177/El Condor Pasa

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El Condor Pasa
Date of Scene: 28 February 2020
Location: Training Gym
Synopsis: But there was no peace in the House of Xavier...
Cast of Characters: Douglas Ramsey, Jean Grey, Megan Gwynn, Kitty Pryde




Douglas Ramsey has posed:
When one is a Telepath, even if they strive not to be intrusive, thought patterns are like fingerprints. Like Logan's vaguely existential desire for beer or Kurt's deep introspection belied by his jocularity--

Doug's mind is usually racing, even when he's idle. In its way it's *loud*, shifting between languages depending on what he's reading or what he's thinking, sometimes in mid-sentence. It's just something he does.

Tonight, he's messy, trying to sweat off the stress and anxiety about a recurring nightmare of staring down a Sentinel while trying to get between it and people who didn't get away anyway by exhausting himself physically -- psychotherapy and telepathic therapy helps but the only real cure is to go through it. He's picked out exercises geared to tire him out tonight -- right now he's on the speed bag, battering out a rhythm, left left, right right, left left, right right, his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth as sweat drips off his chin.

Jean Grey has posed:
Well, let it never be said that telepaths never have issues with inner demons. Though for Jean, it's more of a question of a possible-future-timeline daughter showing up out of nowhere.

Grim future aside, it's also a discomforting thought to have your future be locked in like that. So Jean came down to the gym to go on a run. Currently she's got a dark green and yellow workout outfit on, hair tied back so it bounces behind her as she runs on the treadmill. A rather grueling setting, to be honest, as she glances over her shoulder and notes Douglas working out with the speed bag.

<< Reminder that I do have office hours, if you need to talk, Doug. >> She mentally sends that to him, considering that her lungs are busy making sure she has enough air to keep running, at least. And while she does respect his privacy... she also worries about the others in the Mansion. Maybe a bit too much.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn has been distracted lately, seeking to find a way to control her newfound magic before it gets out of hand, like the last few times she bamfed in a weird place. Exercise is good for focusing and it helps her racing mind to slow down too. So she strides into the gym, dressed in a cute pair of bright green leggings and a black cut off top, peering around at the various exercise equipment before settling on the beams. "Ooo!" she squeaks in delight, clearly not a regular here, and tries her hand at swinging from beam to beam, trying not to rely on her wings so much..

She does notice Doug there, and while she doesn't know him directly, she's probably heard about him or seen him around the school. She also spots a Jean on the nearby treadmill and she smiles to them both before trying some swings at the beams.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug reaches up to catch the speedbag before it bops him in the forehead, and then his brows draw down. "Broadcasting that loud, huh?" He asks, before he mutters, "Se izvinuvam." He glances up at Pixie -- he doesn't know her very well either, but that's possibly because where Doug goes Magik is usually not far away.

He rubs the back of his neck and says, "Just doing a little late-night processing. I understand Nightmare are the language of trauma expressed through the unconscious mind, and that they aren't *real*... they still *suck* though."

His black and gold arm clenches and unclenches, before he says, "And I'm still trying to get used to this. Warlock was able to change his color and external texture... I can do it but if I stop *thinking* about it it snaps back to this."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean finishes her run, catching her breath as she walks over towards Doug, wiping her forehead with a towel as she nods. "That's understandable... and not too loud at all. But you don't have to be a telepath to see it, Doug." She smiles a little, her posture reassuring, "And yeah, you aren't the only one with nightmares. Much as they allow the subconscious to purge out things so you can get on with it, that doesn't exactly help the here and now."

With that, she offers a wave over towards Pixie, smiling at the winged girl while Pixie works on the balance beams. "Get the dress yet from the Embassy? I think they were supposed to be delivered soon."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn oohs and peers at Doug. Oh yeah, she's probably seen him around the school along with *shudder* Illyana. She grimaces a bit, glancing around uncertainly but relaxes when she does not see the pouty blonde.

"Hii, it's Doug right? Nice to meet you, I'm Megan!" she waves cheerfuly, but eeps as she nearly loses her footing. Probably not the best time to make introductions as she walks on one of the higher balance beams. The metal arm is peered at curiously before nodding to Jean with a smile.

"Hi, Miss Grey! Yes, I did, it was really pretty! Thanks for letting me stay..'

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Right. So I try to turn that energy into action. I work. 'Put me in, coach.'" Doug says, before he walks over to a bar and begins to do some pull-ups, arms tensing, belying his downright bookish exterior. "Can't THINK if you're exhausted." He says, "Right?" He tightens his jaw, and then says "It's also a puzzle... and I normally like puzzles but not this one. Some private individual has the firepower to wipe out sixteen million people - or a government has fully endorsed an act of genocide."

He counts, silently, as he pulls his chin up over the bar. "I compiled a casualty list." He huffs out a breath. "Names. Ages. Countries of origin. I couldn't think of what to do with it after I was done with it other than stare at it and feel empty..." So he gave it to Lois Lane. Anonymously. No reason to lie about it.

