[Video]

[la_belle_rogue]

Back home Ah work at a school. [In between averting Earth shattering disasters and fighting the good fight for equality, which sadly involves actual fighting. But that is not the point of this.] We teach all the basics, but we also cater to a very special group of people, mutants. Folks born with powers that set them apart on the evolutionary charts. A lot of those people don't really know what ta do with the gifts they're born with, or how ta control them.

That was mah area of focus. Ah've been teachin' young mutants how ta get a handle on their gifts for a long while. Ah'm able ta do it a lot more effectively than most, because Ah can share their power for a while, get an idea of what they're livin' with, and how it works. How it's supposed ta work.

And Ah know we've got some folks here that have powers like that. Gifts they don't quite know how ta work completely. Ah'd like ta offer mah help. Ah know we've got a little school here for further education, so Ah'm wonderin' if Ah might take up a teachin' spot for this sort of thing.

It'd be a one on one learnin' basis. Anyone interested, we could work out days and times for lessons.

Anyway, it's an idea.

[Private to Arthas, later]

Hey Ah'm keepin' a slot open for ya on mah sign up sheet.

Comments

[la_belle_rogue]

Seriously.

[She smiles, warm, friendly. She can totally help you.]

Ah've run across a lot of different folk who can either shapeshift themselves, or other things around them. Sometimes, they can do both.

[Proteus and X were jackasses though. But we won't go into that.]

[patheticvillain]

[Well, Cassel is a jackass at least fifty percen of the time, so this will work out other well or terribly.]

What did they do with what they had? [Were they heroes or villains, is essentially what he means; could they be easily categorized as good or evil, or were their actions more complicated than that?]

[la_belle_rogue]

That's a pretty big question.

Everyone is different. Ah could tell ya a lot of stories about what Ah've seen. Some good, some bad. There's no simple answer here.

[No black and whites here, Cassel. Only bright colors. Sorry.]

[patheticvillain]

[He hesitates, pursing his lips as though he's trying to decide something. Then he breaks into a wide, sunny grin.]

Well. I'm bedridden. No better time for stories.

[la_belle_rogue]

Cautionary or upliftin'?

[There are options.]

[patheticvillain]

Cautionary. I like a good moral.

[la_belle_rogue]

Well, one of mah friends has multiple personalities. And each of those personalities have their own mutant power. He goes by Legion, which only makes sense.

Well one of his personalities manifested itself, and as it turns out, could literally do anything. Change the very structure of the universe, just because she wanted to. Her name was X. She wanted ta make Legion's life better. He wanted ta be a hero more'n anythin'. So she made it happen. She took the whole universe and re-wrote it. Gave everyone he knew a whole knew life, new history, so that he could live in a world where he was a hero. She even put the old universe in a little box, just for sentiment sake.

And then one night, a woman called Legacy found one of the mutants that were labeled dangerous wanderin' around near the gates of the city. The girl was taken back into custody, but Legacy found the girl's camera. She'd gone outside the wall and taken pictures. All the pictures were blank. Time stamped, but there was nothin' there. So Legacy started ta question what was really beyond the wall. It was supposed ta be the world, full of humans that hated us, and who every day tried ta tear down the wall that Legion kept in place.

So she broken into the prison to find the answers from the telepaths and psychics that were locked in there. She got caught eventually, and ended up bein' sent on the run. She managed ta get a little help, from a few odd places. Folks that she had no reason ta trust, but somehow felt like they were the safest places ta go. The leader of the city, the General, helped her and her friend fake their deaths, so they could find out what was really goin' on, without the whole city comin' after 'em.

Eventually, they found the box with the universe inside it. And that's when X showed herself. And right when she was about ta kill Legacy and start the whole mess all over again, re-write everyone but just eliminate any person that would get curious, the psychics were freed by the General, and the most powerful, Charles Xavier, woke everyone up to their true memories.

Legion was heart broken. He was betrayed by someone he thought he could trust, a piece of himself. He punished X by pullin' her back inside him, and lockin' her away in his mind forever. Then he set the world back t'the way it was meant ta be.

It hurt a lot of folk, the change back. They had a lot of happiness in the other life. But it was at the cost of a lot of lives. People had been killed in the re-write, more after in the fabricated war X had created. Their original selves came back, but those people they had been turned into were lost forever. Created and killed for no other reason than ta give the new life credibility.

[Rogue remembers them all.]

Lots of folks asked the telepaths ta remove the memories of the other life. Some refused ta let them go, and those folks are still tryin' ta sort out who they are now because of it.

[patheticvillain]

[Just so he could live in a world where he was a hero.]

[Cassel grins thinly, his fingers clenching in the sheets out of range of the camera, but otherwise doesn't appear to respond. There's no indication of how sharply this resonates, of how clearly he could see a part of himself doing this exact thing. He would love to be a hero. He lied to himself for so long that he was the hero of his own story, then the villain, a rogue, a monster.]

[But no. It was all a fabricated war.]

So just like anybody else. He made everything more complicated by existing.

[la_belle_rogue]

Life's already complicated, honey. Never met anyone that had it easy, from any world.

[patheticvillain]

But he was your friend? You liked him anyway, despite all that?

[la_belle_rogue]

He still is mah friend. He didn't do it on purpose. In fact, he was just as hurt by it as any of us. Maybe even moreso, because it was a part of him that got outta control and hurt people he cared about.

[patheticvillain]

[This seems to decide something for Cassel. Like this has all been a test. And maybe it has, halfway; he still has trouble trusting people without being given a good reason to, and Rogue's just given him an excellent one.]

Got it.

So when do we start lessons?

[la_belle_rogue]

Whenever you're up for it.

[patheticvillain]

Is there, like. Anything not physical I can do, to start? 'Cause I can't really . . . walk or anything right now.

[la_belle_rogue]

How are ya at meditation?

[patheticvillain]

Never really tried it. I saw Duke doing it, though. You think that's where I should start?

[la_belle_rogue]

Controllin' a power is the same as controllin' yer own thoughts. A mind is a loud, messy place, and if ya can get that in order, then controlling an ability is ten times easier.

[patheticvillain]

Historically speaking, I'm not good at controlling my thoughts.

How do I do it, then?

[la_belle_rogue]

Well...hang on.

[Private]

This way no one can make commentary or butt in.

Ah'll talk ya through it a little bit. Lay back and just put the comm next t'ya where ya can hear me. Close yer eyes and relax. Tell me when you're ready.

private

[patheticvillain]

Oh, what, like - right now? Oh.

Okay.

[He puts his comm on the bedside table and lies face-up on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Oh. Wait. Eyes closed. Right.]

Uh. Ready.

private

[la_belle_rogue]

[Yes, right now.

She talks slow and soothing, the accent actually helps the effect.]

Take a deep breath through yer nose. And let it out slowly. Do it again. As ya breathe in, feel the air fillin' up yer body. As ya let it go, be aware of yer muscles relaxin', one by one.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Focus on yer breathe. Be aware of it. You're not fallin' asleep, you're becomin' still. The world is fallin' away. It's just you and yer body.

private

[patheticvillain]

[He does as she says, despite his self-consciousness, and gradually he feels it falling away. Focusing only on his breath and her voice, he feels both smaller and larger, quieter and louder. Just him and his body.]

[He doesn't respond, except with the steady rhythm of his breath.]