Catchall for July

[aberranthubris]

WHO: Charles Xavier, Charles!clone and You!
WHERE: A bit of everywhere.
WHEN: July
WHAT: Meetings, powers training, random encounters, clone-a-rama.
WARNINGS: TBA, Charles clone is likely to use telepathy without IC consent. Here is my telepathy permission post if you want to opt out of that.



MEET CHARLES

a. home, still at Nonah
Charles lives in Nonah, in individual housing with Erik, Jean and Wanda. It's a two story building but with no stairs at the front and no thresholds that would make it hard to navigate with a wheelchair. If he has invited you into his home, he'll be waiting with a pot of tea and a tin of cookies. But if you're a chance visitor, he will welcome you just as warmly.

He's gathering his bearings finally and actually made a home for himself in the bedroom that used to be his, claimed some space around the house by piles of books often forgotten onto the tables and good scotch in a reachable cupboard in the kitchen. He's no longer red as a lobster what was going on after the beach episode of Swear-ins and Erik finally convinced him to have a haircut. Gone is the mullet and back is the 60's floppy hair-do. You might even catch him wearing a t-shirt, maybe with an X-men logo on it or a silly slogan, he got a few of those from Fanport.

Let's have a cup of tea or a game of chess, or just good conversation.

b. powers training at the danger room / Maria-Francis Foundation
The Maria-Francis Foundation building resides in Nonah De Chima. In the basement there is a wide space that Erik has been working with all month to get up and running as a powers training centre. The building is modern and tall, and Charles has taken a habit of waiting the people he's made appointments with at the front lobby.

He's excited to get the actual training started, get those hours in and grind some practice into people who have contacted him.

If you're not here for powers training, you can find him in the office, going through the Foundation's paperwork. You're damn right he's snooping on his own business. What of it?

c. interview, wherever seems convenient
Perhaps you're meeting him in a cafe or a park, he'll even agree to go the beach if that's convenient for you. What he's interested in is learning about what you have to say after all. Charles is very curious about what has aspired in this world before his time and how to put the details together into a cohesive picture in his mind.

He's quick to greet you with a smile and a warm handshake. Please, sit down. Would you like a cup of tea or coffee first? Do you mind if he makes some quick notes while you're discussing?

d. wildcard
Would you like something else? Perhaps run into him in the library or find him feeding pigeons one fine morning in the park? Maybe he was supposed to come to you? Are you having a dinner out? Are you one of the people he keeps an eye on and something is going awfully wrong? He would find a way to contact you. Throw me a bone, I'll run with it.

MEET THE CLONE

e. random encounter
Charles, the clone, looks and sounds exactly like the original but he doesn't have the stylish wheelchair with big X-symbols on the wheels. A big giveaway? Maybe not. His flippant attitude is probably the big neon sign that you weren't expecting. Wherever you meet - cafe, library, school, even the Foundation building - he's going to greet you with a sunny smile and a warm handshake, introduce himself if necessary and especially if you're a pretty brunette, he will flirt playfully while falling short with playing the caring and concerned game that Charles excels at.

He's going to be a little bit impatient, unlikely to avoid using his gifts even if you ask him to and multitasking to the max. Good luck catching all of his attention at any given time. But he's new to his powers, and easily overwhelmed.

f. for those he's interacted with before
As time goes by, he will start targeting Charles' friends and family. He'll find them at their work places or stage a random meeting elsewhere. Once or twice he'll even wander into the house in Nonah. You might find him at the kitchen having a cup of tea and leafing a genetics book, or perhaps wandering around, looking at pictures and fingering everything with curiosity. Or rolling into your workplace with a sunny smile and a suggestion to grab an early lunch.

g. wildcard
Something else you had in your mind? I'm an open book, come at me, bruh!

Comments

[lempereur]

[ Yusuke does what he is told, again, pushing the door open gently, before stepping inside with caution. His grip on his book bag loosens, slightly, as he bows his head politely. ]

Professor.

