[FIRE] Blind Panic

[Cassidy Laramie]

Cassidy smiled as he watched the events take place from his seat in the stands, the whole place abuzz with excitement. He could feel the excited auras against his skin like static charge, filling him with the desire for action. He had been a bit concerned the large amount of people would be too much for him to handle with his power, but it had turned out alright so far. Other than the incredible amount of hyperactive energy winding through him, everything seemed alright; until it all went downhill in an instant.

There was a flash of bright orange, the collective shock of those around him mixing with the orange flames of the explosion, and everything went dark. People screamed, the sounds of running footsteps filling the arena. Cassidy lurched forward, smacking his face on the stands before managing to catch himself in the complete darkness of the scene. He groaned, holding a hand to his now-bleeding cheek, staring around for even a glimpse of light through the black, terrified auras of the students. He struggled to fight down his own panic as he walked blindly through the chaos, bumping into students and painfully tripping over debris, coughing from the smoke. He blinked back tears as he got one particularly nasty wound in his palm from a broken splinter of who-knows-what.

Stinging and bleeding, Cassidy finally realized that stumbling around in the blind darkness was only going to cause more damage. Taking a deep breath, he once more searched through the inky darkness for a sign of light, and when that failed, he began relying on his hearing. The Arena was filled with noise, terrified screams and desperate cries for people who were missing, making it hard to make sense of anything. He then reached out at random, grabbing a hold of the next person to pass by him, and towards them, his unseeing, coal black eyes staring straight ahead somewhere near where they're face should be. "Calm down, panicking only makes things worse," he told them somewhat sternly, trying to keep his own voice steady and free of fear. He needed a light, so the sooner he could get at least one person calm the better.

[Brooklyn Carter]

Brooklyn was pretty sure that the only reason as to why she was here watching the competition was because her sociology teacher offered extra credit for a paper on cultural differences based on athletics. Which was stupid, if you asked her because who really cared about cultural differences and athletics. Either way, she'd do the stupid paper and watch the competition from the furthest row of bleachers. During the challenges she had spotted RJ out there showing out with his team. Then of course there was that one super strong college guy that all the girls shouted and rooted for and Brooklyn had just sat there blinking and confused.

Then all hell broke loose.

One of the teams had shouted a warning about there being a fire, then the next thing; an explosion. Now Brooklyn was trying to make some sort of sense out of the now chaos. The thoughts surrounding her were loud, panicked, and confusing. She couldn't think straight and now she was panicking. AS she ran straight from the bleachers, she bumped into a few people who ran in totally opposite directions.

And then someone suddenly grabbed her arm, causing her to flip the fuck out. Once she noticed it was just another student, Brooklyn tried calming down but it was just hard, it was difficult. So much... too much was happening. Shaking her head, she frantically glanced around the arena before looking back at the boy. "I'm trying to calm down!" Why did he care anyway? And what the hell was up with his eyes? "It's not as easy as you think when you can hear everyone's jumbled thoughts. Are you okay?"

[Cassidy Laramie]

Cassidy flinched back and quickly let go of her arm at her response, trying desperately to find any emotion besides complete panic in her aura. He tried his best to calm down himself, several feeble green sparks flickering in his eyes before fading again entirely. There was too much fear, too much darkness pressing down on him. He struggled to take deep breaths, to answer her as rationally as possible with little success.

"Well then at least feel something besides panic! Calm down, get pissed at me, anything!" he yelled back in response, partly to be heard over the chaos and partly in simple hysterics. This was a serious emergency and he was stuck without his most important and well-developed sense. He tried to make sense of what she meant about hearing thoughts, but he got the sense they were having similar, power-related problems.

"And no, I'm not okay! I can't see a thing through everyone's fear!" he explained, once more attempting to spot any colors through the thick wall of darkness. He needed to find a way out of here, but without being able to see, he could be walking right into the danger instead of away from it.

[Brooklyn Carter]

She had no idea what was going on, let alone what was going on with the guy and honestly it was all freaking her out way more than she could handle. Now his eyes were flickering and stuff, like what the hell was going on around here? Well, this was a school for mutants and there was a fire currently blazing within the building... nothing else could really beat that in the 'weird department'.

"I'm not some damn empath! Lay off me, will ya!" Sheesh! You would think that his powers involved feeling emotions or something. The weird about this was that he made it seem like if she'd calm down, it would help him out. Taking a deep breath, Brooklyn closed her eyes and concentrated until she was able to drown out any remaining thoughts. Clearly she wasn't going to get anywhere with everyone else freaking her out. It was stupid, but she had to do it... in the middle of a fire.