"It's nice to meet you, Megan. Yeah, I'm Doug. Douglas if you want to be formal about it-- I'll answer to either."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean smiles over at Megan, "Not a problem, Megan... I'm glad you were able to learn a little something there." She then looks back towards Doug, and nods, growing more somber, "It's not like Magneto didn't have a long list of enemies, but even with all that... the brazen nature of the attack..."

She sighs and shakes her head, "Hopefully we'll be able to find more survivors over the coming days, but the level of destruction is... hard, to comprehend. It's a wonder more people aren't sleeping well at nights here."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn swallows as she listens to Doug talk..Is he responding to Jean's mental questions or something? But then it hits her - Genosha. She bites her lip, "Were you there, when it happened?" she shivers, "That really sucks. I have some friends over there too, so I was pretty worried." Megan continues to walk along the bar, before straddling it the hanging upside down by her feet. "whee, this is fun..I should come here more!"

Kitty Pryde has posed:
The door to the gym opens and Kitty Pryde comes in. She's wearing a pair of spandex shorts and an athletic top. A white hand towel is about her neck and she's carrying a large plastic bottle of water. Kitty's normally expressive face is lacking the usual warmth. It looks drawn and tired. It's no secret around the school that her father was living on Genosha. Some may also have heard that on the trip to Genosha that had brought Doug back, Kitty had found nothing but rubble where his house had been.

She glances around the gym, expression a little vacant, though after several seconds it must register there are others there. She lifts her hand a little to wave over towards them, though stays paused inside the doorway for the moment.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug, for his part, looks a little more subdued. He feels guilty, improbably guilty. He didn't have time to warn Carmen Pryde about what was happening, he didn't even have time to text him - it happened that quickly.

But he tucks that away in the back of his mind for a moment and continues doing pull-ups, ignoring the quiver in his arms and the burn of lactic acid. "I was there." he says, to Pixie. "It happened very fast, so fast that there wasn't time to mount any sort of organized defense."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, "It's just... well, yes. By the time we heard about it here, it was already over." She sighs deeply, then looks over at Kitty, and waves at her to come in, "Hey Kate." The new arrival is offered a bit of a wan smile, but Jean does put on a brave face for her.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn looks up and notices Kitty. She smiles and waves at her, but pauses when she sees her face. Glancing to Doug, she nods and sighs, finding it hard to keep her usual upbeat attitude. "I'm sorry...That must have been so frightenning. At least you got out okay..?" Megan smiles faintly to Jean. "But..But I'm sure the X-men helped out a lot all the same..?" suddenly her watch beeps and she meeps, hopping off the beam, "Oh nooo, I'm late for class..Gotta goo!!" and she rushes out..

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde eyes some of the work out machines, but moves over to join the others. Kitty returns Megan's wave as the other hurries off to her class. "Hi Jean," Kitty says, moving over to offer Jean a small side-hug if allowed. Kitty's eyes move over to Doug then. "Doug, I'm really glad we got you back," she tells him. "Sorry I haven't been by to see you more. I've... um..." she says, trailing off and shaking her head.

Kitty clears her throat. "How's your arm? I checked the medbay logs and looked like things are ok. Was Warlock with you?" she asks, seeming to note the similarity between his arm and their friend.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Well, Illyana dragged me to my feet and told me to rub a little dirt on it, so."

Doug drops down off of the pull up bar, and pants hard, before he wipes his sweat back with both hands. "No. It looks like I was infected with Transmode after all, because this grew out of my shoulder joint when Sinister started to debride what was left of it. Ha, surprise..." Doug exhales.

"It doesn't hurt. Or anything. There's really an *absence* of pain." He rolls his shoulder.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, "That sounds like 'Yana, for certain." She looks curiously at Doug's shoulder, tilting her head a bit, "Seems like it's helping, at least?" She does glance over towards Kitty with a curious expression, returning the hug that the younger girl gives her, "How are you holding up? If you're not up for the mission, there's no shame in that you know."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty eyes the arm speculatively. No doubt the medical bay logs will have shown results of checking on the Transmode Virus too, enough to put her mind at ease to where it needn't be brought up. And Kitty of all people doesn't wish to inject any unpleasantness onto anyone's day at this point.

Kitty looks back to Jean. "It's been rough. I'd just got back from the UK," she says, having been attending college at Oxford since she was 16, and being a part of Excalibur, but just recently come home as she graduated early. "And... I'm reeling. Really. I... I need to go home and see Mom. She knows I've been helping with the relief efforts, but she needs me."

Kitty swallows. "I've got Genoshan data. It's still in the UK. I need to...to do some work to bring it over. I had a lot of the government servers there hacked. I'm hoping..." Kitty says, trailing off and shaking her head. "Maybe I can find my Dad in some of the footage."

