Home Plot: Post 1

[verynaughtymutant]

There were few places Cable had ever known as well as he knew Tabula Rasa, few places he'd spent so much time and few places he'd been where his mind was less busy planning out the next steps. But it wasn't his home, it was a prison, something powerful but hostile.

Providence hadn't been his home either, not the way it had been for some of his followers. He'd seen it as a tool, as a weapon, far more then he'd ever seen it as a home. The X-mansion had been much the same and even the station of Greymalkin had never meant as much to him as the AI who inhabited it's walls.

No, the place he still thought of as home, for all he tried to forget it, was the safehouses of Clan Chosen during the Askani revolution. Back when he'd had a wife and a child and hope and mercy and all the other luxuries that young men allow themselves when they think they're still immortal. And that was a time and place he tried his best not to dwell on. Even his dreams, these days, were more often in English and Russian and based on the 21st century. And those that weren't, he never spoke of.

But if he had learned anything about living on Tabula Rasa, and he liked to think that he had learned a lot, it was that the past would never stay buried there where it belonged when it could be used to whip and prod it's victims instead.

So when he awoke to find himself a younger man again, surrounded by the tents and platforms of a rebel camp, he was angry but he was not surprised. He did not know the details of this particular trick, not yet anyway, but the intent was as familiar to him as his own skin. He could feel the whispers of minds around him, and he felt a dull terror at the familiar shape of them. This was a personal hell for him, filled with the ghosts of those he'd failed.

Still, he was not one to sit and take his punishment. Whatever game this was, there was no reason he had to play it. If he was lucky, all he had to do was walk away, out of the camp altogether, and spend what time he had before being returned to Tabula Rasa, out in the wilderness. Alone.

The camp itself was shielded and camouflaged, of course, but it was designed to be difficult to enter not exit and the guards stepped aside as he passed. All so simple then, except he could feel the whisper of another mind approaching and this one wasn't a ghost but another responsibility to chain him down.

Cable closed his eyes for a second, let a single sigh come out, and then stepped forward to greet them, expression blank and masked.

Comments

[butterflyfactor]

Layla rolled over and attempted to wriggle down into the mattress, but it was just the ground. She lifted her head and saw a tree- a lot of trees- and general woodland features that reminded her more of Latveria than Tabula Rasa. She pushed herself up from lying on her stomach to rub her eyes, blinking until the sleep way gone, then pushed herself up to standing and looked around. She absently scratched her elbow.

Huh. She was pretty sure she had her powers back. How about that.

She started padding through the forest, looking around, the bottoms of her slouchy grey pajama pants picking up some leaves and dirt. She wished she had a bra.

It was nice and peaceful, at least. She saw someone heading toward her and blinked, veering in that direction and her eyebrows lifted a little as she got closer. Apparently, there had been a time when Cable was a hottie. Again, who knew.

"Hey," she said.

[verynaughtymutant]

"If there is, we don't have to get involved," Cable replied as they reached what looked like a cliff edge and he stepped right through it, revealing it to be a hologram. "You remember my plan from last time? To hole up somewhere out of the action and wait for the time to tick away?"

[verynaughtymutant]

"I think I already fought this war," he said slowly, letting a little of his temper drip into his voice, "and I think I have no desire to do so again for our captors amusement. Not when it makes no difference at all whether we win or lose."

"Everybody in this camp is dead, and, no matter what happens, they will stop existing when we're returned to the Island. The only people whose lives I can save are those that came with me and the best way to do that is to let these ghosts do their own fighting and protect us while they do it."

Nobody knew what exactly happened if you died while on a dream trip but he wasn't willing to take any chances with it. And he absolutely wasn't willing to treat this clan like it was real.

[verynaughtymutant]

He was armed, though the gun he wore wasn't yet drawn, and he'd been looking for her, following the hum of her mind, so he wasn't surprised at all at their sudden encounter.

"Hello, Natalya," he announced, in Russian. "I think we need to get you some new clothes. And a weapon, no doubt."

[verynaughtymutant]

"Hey," he responded, with equal casualness and a gesture towards the direction he'd came. "The camps this way."

Though he was only guessing that she didn't already know that. They'd never really discussed how exactly her visions of the future worked.

[spirited_hero]

As Cable had advanced straight towards the cliff edge, Zell had hung back with an odd look on his face. But, once he saw Cable walking through it, his expression changed and he caught up.

"Yeah, but I don't really know who you're fighting or why."

Zell looked backwards at the hologram as he talked.

[verynaughtymutant]

"Do you want to know?" Cable asked as they passed two sentries and carried on into the heart of the camp.

