[IC: Forward dated to Saturday 19 May]

[julienned]

[YEAH I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY YOU GUYS ARE IN HERE. it's a comatose teenager hooked up to a bunch of machines.

it's really boring.] 

Comments

[mind_over_metal]

*comes into the room again, like he has been each day before, looking rather tired at this point, if stubbornly refusing to acknowledge it. goes up next to Julian's bed.*

Nothing yet?

[julienned]

[afraid not, broski. GOING TO TRY AGAIN?]

[mind_over_metal]

...I'm sorry.

*and he reaches over to touch Julian's temples, closes his own eyes and-*

[julienned]

[It's the usual scene, one that he must be used to seeing by now. There's a superficial calm, the one that keeps Julian from freaking out all over the place. Then, underneath that is a turmoil of pain and misery. It's beyond comprehension, really, how he could be sane after experiencing all this - it's beyond the limits of human endurance, really, made all the worse by the fact that it's all in his own mind.

That said, Charles is not being thrown out. DOES HE GO INTO THE MAELSTROM HERE.]

[mind_over_metal]

*takes a moment to calm his own mind... then goes deeper*

[julienned]

[It hurts. It hurts more than anything imaginable, but only for a second. Then a telekinetic bubble snaps around him, and the pain stops.

This is new.]

[mind_over_metal]

*and that causes him to start slightly. he looks around*

Julian?

[julienned]

[the mindscape changes. There's still a maelstrom of pain and misery, but there's an actual scene below. It's pretty bleak and sparse, with bare rock everywhere. Leaning against an outcropping, his hand outstretched and telekinetic energy sparking from his fingers to the barrier holding off the pain is Julian, only with his hair shorter and his hands as normal rather than the robotic replacements. He looks up, squinting, and his eyes widen in surprise.]

You came. I thought it'd be Miss Frost.

[mind_over_metal]

Even if Miss Frost were here, I would have come.

*he steps carefully, testing his footing on the mindscape's newly-appeared ground*

[julienned]

[gravity functions exactly as it should. this is, after all, the mind of a telekinetic, used to manipulating the forces of nature. BASICALLY IT FEELS LIKE WALKING, STANDING, ALL THAT JAZZ. Julian shrugs, unconvinced.]

Maybe you might have. I couldn't be sure. Welcome to my mind. If I'd known you were coming I would have cleaned up.

[mind_over_metal]

*walks over and leans against a rock near Julian*

I'm rather glad you didn't. I've been in cleaned minds before, and it's generally not a good thing.

[julienned]

I can't do that with my powers. I'm a telekinetic not a telepath. Hell, I'm not even a telekinetic. I'm psychokinetic. I can't believe that I have to explain this to people. It's not that hard.

So which side are you on? Team Kill All Humans or Team Don't Kill All Humans?

[mind_over_metal]

People can do a lot with their own minds, and you don't need to be a telepath to do so. You've already done a lot with yours. But yes, well, if those are the two teams with which I'm being presented, I have to say that I'm on Team Don't Kill All Humans. Who's been recruiting?

[julienned]

[he gestures with his spare hand above him.]

Do you think I did this to myself?

[mind_over_metal]

The first time I talked to Phoenix, it seemed more on Team Kill All Everything.

[julienned]

Yeah, well, when I spoke to it, it was very much Team Kill All Humans and wanted me to join it. Something about how Ms Grey wants them all to die so it's going to do that.

And you know? I believe it. I believe that that is what she may want to do some days. God only knows that I do. You don't get beaten down like we do every day without wanting to lash out at them all and make it stop. We don't do it, but that doesn't mean that we don't think it. There's been any number of times some dumb flatscan has said "I understand how you feel" and I have wanted to punch the smarmy bastard in the face, but I don't.

Ms Grey's nice, but you know what? Even nice people have a breaking point. Even nice people want to hit back when they're pushed too hard. Maybe she doesn't want to control it because this way she gets what she wants. We all know she doesn't like me at all. After all. Why else would I be here?

[mind_over_metal]

*opens his mouth to speak, pauses- then starts again*

What happened between the two of you?

[julienned]

She asked me to join her. I said no. Quelle surprise, Professor Xavier, I know you thought I'd jump onto the genocide wagon the minute someone offered me a ticket.

[mind_over_metal]

And why do you believe that?

[julienned]

'Cause you don't know me at all. None of you do. Every one of you think that I'd kill Ms Grey, and that shows how little you know me.

[mind_over_metal]

If I had ever thought that before, how could I have possibly gone on believing that after your reaction to the blood I have on my own hands? Your principles are far too strong.

[julienned]

...how do you make this about you all the time?

[mind_over_metal]

I will admit that it's very difficult to avoid the subject entirely when you seem to spend so much energy on what I, and others, think of you. But I think that it's mainly just because it's a relationship. Admittedly, not a very good one, but it's something involving more than one person. And all that I can bring to it is myself, so I'm trying my best to use what I have.

No, I don't know you. Not the way that I need to. Or the way that I want to. But what I just told you is what I believe that I do know.

[julienned]

Piece of advice, Prof. When someone is being tortured into saying yes to killing all flatscans, that is when you cut the self-pitying crap. I have more pressing things on my mind than whether a bunch of people who think my friends and I are unwanted burdens like me.

[mind_over_metal]

Things such as...?