[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

[julienned]

[shrugs]

It was me doing it to myself too. If I'd said yes to her, then it would have stopped and I would have woken up. 'Course, if I'd said yes, 90% of this place would be dead and disintegrated.

[skinofalizard]

Fortunately for us, you're you.

[julienned]

I'm the best goddamn Julian Keller there is, and I should know as I met one. He was a miserable bastard.

[skinofalizard]

Alternate universes are weird.

[julienned]

Aint that the truth.

[skinofalizard]

I mean, a non-douchebag Cyclops is weird enough, but a miserable Julian? I don't know if I can handle that.

[julienned]

[he makes a face]

Look, I know I've been a really crappy friend these last months.

[skinofalizard]

I wasn't trying to make fun of you, actually. And...it's okay. There was...stuff.

[julienned]

I could hear stuff. Sometimes. While I was ... you know.

[skinofalizard]

...you could?

[julienned]

I put a telekinetic bubble around you. How would I know where you were if I couldn't hear you?

[skinofalizard]

Well, again, it could have been the screaming.

...what did you hear? Relating to me, specifically.

[julienned]

You're a dumbass who puts everyone first.

[skinofalizard]

No, you're the dumbass that does that. I'm the badass that does that. You said so yourself.

[julienned]

You asked me what I heard, and what I heard was that you're a dumbass who does that.

[skinofalizard]

[shrugs]

Yeah, well, they need someone.

[julienned]

Yeah, they do.

[skinofalizard]

And I'm actually good at it.

...it's kind of why the Phoenix couldn't break me.

[julienned]

Is that what you think happened?

[skinofalizard]

What do you mean?

[julienned]

With the Phoenix Force and I.

Because I didn't.

[skinofalizard]

[rolls his eyes]

Julian, I'm actually talking about me right now. I don't know what she did to you. I do know that you fought her as long and as hard as you could for us. I also know that she undoubtedly threw more at you than me. She didn't try to get me to join her.

I'm not saying you're a bad friend, or a bad leader, or a bad whatever you want to consider yourself. I am saying that I didn't break because I have to be here for everyone else. That is literally the only thing I allow myself to focus on when I'm awake.

[julienned]

That's why we're a mess. We're all doing that.

[skinofalizard]

We're so busy trying to be there for each other we forget to actually rely on each other once in a while, too.

[julienned]

You mean "we're codependent as hell".