18197/A Sort of Homecoming

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
A Sort of Homecoming
Date of Scene: 05 June 2024
Location: Student Gardens
Synopsis: The Master of Magnetism seeks an audience with Charles Xavier and discovers a grave threat lurking in the Institute's midst: Unlicensed Merchandising. Definitely nothing more nefarious than that; no mind control devices from the future to see here. Not anymore, at least.
Cast of Characters: Paige Guthrie, Quentin Quire, Erik Lensherr, Charles Xavier




Paige Guthrie has posed:
The student gardens has been overtaken by Guthrie and Quire LLC. There's a series of cardboard boxes, and it seems that the blonde of the pair is going through it as she starts packing several orders of 'Magneto Was Right' and 'My Social Justice Daddy is Hot' with a Magneto helmet. The orders have had a serious uptick in popularity since the incident with the Sentinels.

Paige huffs and puffs, beads of sweat dripping down her brow as she carries box after box to the side, putting them on a cart to load to the local post office. "Quentin, can't you use your teke to do all the stuff I'm doing right now?" she grumps.

Quentin Quire has posed:
The older, pink-haired half of the intrepid capitalistic duo is seated off to the side at a little card table, laptop open as he reviews the sale figures from their little online shop. For good measure, one of those little visors that you always see on money-counters in old movies has manifested itself across his brow in virulent pink energies. "I could, but shifting product builds character..." he points out to the younger of the duo.

He is putting his telekinesis to work, but it's on a smaller scale, counting out the stacks of crumpled paper money that they've been collecting through various pop-up shops and guerilla marketing tactics. The stacks of money make soft shuffling sounds like a money counting machine as he tallies the stack, and adds the total into the laptop.

"C'mon, hayseed, I thought y'all grew up slinging bales of hay up into the barn and that rugged outdoorsy shit. A couple boxes of tshirts should be easy peasy..." he says, gesturing to the stack of more than a few boxes that remain to be processed for shipping.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
Ah yes. 'The' incident with the Sentinels. It's actually business regarding /that/... slight misunderstanding that brings the Master of Magnetism to Xavier's backyard this fine evening.

It starts as one more glimmer in the afternoon sky, a crackling spark on a high altitude horizon; but that does not last. Blink, and the speck is closer, a glowing star in the pre-twilight.

Again, and the form of a man descends over the manor within a coalescent sphere of energy, resplendent in a black-and-crimson three-piece suit that looks to be perfectly custom-tailored to his imposing frame; which, of course, it is. Tailored with Magneto's own precision mastery over his mutant gift. He lands here for the gardens-- not for the enterprise, though only the slightest surprise registers in his intense blue gaze as it passes from the sprouting promise of fruit, vegetable, and flower to the efforts of Paige and Quire.

No helmet, no armor, no high volume rhetoric and demands to be acknowledged; it's not that kind of visit. "Kindly tell Charles I require an audience." He requests first, as priority business demands.

"... what are you.. doing?" The surprise is more notable as he registers the product being handled, a pensive-- or confounded-- grind consuming Magneto's jawline.

Paige Guthrie has posed:
"If we had teke powers, we'd be usin' 'em." says the Hayseed as she lugs over yet another few boxes of t-shirts to the cart. If there's going to be something else that catches the master of magnetism's eye, it might be little chibi plush version of him on the table next to the money. A prototype for more merch out there.

The sudden appearance though causes Paige to freeze mid-box transfer. With a nervous chuckle, she looks to Erik to answer his question. "Capitalism." she says. They're doing capitalism.

Quentin Quire has posed:
It takes a whole lot to sneak up on a telepath of Quentin's abilities, even when he's preoccupied counting all this money. Wearing one's telepathy-proof helmet is generally a good start. The pink-haired telepath remains non-plussed as the Master of Magnetism descends into Xavier's garden; he's clearly not here to start nothing, so there won't be nothing.

He does briefly reach out a telepathic message to the Professor, politely informing him that Magneto has come a-calling.

