need them positioned. Actually that's a point, I'm going to need to actually measure exact distances, touching," left shoulder seam, "From ring to ring, which will probably mean sticking a bunch of them to you at some point after we decide on dimensions for the rings. Touching." And right.

Would you incorporate a bra? How? How do you even make one? Would it work?

"I'm also thinking about your breasts," he went on, scribbling down the number before realising what he'd just said with wide eyed horror, "Or rather, I mean, uh, you know. I mean I was thinking we don't want to put too much pressure on them. You know. Not like, you know, not that they aren't..." His hole was rapidly turning into an open cut mine. "Yeah so we don't want to put any rings on them, or straps. I don't have them, I mean, obviously, uh, what was I, oh yeah." He swallowed hard and shook his head to try and compose himself. It didn't really help. "Uh, yeah, did you have any thoughts about that?"