[aberranthubris]

[ Charles is sitting behind his deck, hands folded on a few folders that he had closed a little while ago. ]

Good day. Please do come in, close the door behind you.

[lempereur]

[ The teen pushes the door closed just as gently as he pushed it open, and tentatively moves to have a seat in front of the desk. He hesitates before speaking, trying to maintain polite eye contact while picking at something, maybe real and maybe imagined, under his fingernails. ]

I suppose I am here to ask for your insight, if you don't mind. As someone who has seen a wide range of powers. In your world, are these things that people have to earn, or acquire at some point?

[aberranthubris]

[ Charles smiles at him, the most welcoming smile he has and urges him to take a seat. ]

I see. Well, [ he takes a moment to study the boy curiously. ] No, not in my world. But I couldn't speak for other worlds. In mine, however, we are born with a gene that might in time develop into an ability like what you see here.

Why do you ask that?

[lempereur]

You refer to them as gifts. Where I am from, these powers are a part of your psyche that cannot be accessed by normal means. You must visit a hidden alternate world, inside our own, and confront whatever it is that wishes to hurt you.

[ The time to worry about too much information has probably passed. Whoever has been imitating him is on the news, tearing up buildings, leaving giant blocks of ice laying around, and hurting people he cares about. And if they had really copied all his powers, including figuring out how to copy others', they were capable of endless destruction. He can't let it continue. ]

I have told you about it, in brief. It is called Persona, an entity inside me made of my rebellious spirit. They are unique to the individual who carries them. I earned it, and made a vow to him to remove ugliness from the world. The idea that someone else is using my power, specifically, to do the opposite scares me.

[aberranthubris]

Perhaps someone has a similar power to yours, [ Charles suggests gently. ] I know several people in this place who have the same abilities as I do.

What is it that your power does?

[lempereur]

There are a handful of people with the same power, but the manifestation is different. They all have different abilities, different forms, different names.

[ Really, it would be easiest to just show him, but open spaces are best for that. His Persona, Goemon, is nine feet tall and likes to swing its pipe around like a sword. ]

It is incredibly strong and fast. I can conjure ice, make the people around me faster and more focused, confuse enemies into hurting themselves, or turn their own attacks back on them. We are a lot stronger if we work in a team.

[aberranthubris]

What is strong and fast? You speak of your power like it's a separate entity.

[ It still confuses Charles and he does remember having a talk about it with this boy before. ]

[lempereur]

Physically, it is, but I can summon it at will, and have complete control over it.

[ Or, he thought he did? He isn't so sure, with this clone drama going on... ]

It might be best if I just show you.

[aberranthubris]

Yes, alright. Please do.

[lempereur]

[ Yusuke takes a deep breath, before standing up from his chair, and moving it next to the wall, using his reluctance to break anything as an excuse to collect himself. Only a handful of people outside of his world knew about this power at all, their Personas were what they used to facilitate their year of ever escalating vigilantism, which made he and his friends the target of a nationwide manhunt.

He isn't ashamed or afraid of his powers, but he is careful about letting people connect them to him. It's a hard habit to break, but, desperate times. The boy disappears behind a shroud of blue fire for a brief moment, and reappears in some kind of gentleman thief turned superhero getup, complete with a ceramic fox mask that he rips from his face with a visceral tearing sound. Out of nowhere, a hulking kabuki-fashioned samurai appears behind him, twirling a pipe large enough to be used as a weapon as the smoke clears. ]

This is my Persona, Goemon.

[aberranthubris]

[ It definitely is showy. It's a little different than what Charles has seen this far. A transformation but to a point that seems almost magical instead of a power.

He leans back in his chair and folds his fingers over his lap. ]

I see. And someone else has been controlling him? [ Is it a him? Or a her? Or neither? Charles doesn't really know. ]

[lempereur]

[ The mask reappears just as soon as it was ripped away. He pushes it over to rest on the top of his head, and pulls the chair back in place, taking his seat back. The manifestation stands still, silent, idly twirling his pipe until he is called upon. ]

Someone, or something, is using my form, and somehow has access to whatever it is inside me that makes Goemon possible. In our world, they are always unique to the individual using them. If this impersonator is a Persona user, as well, it should still take a different form.