Opening her eyes, she looked at him a bit puzzled and weirdly enough, she was right. "So you're like some kind of empath? Doesn't really explain why you can't see but we can't stay here. I think I heard someone yelling about heading out to the courtyard." BK looked around and grimaced, "Need to hold my hand?" It sounded stupid but what else was she supposed to do? It was clear he couldn't see. 

Or unclear... in his situation.

[Cassidy Laramie]

Cassidy paused for a moment, trying to gain some sort of bearings on the situation. People were rushing around everywhere, their screams and attempts to locate loved ones mingling with the sounds of crackling fire. His eyes were useless, his ears were pretty much useless at the current noise level, and almost everything else was rendered useless by the choking smoke and scattered debris. All in all, he was pretty sure he was seriously screwed unless he got some sort of assistance, even if that assistance was some random panicked student.

He flinched back as she yelled in kind, really not appreciating the irony of her statement. He caught flickers of other colors in her aura for a moment, but not nearly enough to see by. He knew firsthand how tricky dealing with your own emotions could be, but it didn't stop him from being annoyed, his eyes edged with a light red. Even with something else to focus on besides the fire, it didn't look like her panic was budging anytime soon.

Cassidy started slightly at her direct question. "Yeah, I am," he responded with a bit of caution. Of course, it wasn't that hard to reason out what his power was; he'd practically spelled it out for her. He paused to rub one eye, the stinging of the smoke further instigating the usual aching pain. "All I see is fear everywhere, it's blocking out everything else!" he tried to explain, figuring that it wasn't really the time for a discussion on how his power worked. His eyes widened slightly as he caught a silvery band  of confusion running through her aura as she tried to figure out what was wrong with him. He took the opportunity to pear around at the scene, using the band as a tinted window through the black curtain. He probably looked really weird, but it would be to his benefit anyway, since it would just make her even more confused.

Cassidy could help but similarly grimace in distaste of the suggestion. Didn't girls have like, cooties or something? The last thing he wanted to do was hold a random girl's hand, especially not when he was pretty sure his hands were bleeding in random places from his blind stumble from the stands. If he was going to be led like a blind person, he was going to look cooler doing it than that. He reached a hand up so that his fingertips just barely rested on her arm, just enough to know when and where she moved. "Lead the way," he said with a slight smile and a bit of forced levity.

[Brooklyn Carter]

"Oh." Well what were the freaking odds of him actually being an empath. Not that she felt as embarrassed as she should have, at least now she could take that into consideration. Not that she really had to, seeing how she didn't have to stop what she was doing just so an empath could see. As for helping him, all she really could do was guide him. Trying to use her powers to help someone else's was just asking for a disaster to happen. Not a chance she needed to take. "Okay! Okay, well maybe, I don't know- Once we get away from everyone else, it might clear up?" She wasn't even sure, she had no idea how his abilities worked.

"Hey, I'm not too fond of touching you either." According to Brooklyn, he could give her that look as much as he wanted but it wouldn't help him get out of this area any sooner. Heck, if he wanted to stay here, he could but for once she was trying to help someone else instead of looking out after herself during a situation like this. Either way, he was hurt and she wasn't, so she was going to need to get them out of here now.

The only issue was that the fire was in the school which was where the exit to the courtyard was and the explosion didn't leave them much of a room to go anywhere but away from the school. Sad to say, Brooklyn actually paid attention during the fire drills and learned that the courtyard was the best bet.

Time for an alternative.

Brooklyn started walking, almost ridiculously quick. "If we go to the courtyard but go around the school the long way, I'm sure we'll bump into staff that can help get you fixed up. I doubt you'll have much of any luck from the emotions though..." What if everyone was heading there now? Talk about tons of emotions, everywhere.

[Cassidy Laramie]

Cassidy nodded in agreement. If he could get away from the main center of the panic, he'd be able to see again. It was weird, nodding when blind; it felt odd not seeing the slight changes in point of view from the movement of his head. He pushed the distracting thought out of his head, needing to focus now more than ever. It was going to be some trick, being led like this. At least he could take comfort in the fact that she didn't like it anymore than he did; mutual distaste is still something in common, after all. Synergy was going to be key.

Cassidy stumbled as she set off at a rapid pace. He quickly righted himself and sped up, thankful he didn't fall behind her too much. So much for synergy. He walked beside her, struggling to keep moving fast when he couldn't see where he was putting his feet. After a few more trips and stumbles, he finally got the hang of it and was able to stay at her side without causing himself further injury. He pondered her plan; it was a good idea, if a bit tedious. It was going to be a long walk if they went all the way around.

"Right. I can deal with my eyes myself once we get away from here, but unless you happen to know how to do stiches we're gonna need to find someone," he agreed, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his palm and face. The one across his cheek would probably heal itself, but the splinter had gone pretty deep into his hand. Hopefully it wouldn't scar too bad, or at least look cool enough to show off.