Telekinetically setting the stacks of money back down on the tabletop, Quentin keeps a remarkable poker-face going as he nods in agreement with Paige's assessment and announcement. "Spreading the good word and all that, too.." he adds.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
A silent perusal is given the wares, one of the plushes picked up, turned over, and set back down a bit more roughly. A long moment's consideration is given the two mutants words-- or perhaps contemplating the winding paths available to a man of wildly reactive emotional capacities.

Even without the helmet-- the fields around Magneto, the man's remarkable will, his maestro's management of his own bioelectric field render him a challenging target for telepathy. So it is that his consternation is likely mostly written on the man's hewn face, recently clean shaven once more, though his silver-white hair remains a somewhat wild mane.

Finally, he looks from the tables, to the gardens, to Paige. And asks a deceptively complex, simple question. "Why?"

Quentin draws a sidelong glance next, evenly considering the young man in turn, before appending in an even lower murmur, "And the money?"

Paige Guthrie has posed:
"You can't have peace without liberation." Paige says rather matter of factly. "Prof Xavier's ways of being just reactive have brought us to a point that is no longer sustainable for mutants like us. When that mutant girl was murdered, the X-Men were so quick to NOT blame the fl... human cops that did it, and looked for a mutant or at least a non-human cause. Without as so much as an inkling of proof they're already jumping to the conclusion that Stryfe and the MiLF (yes, she pronoucned MLF as MILF) are behind it."

There's clear frustration on her end. Perhaps a mix of the neural implant, but also her own youthful optimism that's getting more jaded by the second.

"I hate to say it, but I almost feel like the Professor and the X-Men aren't for mutants, but for humans, to protect them from us." she says almost sadly.

"So, I want to build up support for people like you and Stryfe. The Brotherhood and MILF together!" she beams.

"Besides, did you know that the X-Men are going to be public soon?"

Quentin Quire has posed:
Not that Quentin has been trying to peek; he's that sure of himself, obviously, but there's knowing you could probably do something, and actually getting away with it. And peering into the screeching electromagnetic mess that surrounds Erik isn't exactly high on his list of things to do today.

So he just gives Erik that same pokerface grin as he replies, "Gotta cover costs, of course. Materials, manufacturing, printing costs. Shipping, and all that." he says, as one of the boxes waiting to be packed and sealed opens itself up, a 'My Social Justice Daddy is Hot' tshirt floating up in a telekinetic grip. For all that they're scheming on this, the tshirts are of at least pretty good quality, as typical for smaller boutique runs. No mass market made in China tags here.

Clearly Quentin is in this more for the money than the message, having none of Paige's youthful optimism (nor subtle brainwashing) about the entire situation.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
"Liberation is a struggle on the path to widespread freedom; but many steps from peace. Still, sometimes peace is simply another word for surrender." Magneto notes solemnly, his voice not yet rising above that intense, projected murmur.

"Charles' dream is a lovely thing; but it is just that. The fantasy of an idealist, one piece to a very intricate puzzle." There's something... alarming about the rhetoric. So close to Magnus' own, yet detached from it. A different core. It may just be the namedrop of Stryfe-- or the MLF.

"The police are the jackboot of a state more concerned with control than equality; but the generalized trends of crime and prejudice are defined by myriad situations, they do not dictate their truth. Stryfe is a madman, a murderer-- and while such has been said of /me/, do not mistake that man's cause for /ours/." It's not even territorial ownership expresed in the emphatic emphasis; but kinship. Stryfe fights for Stryfe, the MLF is his monster. Magneto does not relate, despite the /obvious/ surface overlap of their relevant Venns. "Profits, then." He summarizes Quire and Guthrie's words in perhaps the way they would least prefer he do so.

"If you are /served by/ your activism, you are not making a sacrifice, or taking a stand, you are defaulting to cooperative benefit of a stagnant status quo." Of course, he could append -that- to the judgement.

Paige Guthrie has posed:
"Quentin keeps his profits. I donate mine to the MiLF." she says seeming proud of that fact. So it seems a certain Miss Paige Guthrie is the financier, or at least a partial financier to the group. She motions towards the box of MLF plushes not too far from Magneto.

