taxonomites | [Everywhere.]

When the crystal is broken and the witch's power defeated, the city seems for a moment to hold its breath. Then, somewhere, the first icicle snaps from its overhang, quivers in the air, then lands with a soft plop in the snowbank beneath it.

Followed by the entire accumulated snow on the roof that held it, in one giant FWUMP of powder that buries the witch's body completely.

After that, the sun begins to peek through the gray clouds, and everywhere the snow glitters and glistens, more and more wetly.

Within the space of a few hours, the snow has melted to nothing but patches on porches, a melting as unnatural as the original snowfall itself. The meltwater can be heard everywhere; dripping from eaves, turning the ground into mud, flowing through the city's sewers. Taxon children run outside after days of forced habitation, to enjoy the last bits of snow before it's gone.

The wind that blows through the city and spurs the tattered clouds to break further comes from the west, not the north, and smells of springtime and the sea.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Paul's unsure whether talk about Logan healing is concussion-rambling or revelation that Logan has some sort of magicky healing shit. The latter would be really convenient, he admits.

The wolf carcasses are definitely still there; the sun's out, shining down on the bloody, messy snow.

Paul finally gets there with a bundled-up Wyatt Cain following, the both of them tugging a toboggan-style stretcher over the snow. It's melting, but not THAT fast-- toboggan is still a lot easier than trying to carry a stretcher.

"Okay," he says with a huff, looking over both of them. Logan doesn't look QUITE as bad as he had from the visual-- so maybe he does have some weird healing shit. Paul crouches by Maddy, squinting down into her face.

"Maddy, I'm going to shine a light into your eyes, okay?" he asks, digging out a flashlight from his parka pocket with gloved hands. "Logan, is it-- has she sounded lucid while you two have been talking? No memory issues?"

He's asking the guy who got partially disemboweled these questions. Paul's not sure this is entirely logical, but hey.

"Pretty lucid, yeah," Logan says, a slight gurgle in his voice. If they try to help him, though, he'll wave it off and direct 'em to Maddie first.

"Sure. Shining a light in my eyes. Okay," she says sounding somewhat resigned to it but at the same time, she sounds happy that there are more people here. They all survived, right?

"Forgiven about the powers thing, right?"

Paul's hands are first-responder careful as he checks Maddy over for broken bones, as he aims the light. He gives her a crooked grin at the question.

"Just because I'll bitch someone a red streak doesn't have any bearing on a crisis situation, Red. We all bleed pretty much the same. I think."

She's tracking the light pretty well, there's that at least.

"How about you, buddy?" Paul calls over to Logan. "Because, no fuckin' offense meant, but you look like ground chuck over there."

"An' I feel like underground chuck. Got a mutant healin' factor, though. It's just gonna suck for a while."

Still, can't NOT overhear that little exchange. Especially given what he knows of Maddie's history.

"What'd she need forgivin' for?"

Madelyne chuckles at Logan's question, but she's not going to answer for Paul. He can say what he wants to say about it. It makes life interesting, right?

"Logan will heal. He'll need something to eat soon, though. And beer. A lot of beer."

Paul glances over again at Logan at the question, his eyebrows arched.

"A difference of opinion," he says, with nothing more than that. He looks back to Maddy, and snaps off the flashlight.

"Okay, you're tracking pretty good. You having any neck pain? Nausea? Drowsiness? And I'll find a nice big steak for Mr. Logan here-- dunno about the beer, but I've got some vodka in stock."

"I'm feeling a little queasy," Madelyne says softly, turning to look at Smecker, though she doesn't try to get up yet.

"I think that could be okay, vodka."

"Yeah. That'll be peachy."

And with that, he zones out for a while, needing to ignore the feeling of his intestines repositioning themselves.

Queasy's an understatement.

"Alright then, Dr. Smecker says no getting vertical just yet," Paul says at Maddy. "However, you're very lucky in that the hunky silent cowboy over there," a jerk of his chin at Wyatt, "is here to help me get you onto the stretcher, because he's a lot fucking nicer than me."

"And you got it, chief. All the vodka you can-- wait, I'm not promising that shit. You probably have an interdimensional hole in your stomach or something. You can have all the vodka I can drink."

With that, Paul leaves the smartassing aside to help get Maddy onto the stretcher, and back somewhere warmer. He and Wyatt will get Logan inside too, and, true to his word, Paul will start cooking some steak for the Canadian. While making sure Maddy doesn't move too much until they can rule out concussions.

Madelyne puts up with all of this surprisingly well for someone with 'superpowers'. Eventually, this will start to be frustrating but right now, it is sort of nice to just... lay here and not have to worry. It is nice and warm here, at least in comparison.

There's definitely worse things than lying somewhere semi-comfortable and having food and drinks brought your way.

As the air outside warms up with the continued thaw, Paul will open the Birdhouse doors, to let in the promise of spring.

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[visual] and wrap?