Town Hall, Friday Morning

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He'd had a good run here at Fandom. A really good one.

But to all things came an end. Living in Baltimore had drawn Cable further and further away from the island. With Wade's help, he'd found ways to fortify their position that still complied with this baseline Earth's laws-- ways to keep Jan safe until she could do what had to be done.

Honestly, if he thought about it now, keeping ties to Fandom was downright irresponsible. It would be a great deal harder for their enemies to find them if they stayed away from multiversal hubs.

And so today he came back to Town Hall to make preparations, gather his things, and put the last hand to his plan to net Fandom a mayor worthy of its eccentricities. He left messages for a few people - on island and off - packed items into a few boxes. Switched off a few safeties. Destroyed a few (but not all) of his files.

This era was ending. He was, as always, prepared for the next.

[[ and with that, cable's leaving to make way for a new mayor! if you want to walk in to talk to him, or think he contacted you, the post is open. this is your last chance to talk to him before departure. he's had a good run, but he's done. ]]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono could thank curiosity and the fact that Town Hall was just down the street from the Boards for the fact that he noticed the light on in there that morning. And, figuring that it was either go and investigate or else return to figuring out how best to get maple syrup out of lacy dresses, he wandered by. The door wasn't locked, it was Town Hall, why not?

"Cable?" Well, there was a face he hadn't seen in a while. And a welcome one, though he did give a sidelong glance at the boxes, and that glance was followed shortly after by a small frown. "I'm not interrupting anything here, am I?"


[NATE NOOO. *clings to his face*]

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"I'm just packing," Cable said, his face all friendly-benevolent-smile. "Clearing this place out."

Finding the most incriminating dossiers and taking those with him. That kind of thing.

[[ SORRY. ]]

[furnaceface]

"Well, yes, I gathered that," Jono replied, returning Cable's smile with a wry twist of his own. "Had enough of our little island, then?"

The time came for everyone to leave for good around here. Jono knew that. But that didn't mean that he necessarily liked it.

Cable had saved his life. Had even been something of a mentor to him, once. Jonothon didn't forget things like that easily.

[*SOBS FOREVER*]

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"I have to prioritize Janice over everything else," Cable said. He put a couple of USB sticks into one of the boxes. "Now that Wade has quit his position here and we've moved off-island... well, there is only so long I could have lingered responsibly."

There were new mutants coming in almost every semester. So far, they'd avoided anyone who'd try to track Jan down. So far.

[[ *gives a tissue* ... *and big mutant hugs* ]]

[furnaceface]

Jonothon gave a faint nod. Really, he couldn't argue with logic like that, much as he wanted to try. Janice was an important little girl. Any mutant who had been around her for any length of time could tell that. Some just chose to accept that a little more thoroughly than others.

"Makes sense," he admitted, though somewhat grudgingly. "It'll be a shame to see you gone for good, but for Jan's sake, it's good you are."

There was a moment of awkward hesitation before adding, "Place won't be quite th'same without you about, though."

[*Biggest mutant hugs!*]

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"I think you'll all get by well enough," Cable said. That there in his voice was an almost fond note. "Though if you run into trouble, there's a weapons cache in the preserve I can give you the coordinates for."

Sharing guns was Nate's way of showing he cared, Jono.

[furnaceface]

"That would be appreciated," Jono admitted, because he understood these things and wasn't about to turn down any contingency plan that was offered to him. "This place never goes for too long without running into trouble, after all. They'll serve their purpose sooner or later, I'm sure."

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"Probably sooner."

He knew the island.

He reached down behind the desk. "Root beer or actual beer?"

[furnaceface]

"Actual, if you don't mind," Jono replied with a wry smile. "I haven't been th'root beer sort for a long while."

He actually couldn't remember ever being the root beer sort. He wasn't entirely sure if that was old Weapon X reprogramming at work, or if he'd just always been a rotten kid.

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This was Cable's last day as a mayor. That involved PR. And non-alcoholic options.

"Good choice," he said, opening up the mini-fridge. He pulled out two beers, tossing one towards Jono. "Catch. And let's talk."

[furnaceface]

Of course Jono caught. Anything less would be unnecessary alcohol abuse.

"Thanks," he said, opening his and lifting it in a sort of toast-turned-salute. "Anything in particular you'd like to discuss?"


[Wee pause in pinging while I trudge to work in the snow!]

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"What are your plans for the future?"

Cable opened his bottle open with a flick of his metal thumb, raising it to match Jono's salute.

[furnaceface]

Jono fell silent for a moment at that question, giving it the consideration it was due.

"I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that that doesn't seem to involve playing soldier in one form or another," he admitted. "Continue teaching, continue running the theatre, certainly. But there's always something going on back home, and Karla will be graduating and inciting a civil war of her own..."

He obviously didn't sound thrilled about any of that. Resigned to it, maybe. War was going to be his life. He was a weapon.