"Your orders are beating his by about five percent right now. You two are our most popular da... t-shirt lines and plushes." she says with a bright smile, her eyes twinkling with that optimism and naivete of a young woman sheltered most of her life.

"And with no disrespect, people have said the same about you, and you have shown you can turn a new leaf. Why not give Stryfe the same opportunity presented to you?" she wonders.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Did Magneto just accuse Quentin of being no better than corporations during Pride Month? The telepath must take it as such, as his brow furrows a bit at the judgement from the Master of Magnetism. "I did the whole sacrificing for the cause thing on Genosha once already, and spent a good chunk of time afterwards trying to fix the 'status quo'..." in his own twisted way, travelling the nation and forcing human supremecists of all political stripes and creeds to ruin their own lives. It's not exactly the best defense for keeping his profits, but hey, this _is_ Quentin Quire we're talking about here.

"On top of being one of the few actually paying attention to this new Sentinel problem _before_ it blew up in our faces. So pardon me if I like to enjoy milking the fl- normies. It's still putting the message out there, and that's what it's about anyway. It's not like we're going to get a real island nation of our own again anyway. So the more times people see 'Magneto Was Right' in their face, the more they'll think that you were. Marketting 101."

Erik Lensherr has posed:
Something about it rings off. Before he was a leader, a zealot, a globally wanted man, Magneto was a spy. A very good spy. To call his mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum thorough is an extreme understatement; every human, every mutant power, every godlike alien has its own distinct bioelectric signature. The esoteric might call this an aura, but biology is a furnace, requiring fuel and producing electricity, chemical reaction, hormone production, cellular di-- one gets the idea.

"For one thing, I am a poor model for paternal pride or emulation, and I doubt Stryfe fares any better, to say the least." It's possible Magnus doesn't quite grasp the thrust of this meme. This is probably for the best.

There's a tinge of whimsy alongside the painful nostalgia of the admission, the tangential remorse. That whimsy rings like a man who knows a secret, a fellow at the poker table who came up with that final ace in the last round, after all the chips are in the pool, when the game is suddenly decided, dramatically. "For another--" Magneto's icy gaze narrows, his posture turns, and he levels all that focus upon Paige Guthrie.

For a moment, it looks like he may intend to vaporize one of Xavier's students in Xavier's gardens with the psycho-flexitive power of his mind. But any tangible sensation is minor; a tingle, a touch of light-headedness, it's a delicate touch with which the Master of Magnetism's power plays over a human brain.

"-- /I/ would never subvert you to my cause and exploit our people's plight through the use of mind-altering technology. There is a worm in your brain, my dear; a tiny, whispering devil of circuitry-driven sophistry."

Charles Xavier has posed:
Professor Xavier was in the lab.

There was a lot of, let's be kind and call it salvage from the last few missions and Xavier wanted to do his part in understanding this latest iteration of technological terror. He'd been, he felt, quietly shunted off to studying what Stryfe might want to do with a time portal and the LHC. So far the work had led to the conjecture of 'Nothing good'. Xavier sighed, and got back to it.

Then he heard Kid Omega's voice in his head. 'Magneto's here, looking for you.'. Xavier certainly had his differences with his former prize student, and things were still in a state of detente despite it all, but.

It's amazing how fast a man in a wheelchair can make it to an elevator. Xavier shamelessly eavesdrops as he makes his way to the garden; Charles is wearing a gray turtleneck and in his 'work chair', chrome with the X-symbol on the wheels and a number of features useful for scientific analysis. And a stun gun.

"Erik." Charles says, and pauses as if half expecting the man to catch fire from saying in front of God and everyone that he'd never manipulate someone with a machine. "Ah, I see you've met your fan club. You say you sensed a machine inside of Ms. Guntre's mind?"

Xavier turns and gives Paige a little smile. It's the sort of smile a kindly physician gives you before a vaccination shot, as Xavier's mind expands to inspect Paige for damage. Erik would, Xavier tells himself, not give one of his students brain damage without at least making a very long speech about it first.

Paige Guthrie has posed:
"There's a what now?" Paige just stares at Erik for a few moments and then to Quentin, "Did you put him up to this?" she says with a bit of a frown. "You already got your half of all the Magneto Was Right shirts." she whines, still thinking the whole thing is some sort of prank.