She opens her bottle of water and drinks from it, more a distraction for the moment to calm her emotions which to Jean are probably deafening. "Just glad you made it out, old buddy," Kitty says, moving over to give Doug a really tight hug if he lets her.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Blood count of the virus is indetectible by most modern equipment, and what they were able to detect is completely inert. Probably not a good idea for him to give anyone a blood transfusion but accidental transmission doesn't look like it's on the table right now.

He returns the hug, warmly, though he is absolutely soaked, since he'd been trying to wipe himself out in the gym so that he can get some sleep. "I'm trying to figure out who's responsible for this. I've been breaking into the data-files of every organization that might have the technology to do this? And so far, they're all coming up a negative. No manufactories, no hardware buildups, nothing."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I need the help of a better detective."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean shakes her head, "Yes, I can't imagine who... I mean, well, I //can//, it's not like Magneto was popular, but still. Taking him out is one thing, taking out an entire country with a genocidal strike..." She shivers, looking away for a moment as she hides her expression quickly.

Much less Momma Bear and more Dark Phoenix wanting to purge the sinners from the Earth, for a moment. Though it passes quickly.

She looks over at Doug, "I trust you to know your limits, Doug. And you, Kitty. Though I'm glad to hear that your studies were going well in England. I just recently started my own medical degree work." Since, well, that's the prereq for psychiatry, after all.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde doesn't seem to care about Doug being sweaty. At a moment she's lost one loved one, another who was almost lost the same way being safe means far more to her than worrying about his workout's effects. She lets him go and says, "I haven't had time to see how much I got before the connections went down. I can probably use your help though once I get it somewhere with horsepower to work with it," she tells Doug.

Kitty wipes herself off briefly with her towel as she listens to Jean. "That's good. You'll make a great doctor. You have a great way of putting people at ease when things are not looking good," Kitty tells Jean.

She glances over to the treadmills. "Thought maybe I'd run for awhile." she says. She glances back at the door. "Or maybe in the Danger Room if it's not in use. I hadn't decided yet."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug sits at a bench, and uncaps his water bottle, his other elbow resting on his knee as he stares at it for a moment and then mumbles, "I don't think this was about Magneto. Or at least, he *wasn't* the primary target, because they would've gone for him first, and that isn't how it happened."

"I think this is meant to be an opening salvo in an anti-Mutant genocide, which means it *won't* be confined to mutants for very long, if the responsible party isn't stopped. The available science alone shows that if they plan to purge mutancy from the human population they're going to need to target meta-humans, and then find latent gene carriers and wipe them out too."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods slightly, "Yes, it's definitely the start of something... bigger. Though I dislike thinking about what can be bigger than this." She pauses, then gets a bit of a determined look, "We'll need to be ready. I'll make sure to have a few words with Scott, he's better at this level of strategy than I am." Not that Jean's a slouch, but yeah, she trusts his judgment.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty seems to decide on the treadmill at least for now. She goes over to it and starts out a decent jog, though it's just a warmup speed. She hits a switch and a screen in front of it shows a forest trail as if she were running down it. She flips through a few more settings, and instead it turns into a mountain trail.

"The giant Sentinel that was there. I just don't see how Trask could have managed something like that," she says. "With all the heat they were taking after the battle of New York, all the cancellations and scrapping of Sentinels? If they built that I'd imagine they'd be trying to sell them to save the company. Not... making it so nation on Earth would want to touch them. But I don't know who else could have built something like that."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Well, that's just it... there's *no* evidence anywhere I can find of a factory that'd produce even one of something like that, let alone..." Doug shakes head, slowly. "There's something else I'm missing. I'm going to continue to look but like I said... so far, it's vapor, and I don't like that." He holds his hands out.

"Plainly I need to just start slamming my head against the locker."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean hrms, "I don't think blunt force trauma is going to be //that// effective, Doug." She teases, just a little, trying to lighten things a bit as she then considers, "We definitely need to do more analysis of that thing, see where it could have come from, who could have made it... and when will they try something like this again."

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty gradually speeds up the treadmill until she's running at a pretty fast pace. Soon sweat is gathering on her and dripping off with the exertion of running on the spinning rubber tread. "So we'll have... to look for... somewhere... not a factory... then," she says. "Or maybe... somewhere government... you know... Latveria... or... somewhere capable... of carrying out... what they did..." Kitty says, getting in words where possible as she's breathing hard.

Not that she is a lightweight when it comes to workouts, but she's setting a pretty hard pace right now. It would be easy for Jean to tell it's definitely a consequence of how she feels about Genosha and her father.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"I mean I can't really say I'm an expert on the guys but this sort of mass slaughter isn't Doctor Doom's modus operandi, and from what I've been able to tell, as a rogue actor Prince Namor has actually been as much pro-mutant as he could be said to be pro-Anything. Which is... not very."

"I mean people defy expectations all the time, maybe I'm just not picking up on a massive change in someone's behavior." Doug sighs. "I know, I know, I've watched Sam long enough to know concussions don't make anything *better*..."