[ He and his team's familiars all had one thing in common - legendary thieves and outlaws, the lot of them. But never the same. It was a part of his psyche, his own heart and mind, being stolen. ]

I was hoping, that with your experience, you might have an explanation, or at least some idea as to where I could look for one.

[aberranthubris]

Unfortunately I do not have answers for you. Unless the Porter has started to bring in several versions of a person from different timelines.

[ He doesn't think of cloning because it shouldn't be possible to that extent. The genetics professor in him doesn't even consider the possibility, because it shouldn't be a thing. ]

Perhaps someone with a power cloning ability.

[lempereur]

There are shapeshifters here.

[ Or...one? He has not met her, at least not to his knowledge, but she attacked someone he knows. That still doesn't explain the powers. ]

I do not show them often. And the only person I know who can copy abilities is myself. Unless you are aware of more?

[aberranthubris]

[ Charles shakes his head. He actually is aware of someone with that power but he's not going to name her here and now. Unbeknown to him she has been ported out as well. ]

Shapeshifters usually do not possess the powers of the people they take the shape of, though. But there are various ways to reach the same effects. Mind control. Illusions. Magic. Just to mention a few.

[lempereur]

[ Yusuke gives an apologetic nod, before reaching into his bag for his communicator to pull up an a news story from July 7th, an office building and its accompanying parking lot mysteriously ripped apart. The aftermath in the video shows windows and bricks in pieces, speared through by something supernatural, asphalt torn from the ground and thrown every which way. ]

That isn't an illusion. Physical evidence. The person who took the video watched me do it with my Persona, but I never told him anything about it.

[aberranthubris]

[ Property damage is one thing, it could have been done by any sorts of powers. It could be Kaneki's powers for all Charles knows.

But the idea that there was an eye witness makes his brows furrow. Occam's razor and all that. It's getting a little difficult to think that if someone saw him do this-- ]

Who? Could they have been lying to you?

[lempereur]

No. No, I am sure that he was not lying.

[ There was no possible way he could have known, described it back to him if he hadn't seen it himself. It's not the kind of thing someone could make up. "Your samurai soul-monster tried to spear me with ice" would be a hell of a lucky guess... ]

Brendan Frye. He arrived here around the same time that I did. Our relationship is strained. [ understatement! ] But he did not make it up.

[aberranthubris]

[ He doesn't say that he think Brendan is well capable of lying when he feels like it's going to spare someone's feelings. But it doesn't seem to be the case here. ]

I see. Why is your relationship strained? [ A related question? Maybe not... Honestly, Charles doesn't see why Brendan would lie about something so elaborate and strange but maybe if the boys are in bad terms. ]

[lempereur]

[ Sparing Yusuke's feelings was probably the last thing on his mind when he confronted him about it.

Still, the question makes him pause, makes him rub at his temple through his glove. It's a more personal question than he thinks Charles realizes, and he isn't sure how to answer it honestly without speaking ill of him. As messy as their relationship has been, Brendan doesn't deserve that. At least not towards a stranger. ]

We are both sensitive people prone to dire mistakes. It was a bad match.

[aberranthubris]

[ He seems uncomfortable but he doesn't launch into an explanation about how Brendan is a bad person one way or another. Charles concludes that this is probably the boy Brendan has some feelings for.

Even more likely that he would lie but not out of ill will, not to hurt him definitely.

Charles nods. ] I see. Well, I'll be honest with you, I don't have answers for you at all. I'm quite sure someone could have made Brendan believe he saw what he saw while the situation could have been something else, but I can't think of a reason why someone would do that. I've only ever met people who are capable of either shapeshifting or loaning powers, not both. That doesn't mean it's not possible, of course. I'm not all knowing.