So it goes.

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"Is 'playing soldier' what you do?" Cable asked, taking a sip of his beer. "Or are you a soldier? The difference matters." His mouth quirked. "Take it from an old soldier."

[furnaceface]

The difference did matter. Jono sighed and took another mouthful from his own beer before nodding his agreement.

"I'm a soldier," he said, finally. "I never particularly wanted to be. Tried to quit a few times. But you can't quit something like that, can you? Not really."

He fought wars. Maybe not in the sort of battles that made history, but they were wars all the same. It was a part of him, whether he liked it or not. The fancy powers and stupid costume weren't even necessary for that. It had worked its way into his mind, even before it was cemented in there courtesy of The Program.

"Once it gets into you, if that's what you need to be, that's what you are."

[spring-lost.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That was how it was, wasn't it? Cable had tried to be something different once. Hadn't worked. You went back to what you needed to be. Like right now.

"That's what you are," he echoed. "So what are you going to be fighting for? A queen? Mutant rights? An ideal?"

[furnaceface]

Jono shook his head a little.

"It's always an ideal in one way or another, isn't it? Some notion of what's right or wrong, of who will be the best at something or who deserves equality or even the illusion of a better future. With the New Warriors, so much of it's such a big show for the masses, too many members of the group lose sight of the fact that the point we're trying to get across regarding registration is a very real one. With Karla and her people... the landens have been held back for millions of years, when it comes to coming up with anything that might give them an upper hand against the Blood. If they choose to fight as they are now, it'll be a slaughter."

He sighed. The beer was much appreciated, right then.

"Mutant, human, landen, whatever, mostly I keep fighting so that perhaps when it all comes around, somebody else won't have to. Let the people with the blood on their hands keep it there, instead. The world needs some clean consciences left in it at the end of the day."

[spring-lost.livejournal.com]

"I can't agree more." Cable reached out, clinked his bottle against Jono's. "These events will only ramp up further from where you are now," he added. (Trust him. He was from the future. In more ways than one.) "Don't lose sight of what your endgame is. And don't put responsibility for what you are or what you do in anyone else's hands."

Jono was probably not going to be the one-man determinator-army Nate was, no. But he could dream.

[furnaceface]

"My choices are my own," Jono replied, nodding faintly. "I wouldn't dream of placing the blame for those on anyone but me."

Hell, he internalized so much of what he did, he would never stop feeling guilty for the lives he'd taken while he'd been a brainwashed puppet. There wasn't much danger of him letting anybody take responsibility for what he was, or whatever it was he was going to become.

"It's... good to have a chance to talk about it," he ventured, "with someone who actually knows what th'hell I'm talking about. There are plenty of fighters on the island in one form or another, but not near as many of them are soldiers, per se."

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"Most people on this island are willing to fight for what they believe in," Cable said. "But you're right. It's not the same. You need duty and discipline. You need to be willing to accept this is what you do, and it might never stop."

He threw Jono a faintly amused look.

"You also need every big gun you can get your hands on."

[furnaceface]

"Cheers," Jono replied, smirking and clinking his bottle against Cable's, now. "I'm sure as hell not stepping into a fight without a weapon if I can bloody well help it."

Especially not against the sort of enemies he tended to have to face down. His collar wasn't strictly a gun, per se, but he hadn't hesitated to use it as one when the need arose.

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"Two weapons," Cable said, taking a nice big swig of his beer. "Always plan ahead. Keep that second one somewhere you can get to."

It was slightly better advice than the other option, which was 'just make sure the guns are really, really big.'

[furnaceface]

"Two weapons," Jono echoed, nodding. He remembered having to take stock of what equipment everybody had left when they were trapped underground, being hunted by Machinesmith, after all. "At the very least."

Really really big guns were also an excellent option. Jono... had just never had much of a need for guns, back when he could blow people up using his face, was all.

"Tried to teach my students the importance of being able to improvise if they're caught without, today," he sighed. "I've been saved by loose bricks and lamps more times than I'd care to admit, over th'years, but I have the sneaking suspicion that most of them are more interested in easy credits than actually learning to survive their high school years, here."

A beat.

"Or perhaps I'm simply too long-winded."

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"They're teenagers." That's what it came down to in the end. "They won't recognize the need for anything you're teaching them until the island - or something else - forces them to."

Cable set his bottle down on the desk. "On the upside," he said, "When they do, they'll be very grateful they took your class."

[furnaceface]

"Here's hoping," Jono replied with a wry smile, knocking back was was left in his bottle and setting it down on the desk as well. "Much as I hate that the students are often the ones left stepping up to fight these fights, if they're going to get involved regardless, I want to see them come back to us again in one piece, too."

There hadn't been a force on the island that had been able to keep Jono out of the thick of the worst of it when he was a student. He knew how these things went.