Meanwhile, inspection of her brainmeats would reveal the social conditioning that she had been receiving subliminally through her exposure with the MLF. That much a telepath can see, but Stryfe is a tricksy one.

He purposely made the neural implant mostly undetectable to telepaths, even those of Xavier's caliber. It's one of the reasons that Quentin wasn't able to find it in the first place. But that's only -if- the telepaths are not aware of said implant.

Now that it has been made clear, there's that little worm reconnecting things, further enhancing and emphasizing the bits of social conditioning and connections she has. Mutants good. Humans are flatcscans. Magneto Was Right. Stryfe is like Magneto. Therefore, Stryfe is right. Long live the MLF.

Oh yeah, and there's that whole bit of Stryfe being aware of what's going on in the X-Mansion through said implant, perusing through things from Paige's POV.

Quentin Quire has posed:
As Erik focuses more of his attention on Paige and her rhetoric than he is on Quentin's profit margins, Q's eyes narrow a bit. As he feels Erik's focus on Paige, a hand comes up, casual as can be and filled with the pistol grip of a sawed off shotgun crafted from psionic energies.

"I can't read your mind, Magneto, but I can scramble it..." he warns the older man before his pronouncement that Paige's got a devious kind of earworm rooting around in her mind.

Once that pronouncement is made, the revelation that Paige has undergone some kind of manipulation, a similar psionic shotgun appears in Quentin's other hand, lifted towards the blonde; he's seen Manchurian Candidate, he knows the deal. "Why would I put Magneto up to anything?" he asks Paige, even as he sees the evidence of the worm's manipulations left behind, now that he knows what to look for. A frown across his features, even as he feels some begrudging respect for Stryfe, having snuck that little surprise past him.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
"Calm yourself, Omega; my intent is anything but malevolent." Magneto doesn't bother to argue. He doesn't even pre-empt it or posture. Surely, they can still agree on /this/ threat. "And I brook no threat to the sanctity of my mind and person." Not so much as a glance is spared-- but the Master of Magnetism's senses are still attuned to that gathering psychic might. Quire is an impressive example of their evolution, after all.

"Not only is it there, it is transmitting." Quite an uncanny power source to accomplish that, and it draws that infinitesimally precise attention from Magnus for a long, analytical moment. Not so much watching as /feeling/ the molecular reactions and elements involved in the process, down to their covalent bonds.

"I see you, Stryfe." Magneto leans forward slightly, aligning his gaze perfectly with Paige's for a lingering moment, as he smiles darkly. "I hope we understand one another." At that point the electrical impulses the device wishes to reinforce are intercepted by Magneto, wresting for control, seeking to isolate the device within its own microcosmic field.

"I believe-- I can remove this device with relatively low risks to you, Paige. By all rights it is you we should ask, however-- Charles, is the young lady's will even her own at this moment?"

Charles Xavier has posed:
A shotgun, really? Charles supposes there is some elegance in the design, and despite it all he's happy to see Quentin showing some loyalty. Who knows how much damage the boy could do before Erik gets serious; but, perhaps fortunately, a more direct threat is uncovered.

"Future technology." Xavier says, frowning slightly, physically unconcerned by the saber rattling. His mind is focused on working its way through the subtleties of Stryfe's machine, memorizing them so he would not be fooled by such a tactic in the future. At least not this specific tactic. Bishop was right, Xavier thinks glumly. I should get him something. Does he like brownies? Seems like a brownies guy.

Ah, a trap. "Both of you get back." Professor X says, his face hardening slightly as he goes into work mode. "Husk is about to do something dangerous. Stryfe installed a dead man's switch in her mind, activated when Magnus detected his machine. However."

"He underestimated my power." Xavier's eyes flash blue for a second, as he projects his will directly onto Paige. "Heed me, Paige Gunthre. I have taught you what to do when the independence of your mind is threatened. You are no normal girl! Inside of your soul are stars, child, and you must call on that power now. Your mind and will have been violated by an alien force, and I show it to you now. It wants you to hurt us. It thinks you will obey anything if it appeals to the part of you that wishes to just exist."

