ArchivedLogs:Cracked

Cracked
Dramatis Personae Faelan, Flicker, Strange
In Absentia	sunday, november 19, 2017 part of future past tp
Location <XS> Command and Control Center - B2
Here is the heart of the Xavier Institute's true operations, the room most central to its purpose, where the Institute's most adventuresome and powerful individuals gather to receive exposition. The room is dominated by an oversized viewscreen on one wall, presently displaying an intricate diagram of the planet Earth, as well as a large central holographic projector and a handful of computer terminals along the periphery. Curiously, the whole place is rather dimly lit, as though its designers prioritized dramatic lighting over being able to find anything. It's quieter in here than it sometimes is. No presentation going on, no debrief, no /bickering/, no laughter, no chattering back and forth while everyone waits for Scott to quiet them all with a Look. Just Flicker, slumped sweaty and exhausted into a chair that creaks slowly as he rocks back and forth, the slender tip of his mechanical tentacle-hand tapping quietly against the keys of his laptop. There's /some/ noise. Quiet. Not the usual meetingtime sounds. Instead it's kind of... techno. Ego Likeness. Playing from his laptop speakers as he browses reddit. Sluggishly browses reddit; it's possible today the Danger Room /soundly/ kicked his ass. A bottle of water -- /his/ bottle of water -- stands across the table from him, but he's looking at it without actually even reaching for it. And considering that his prosthetic arm can /telescope/, that's saying something about his current levels of Tired. Making his way into the room wiping perspiration from his brow, Faelan flops into a chair, wincing slightly as he lands on one of pouches off his belt. "Gah, I should put more padding on those." Grumping, the pale, brown haired man adjusts the various straps around his dark colored body suit to move things away from sitting danger. Carefully undoing the collar from around his neck, he places a pair of earpiece beside it on the table in front of him as he says "You make it look so damn easy. Three years of training and keeping up with y'all..." He interrupts himself shaking his head, but he is smiling anyway. "Better work out than the gym at least." Blinking some more sweat out of his eyes, Faelan lets out a sigh as he glances at Flicker's bottle of water and realizes he didn't remember one. "Gah, why can't I have the power to summon drinks." Rocking forward to get back to his feet he goes and grabs a convenient plastic bottle of water and pushes Flicker's bottle closer to the browsing one with a grin. Reddit is full of the usual. Silly pictures of cats. Awesome pictures of lizards. Conspiracy theories about Islamic terrorists. Conspiracy theories about mutant terrorists. Conspiracy theories about mutant islamic terrorists. People rolling their eyes pretty hard at the conspiracy theorists. Terrible misogynists. People rolling their eyes at the terrible misogynists. Lots of food porn. High up on today's front page is a post about one of reddit's favourite whipping boys, the once-popular-among-the-Hollywood-set, always-highly-ridiculed-on-the-Internet Stephen Strange, celebrity psychic. Who, it seems, has just today had an immensely public breakdown on his latest interview, originally scheduled to promote his book though he hasn't been speaking about his book any longer. -Alphaetus_Prime: 87 points an hour ago What a nutcase. At least he used to be interesting now this is just raving. -TeutonicJoe: 118 points an hour ago Whaaat this is totally interesting. A war? New York? He knows what he's about, this is helping his book sales like nobody's business. Everyone says he's stopped promoting his book but he's promoting it more than he ever was. -MY_NAME_IS_IN_CAPS: 57 points an hour ago Yeah but it's just WEIRD. "Should you find yourslf in a place and time before all this, find me -- and tell me: 'The days of future past are upon us.'" This dude needs to get back on his meds. The post is linked to a clip of the interview in question, complete with a very wild-eyed Strange and his very wild-eyed meltdown. Tap, tap, tap. Flicker stops his tapping long enough to reach his tentacle out and snag the water bottle from Faelan with a quick smile and a nod of thanks. "The trick is," he informs Faelan solemnly, "just get /so/ exhausted you can't do anything but slump. Then you look like you're chilling. When really, just, beat." He takes a swig from his bottle, relieved, and frowns at the screen with a small shake of his head. "This dude..." Another couple taps has him dragging up the youtube link, pushing his laptop back a little bit as the clip starts to play. He rocks back in his chair again, tipping his head back to look at Faelan. "Seems to me like you're keeping up fine. Plus you've got the whole. 