3819/Zen and the Art of Cerebro Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Cerebro Maintenance
Date of Scene:	14 October 2020
Location:	Cerebro Room
Synopsis:	Jean updates Charles about the weird Brainiac tech, and they get working on Cerebro.
Cast of Characters:	Charles Xavier, Jean Grey

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Charles Xavier has posed:
    The Cerebro room is one that few visit without need. In the early days, Xavier was often here, using the machine he build to find mutants in need, children who required a safe place to grow and learn and come to terms with who they were. With it, he has brought so many to the mansion. But it's been some time since he used it; since he reached out and touched the minds of the world with a careful touch.

    Today, he rests in his chair, his eyes closed, almost meditating as he listens to the psychic noise of the school above. It's like background noise without him focusing on anyone in particular, but he's not trying to intrude. Just sort of letting it wash over him as he waits.

Jean Grey has posed:
    Jean comes into the room after a few moments, giving Charles a brief mental nudge to let him know she's arrived. She is currently wearing her X-Men outfit, since that's what she's used to when working on Cerebro. She grins a little, "Not thinking of taking back the chair, are you? I just finished redecorating the office." She's obviously joking about it, one eyebrow arching towards her former (and in some ways still current) teacher.

Charles Xavier has posed:
    Xavier hehs, opening his eyes as he smiles. "I don't know about taking Cerebro back; I've always felt it belongs to the X-Men as a whole rather than just to me. Though I do miss my office chair." he says meditatively, his eyes twinkling. "

Jean Grey has posed:
    Jean grins wryly, "Well, you'd have to take it out of the basement yourself, Professor." She chuckles a bit, "But yes, it's definitely come in handy over the years..." Her fingers absently run across the console of Cerebro, then she looks over at the Professor.

"Though, I suppose I could let you have the office chair... I can always requisition a new one." She grins cheerfully at the idea.

Charles Xavier has posed:
    "Hah. I might appreciate it, if you can part with it." Xavier chuckles. "No, actually what I asked you do here was because I realized one aspect of your training I have neglected is the creation and maintenance of psionic technology like Cerebro. I thought that might be something we want to remedy. I won't be around forever, after all, and it would be good if you also had the ability to construct such equipment for your own use. Or simply to repair and upgrade Cerebro over time."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, "Actually, that's a pretty good idea. I admit the hardware end of it I'm not too familiar with, been leaning on Hank quite a bit for that." She smiles, "But, that might not always be an option either, right?"

Charles Xavier has posed:
    "Hank is very skilled, but part of what makes Cerebro so sensitive is knowing how to align it psionically in addition to the physical equipment." Charles agrees, rolling over to a side panel and starting to undo it so he can slide it off, his motions slow but precise as she sets it aside. "That is the essence of most of the psionic designs I've created, that they have the right psychic vibrations to work smoothly with psionic energies directed at them or through them."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, "Which is why I don't use my telekinesis on it, since I always worried that would mess up the calibrations." She smiles wryly, looking curiously at Charles and what he's doing. Making mental notes so that she remembers for future reference.

Charles Xavier has posed:
    Charles smiles. "Yes. Telekinesis is a more direct influence than other abilities, and more easily can throw it out of alignment if you aren't very precise. But the thing to remember is, any of these devices are, for want of a better word, aligned with the astral plane. Not that they cross over to it," he clarifies. "But they are aligned via mental energy to allow the energies of the astral plane to flow smoothly. Instead of a stream forced to flow around a rock, when properly aligned these energies will flow through it like it's not there. That makes it more easy to draw on the psionic energies involved, because the machine itself isn't serving as a blockage to a smooth flow of energy. Do you understand what I mean?" he queries.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, then blinks as a sudden thought hits her, "Wait, if these align on the astral plane..." She pauses, then looks at the Professor, "Brainiac had technology that could /block/ the astral plane. He probably had his own version of Cerebro that he could use to find mutants, as well. Which makes sense on knowing where to strike so precisely."

Charles Xavier has posed:
    Charles considers that, frowning. "It could be that he has created a device that looked for the eddies in those energies created by a psionic mind, possibly. It would be more crude, since he didn't have any psionic energy of his own, but as a highly advanced alien computer he would have the processing power to sort through all the information to weed out true versus false reading. And blocking the astral plane is not difficult if you have the right machinery and some knowledge of pisonic energy.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean hmms, "Yes, I know, but... a purely technological solution was not something I was used to experiencing. Especially one strong enough to resist my influence." Not that she's being arrogant about it, but... well, she's assuredly in the top ten telepaths on the planet. And it worked against /her/.

Charles Xavier has posed:
    "I would imagine that there are other races out there in the galaxy who are much more experienced with the use of such powers than humanity, where psionic abilities are common." Charles muses. "The difficulty of overcoming something like that is that they don't need to oppose you directly...they just need to disrupt the astral plane too much for any psionic powers to function, no matter how powerful they are. If you can't draw on those energies reliably, you can't channel it."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods, "True. It was peculiar in that I had no problem with communication... just with transit. They could make 'barriers' in the astral that I couldn't traverse." She hmms, "But it's definitely something to keep in mind, especially if others were able to salvage some of that technology."

Charles Xavier has posed:
    "Hopefully it's not fallen into the wrong hands, but best to prepare as if it is." Charles agrees, nodding. "Perhaps if I show you more of how to stabilize these energies so they flow smoothly, you'll be better able to overcome such things in the future then."

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean laughs softly, "No pressure, though, right?" She gives Charles a wry expression at that, "And yes, I think we might need to have some more advanced tutoring sessions about Cerebro, and astral travel in general."

Charles Xavier has posed:
    "Well. I am, of course, quite willing to teach you all I know." Charles says with a smile. "I know such engineering is not something you've expressed a deep interest in, but even the foundations can be helpful to you.";

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean grins, "Well, why stop at one doctorate, right? Though I admit the technical side of things isn't something I have too much talent for, I should know at least the basics." And so, teacher and student, though now two teachers, go to work on breaking down Cerebro.