"Prove it wrong." Xavier holds a mental hand out, rousing Paige's independence, her fierce will, the anger she must feel at being manipulated, at her body being used as a bomb! "Professor X will help you."

Paige Guthrie has posed:
Paige the Manchurian candidate was about to be activated. Who knew what she could do under the thrall of someone far more experienced in using their powers.

Still, that's stopped, with that little worm trying to fight back, and there is some psionic shielding that prevents it from being destroyed utterly by the Professor's will. So as it fights, it makes Paige do what she does best... Husk.

Falling to her knees, her skin (and clothes) shed to reveal a black rubber form. Then an elemental looking water form. Then a more acidic form that starts to burn through the ground. Paigelossus appears! LightningPaige(Paigening) appears! Skin and more skin is shed, leaving a pile of rather interesting remnants behind.

And as there's chaos outside, there's also chaos inside. The only sign of it being when she screams.

Quentin Quire has posed:
Sure it's crude, but it certainly gets the job done. And there's little that's more satisfying than blowing someone's mind up with a psionic shotgun blast; at least nothing that doesn't involve a lot of messy cleanup afterwards. Still, it's what Quentin knows, and it's what he keeps trained on both Magneto and Paige as this little thing goes down. He sees the mental manipulation now, but the Professor is here, it's his home turf, so Q leaves it to Xavier to deal with.

At least until Paige starts shedding and screaming her fool head off. Even Kid Omega is taken a step back at the abruptness of it, uttering "Sweet zombie mutant Jesus..." as she goes through shed after shed after shed after shed after shed after shed after shed.

"Uhh, professor? Maybe we should knock her out before she hurts herself, or somethin'?" he asks warily. Any one of them could probably do so through some use of their powers; his would probably be the most violent though.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
Stand back?

"I think not, Charles." Magneto stays right where he is, but he is not passive. Xavier rouses Husk's will, and the Master of Magnetism focuses his attention on the root of the problem. So similar to Paige's own neural pathways; so keenly integrated, as if growing into her nervous system itself.

It would be a nigh insurmountable challenge for even this time and place's foremost neurosurgeons. Lucky for all involved-- except perhaps Stryfe-- then, that Magnus is not in fact the world's foremost neurosurgeon; and instead a wealth of experience using his abilities to tinker with the mind. Look, he's not going to implant any young mutants with mind controlling implants just because of THAT, alright? There's a DISTINCTION.

Along with the miniscule precision necessary for that work, a secondary field shimmers into existence around them both. As she shifts form, arcs of energy leech excess power and seek to control her haphazard movements; to keep Ms. Guthrie /still/. Consciousness actually makes the intrusions easier to pinpoint, keener to trace, so active and invasive-- and then atom by atom, starting with the reaction necessary to power the device, the implant begins to become forcibly discorporate, a myriad of miniaturized fields isolating reactive compounds and cutting off the circuit into Paige's brain. It's less extracting what's there in pieces; and more forcing what's there to cease to be. Its exotic construction and exposure to its influence and fields may cause complications, sure; but there are few better possible outcomes in Husk's particularly troublesome situation.

"Keep her as calm as you can-- it's almost done." Power to force matter to shear its bonds is no subtle scan; there's no shielding the pain, the disorientation. Not on Magneto's end, at least; other experts have their own fields. What he -can- and -does- do is keep that energy from boiling the young mutant's brain in its casing throughout the process, an intense effort that sees the sweat building on Magnus' brow; a tense pain coming to his own features as he resolves to finish what he set out to do.

Charles Xavier has posed:
Professor Xavier rolls back a little in shock at Husk's utter breakdown. Part of the problem with telepathy is that you feel what your subject feels; you either learn how to filter sudden, harsh emotions very quickly or end up.

Well it explains a few personalities doesn't it? Regardless, Xavier struggles with the feedback of Husk's fear and pain for a minute. Erik fishing around in her actual brain with a microwave beam or whatever isn't helping. Time to delegate.

"Quentin." Xavier says in the clear, curt tone of an order. "Focus on Husk's feelings. Numb the pain and slow her reaction time. I'll deal with her mutant power."