007. Gadget thing going on." "That...sounds true enough at least. I'll have to sneak off and be invisible for a bit to recover some so I won't look as terrible," Faelan murmurs before downing half the bottle in a gulp or two. "What dude? Oh right, that." He frowns as he starts looking towards the youtube link before adjusting his attention back to Flicker, a tired smile coming up. "Kisha really has a knack for being Q. I ask her about some stuff, and then she suggests half a dozen other things. Only three quarters are legal mind you, but hey, you use the advantages you can get to compensate for shortcomings. But it does look really cool doesn't it?" He grins a bit more looking somewhat proud as the compliments though. Frowning as he hears more of the video, Faelan refocuses his attention. "Wait wait, can you take it back? Did he just say a war in New York? That's nuts. Who would attack besides Godzilla?" Rewinding the video is -- middling helpful. Strange is only vaguely coherent. Distraught, rambling, the TV host is not having much success at keeping him on any kind of topic and is forced to cut him short, no doubt encouraged by the network to get the evidently crazed man off-camera quickly. Wide-eyed, somewhat raving, he insists a terrible war is coming and that a horrible tragedy in New York City is imminent. "Should you find yourself in a place and time before all this," he says at one of his more lucid moments, "/find me/ -- and /tell me/: 'The days of future past are upon us'." The announcement is met with nervous laughter from the host, shortly before Strange is escorted off the set. "Cheater." Not that Flicker sounds all that accusatory, really, there's a laugh in his voice. /He's/ looking even more beat, slouching further in his chair and gulping down even more of his water. Splashing a little bit on his sweaty face. "My roommate --" He stops, frowns briefly. "Old roommate," he corrects in a quiet murmur, "looked like a Q. Nerd, too." But then all his roommates have been nerds. "Does look pretty rad. Useful, too. In the field --" He tips his chin up in agreement, tapping at the computer to rewind when Faelan asks. Sucks his cheeks in, shoulders settling downward in a heavier slump as the video replays. "... seems a little bit. Uh. Cracked. Things have been kind of calm?" "Hey, as long as I make it home in enough pieces to be viable, I'll cheat every damn day," Faelan says with enough conviction to show he knows whats happened with x men in the past. "The mansion has lotsa nerds, but hey, they're on our side right? I mean we have enough doctorates around and future doctorates to compensate for the others. Maybe one of em will give us power armor or something" He does nod at the cracked comment though. "Yeah he does sound a bit of a whack. I mean, even if you could tell that was the future, going on tv and acting like that is the worst way to get the message around. Course, I'd probably just tell the Professor, or any of the more senior Xmen and they'd know what to make of it. Or ya know, someone in authority." Finishing off his water, he lets out a sigh. "At least he's not standing on a street corner with a sign yet." "With the gadgeteers we have you can lose a lot of pieces and still be viable." Flicker says this with cheer rather than regret, his flexible tentacle arm lifting in an oddly-formed shrug. "Not that I'd /recommend/ lopping off bits, I guess. But this works better than my meat arm ever has." His cheeks pull inward again, teeth biting down slowly against flesh. "Yet. I'm not guessing a lot of people are going to invite him back to talk after this. He might not end up with a lot of other places to talk. I'm kind of hoping he's just cracked, though." Slowly, he struggles, tired, to his feet, his typical warm smile a lot more exhausted than usual. "-- /I've/ got that whole doctor-thing to work on and war? /So/ would get in the way of my residency." Seeming to contemplate, Faelan nods abit. "I think I'll keep with the James Bond thing over the Cyborg Assassin thing. Now I just need to work on a british accent and meet some bad girls who will turn to my side. "I'll hope for the cracked thing as well. Course if you could tell the future, you'd probably go a bit off too. Deja vu all over the place. At least it wouldn't be like Groundhog Day and living the same day forever." He seems to weigh that option then shakes his head. "Well yeah, but then you could be like the M.A.S.H doctors. You should call Hawkeye now before you end up with one of the bad ones." "You are kind of rocking the James Bond thing so. No foul in sticking with what works." Flicker glances back to the laptop screen once more, biting at his lip as the last line replays. He shakes his head, closing the laptop and puffing his cheeks out with a short sharp breath. "No. Just -- living really terrible /different/ days forever. Precognition, not a power I'd ever want. Pretty happy with teleporting. Lets me sleep in. Still get to class on time." Because Priorities. "Though speaking of I have church. You be at training Wednesday?" "Maybe some day I'll warrant the upgrade to a tuxedo, but I'm content with the body suit. It's surprisingly comfortable," Faelan nods then glances at the closing laptop. "Yeah, teleporting is nice, but I can't do what you can with it. Being invisible is pretty good too though. But yeah, precog? You'd probably end up crazy one way or another." He shudders and lets out a sigh. "Alright, have fun at church. Make sure you teleport through the showers first," he says with a grin. "I'll be late for training then. I have a midterm due before Thanksgiving and they want to cram them all together. So maybe an hour late, assuming traffic isn't rediculous." "Showers and a change of clothes. -- Oh, man. Thanksgiving. I have not even /started/ to think about that yet." Flicker says this with a small groan, passing his hand across his eyes. He tucks his laptop under his arm, scrunching his eyes up in a grimace. It passes soon, though. He gives Faelan a quick smile. Jerks his chin up in a nod. "Good luck." And poof! Is gone. "Maybe I should start keeping a bottle of aleve in my pouches." Faelan grimaces and grabs another bottle of water as he heads out the normal way, not wanting to end up in the girls locker room again. "Poor Doc Strange, maybe someone can get him some help," shaking his head he departs to normalcy, and a change of clothes.