everything's on fire

[krasnaya_vdova]

who: Everyone!
what: The residential building is on fire
when: ~2am, August 23rd
where: The Residential building
warnings: Fire, destruction of property, injury, general warnings for crisis situations



It's a reasonably quiet night, pleasantly dry with a slight breeze. Almost nice, for those that enjoy the hours after midnight long before dawn starts to creep on the horizon. Right until it isn't, when the air changes, and there's the scent of heat that promises smoke. In most places it starts with a flash of blue light that arcs from floor to floor as energy pulses through the building, and there's a crack of sound that follows. The power dies for a moment, and if you're one of the unlucky ones, the light that follows is a literal spark in the dark, burning to life in bright orange-red, yielding heat and smoke and trouble. The energy surge doesn't just hit the lights, but sparked flames that burst to life, and they catch quickly, spreading.

The worst of it starts on the ninth floor, where the smoke and the beginning of heat starts moments before the surge. The fire spreads faster there, people starting to startle awake and realize what's happening as the flames crackle. Eventually there's an announcement on the Network, both alerting people to what's happening and trying to organize both those that are willing to help and those that need it.

Some areas are untouched, while others are ravaged badly, reduced to ashes and crumbling ceilings, so watch your step. There's chaos, but through it there's people doing what they can to help each other, and the official fire services show up to help control the blaze. After that, it's just a matter of repairing the damage that's been done, rebuilding and putting things back together, seeing what's been lost and what was saved.

Even later, people start putting the pieces together, and there's the official investigation into what might have caused a fire like that in the first place.


[ooc: As promised, the residential building is on fire! OOC plotting post is here if anyone wants to work out some last minute plans before diving in. Plotting post also includes the relevant details. Elsewise, just top level and mingle. Try not to get burned too badly. :) Good luck!]

Comments

[unmakeme]

The look she gives him is world weary and burdened. "What? Stark, what could we possibly have to say to one another right now?" On her best day, feeling strong and on solid ground, she's not sure she would be able to handle a conversation with Tony, not sure she wouldn't be able to find the balance between what they were and what they've become.

This is far from her best day. This might be one of her worst. A conversation with anyone right now holds huge potential for ending badly, this one is damn near guaranteed to do so.

[buildsomething]

Okay, that's...as much as he might want to push, Tony knows her well enough to be able to tell when she's at the end of her rope. He might not know why, exactly, but there's clearly something about the whole situation grinding her down. And considering Stark, he kind of doubts that asking about it is going to get him very far.

So fine. He can, occasionally, handle letting things go. Tony puts his hands up defensively, palms pointed towards the ground to make it extra clear that it's not a threat. "Fine. But clearly we need to talk some other time."

[unmakeme]

"And that's going to make things better?" She doesn't want to do this right now, because she's pretty sure she can't handle it right now. Especially since, being on her own in that building, the gaping Clint shaped hole she now has in her life is all the more obvious in this moment. Clint, Laura, the kids, all so vital, and all exposed, and she has no idea how to help from here. She feels like she could rip Tony apart for it. Right now, she doesn't fully trust herself to not try. Everything is too close to the surface.

[buildsomething]

"Considering I have no idea what your issue is?" He shoots back, the beginnings of something like exasperation threading into his tone. Sure, they hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms last time he'd seen her, but nothing that would prompt this level of animosity. Unless she knows something he doesn't. Jesus, how much worse could things get?

"It couldn't hurt," he finishes a little more quietly at the thought.

[unmakeme]

Natasha chuckles, which trails off into a cough, because yeah, she inhaled a lot of smoke. "Everything hurts, Tony. That's life. Haven't you figured that out yet? Everything we do just means pain for someone else. It's who we are."

Something flickers through her mind, and she doesn't want to ask, she doesn't, but she finds herself incapable of leaving it alone. "What's the last thing you remember back home?" It's possible, isn't it, that all this pain she has to drag around with her, he never lived through.

[buildsomething]

"That's dramatic even for you," Tony says with a snort, though it makes him study her a little more closely. There's something very wrong here, and he's pretty sure it's not just the whole burning building thing.

"We don't have to talk about this now," he says finally. Not least because he doesn't particularly want to dredge up memories of Siberia right now, and Natasha's looking a little like she might suddenly come apart at the seams or go for his throat. He's honestly not sure which option worries him more. "We've got time."

[unmakeme]

Natasha just presses her lips together into a thin line in response to his refusal to tell her. That bad, huh? Then he must remember what she does. "We don't have to. I want to." She shakes her head once. "Wanted to. Clearly you don't."

Being on the ground does have one advantage. It means she can turn her back on him. It means she can put physical distance in place of the emotional distance she's so desperate for.