The nature of Husk's power means things could go very wrong, very quickly if she keeps shifting. Erik's technique is delicate and the last thing Charles wants is for the poor girl's brain to be a quasar or something mid surgery. Xavier invokes his secondary mutation, focusing on the radioactive half life any active mutant power emits. Each is unique and personalized, which makes it easy enough to find the beating 'heart' of her mutation. Xavier reaches out.

And gently coaxes Paige's brain to forget what it is she does to 'husk' off a layer of skin, easing her mind into a calmer state. "I've got her, Magnus. All three of us, together. Her mind is at its most open...now!"

Paige Guthrie has posed:
There's facial contortions and then there's face melting. With all the pain and chaos going on in her neural pathways, it's difficult for her to maintain shape even as she continuously husks from one form to another. It's only when she turns into the Paigelossus organic steel does the grasp of the magnetic fields help to keep her in place, even though she's fighting with all her strength to continue thrashing.

Her mind is absolutely chaotic. One of the failsafes, should the worm have been discovered is to scramble the girl's mind itself. Each new husk, with it's new abilities ranging from super strneght and vulnerability to elasticity to intangibility seems to change her on a mental level.

Each new husk brings forth a new personality, her voice even changing as she screams.

With the combined efforts of the two Omega telepaths, her mind is stabilitized, and thus so is her form. She went through maybe 50-60 transformations, leaving a veritable variety of different raw materials on the ground.

And for now, with the pain shut off and the memories partially turned off, she passes out, completely knocked unconscious as the implant is destroyed. Take that Stryfe!

Quentin Quire has posed:
Even as a former student, Quentin is quick to follow the Professor's orders as Paige's mind tries to rip itself and her body apart. The psionic shotguns fade away to nothing as all of his telepathic attention focuses down to emphasize with Paige in the deepest way possible. His brow furrows as the backwash of intense pain rolls back over him, but the pink-haired telepath doesn't let go of Paige's pain, preventing her mind from feeling the effects of so many morphs in so little time.

That hold remains as Paige starts to slump into unconsciousness, and continues even as Quentin asks, "...you got it, right?" of Magneto. He can tell she's alive but unconscious, and he's keeping her unconscious mind from feeling any pain in turn. But repairing the damage was less of a telepathic thing and more of a magnetic thing.....

Erik Lensherr has posed:
Molecule by molecule, the device ceases to function, then ceases to be. "If it were possible to remove this device without harming her mind... that is what has now been accomplished."

It's a difficult conditional, and the Master of Magnetism does not sugar coat it, his face relaxing not long before Paige succumbs; the tangible power in the air no longer standing every hair on static-saturated end. With a languid, almost tired shrug of his broad shoulders, Magnus sheds his crimson-accented black jacket and stoops to wrap it around Paige's shoulders carefully.

"We will not know for certain until she recovers." Magneto offers softly, with understated trepidation amidst the measured confidence. When he stands, it is bearing Husk's husk. "She should rest, Charles-- and we... we must speak." Quentin had it right: his profit motive is, at least for now, seemingly entirely forgotten. The lucky little entrepreneur.

Charles Xavier has posed:
Xavier nods at Magneto's chivalry. He'd developed a strain of unstable molecules that are supposed to keep up with Husk's quick change act, but she has to actually be wearing the uniform to benefit from it.

He's also exhausted. Future technology, Xavier blames, refusing to believe he's getting old. "Nice work, Quentin." Xavier says, wanting to help Paige up but being trapped inside of a chair. "Let's get Paige to the medical wing. I'll call Henry and run a few tests. Thank you for the help, Erik."

"And we do need to talk." If there's a bit of a chill in that sentence, even a mental scan can't pick it up. Xavier starts rolling to do what he can with Paige, a little telekinetic push.

The old professor pauses and looks right at Quentin. "And there will absolutely not be a business involving the face of a man who hasn't given permission to use it on school grounds when I'm done fixing Paige's mind, will there Quentin? I am absolutely certain this will all just fade away, as the morning dew. Because I'm so confident in you, son. It'll be like I never had to see it."