There were tents and cabins everywhere and fighters of both sexes bustling around, cooking, cleaning their guns and checking computers. To their left a legion of artificial machine men disappeared suddenly as they were teleported off to another site with orders, while to their right, there was an open shower where seven or eight soldiers, of both sexes, were washing themselves without any apparent shame or embarrassment at being entirely visible.

Cable's eyes strayed neither left nor right, he just walked on.

[spirited_hero]

Since he'd been fascinated with the hologram they'd walked through, Zell hadn't looked forward to what and who they were walking towards. Sure, he'd taken a quick glance, but he hadn't recognized anything out of the ordinary. That was, until they passes the sentries.

The sight of the sentries made Zell's pace slow down quickly and he muttered quietly, "The hell...?"

Then he glanced forward to where Cable was walking to and Zell stopped completely as he gaped open-mouthed. Everyone was...

"...yo!"

[verynaughtymutant]

The Askani weren't nudists. The vast majority of them were wearing clothes, simply because clothes were useful even on a warm day like this when it wasn't uncomfortable to go without. The two sentries guarding the entrance hadn't been naked for instance, nor were most of the clan members bustling around.

But, they simply didn't view nudity as being private or indeed erotic. When a tall dark skinned woman, fifty yards ahead of Zell and Cable, needed to change her clothes she did so in the open entrance of her tent, uncaring that she could be seen by passers by. By the same token the busy outdoor shower to their right was both unisex and uncovered and a thin man with a cybernetic implant built into his left eye was standing next to it, holding a towel while talking to a friend and making no real effort to cover his naked body at all.

Cable stopped at the same time as Zell did.

"Yes?"

[spirited_hero]

Intellectually, Zell understood the concept of cultural differences. He'd even taken anthropology classes. However, the view in front of him wasn't theoretical in the slightest!

His eyes went to Cable and he tried to put words together. His first attempt failed. His eyes glanced to the showers again, then back to Cable.

"... naked people!"

Zell's education in anthropology wasn't exactly showing. What was showing was some color in his cheeks. Was he going to have to live here for a few days?

[verynaughtymutant]

Cable had difficulty hiding his amusement at that particular exclamation.

"Yes," he replied slowly, dragging out the conversation. "The idea that naked flesh is somehow shameful or erotic or taboo is a foreign one to us. I still don't really understand it."

"Though learning that custom did at least give me some amusing anecdotes to share."

[spirited_hero]

Cable's amusement didn't bother Zell. The thinking part of his brain kind of understood what was going on, but it helped to get a slow explanation like that.

"So. Cultural differences."

Zell gritted his teeth and his expression fluxed as he made an effort to get a grip.

"Er, right. I'm cool. Everything's cool. I'm good with that."

This was definately a case of fake-it-till-you-make-it. There was no way Zell was going to use the shower like that, though. Zell kept working on his effort to ease back on his own cultural norms no matter how much his Ma would whap him silly for not closing his eyes.

"I'll take a raincheck on those anecdotes, though..."

[verynaughtymutant]

"Shame," he replied with a smirk, as he turned his back on Zell and started walking again. "They're rather good."

"Of course, if you feel the urge to strip off yourself Zell, no-one here will bat an eye," he added, casually.

[spirited_hero]

"Ggg!" That comment made Zell miss a step and wince. And all too easily memories of running around naked with Polly on the second island came to him. A new mental image of him right in the middle of that group shower naked, and the center of attention...

Zell declared, "There is no way in hell! No frickin' way!"

[verynaughtymutant]

"Well, if you're sure," Cable replied, not even bothering to hide his smile.

"You wanted to know the reasons behind this war?"

[spirited_hero]

It was plain that Cable was getting a kick out of this, but that was fine by Zell. After a few years of knowing the guy, Zell was comfortable enough to know Cable respected him, so getting messed with a bit was okay. Knowing Cable for so long also led a better reply to Cable's question.

"I was curious, but I'm not sure if I want to know. Things seemed pretty complicated and nasty here in your world based on what I do know. I'm okay with you bein' the judge of how much I should know."

Zell was keeping his eyes off the naked people. Naked people were distracting.

[verynaughtymutant]

"Well, in that case," Cable replied as they reached an empty cabin and stepped inside.

"This is Clan Askani, we're the good guys and that's all you need to know."

[spirited_hero]

"Okay," Zell said. Maybe he shouldn't be so content to know so little about a strange world around him, but Zell was willing to trust Cable. It was worth less headache. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. Zell entered the empty cabin and looked around.

"So, what do we do here? Just sit around and wait?"

Wait with naked people?

[verynaughtymutant]

"I can think of worse ways this trip could go," Cable responded placidly. "Can't you?"

[spirited_hero]

Worse?

"Don't worry, we've been there and done that already. I know things could get ugly. I was just hopin' you at least knew if we might be attacked, or if this camp is gonna explode, or if we're here for the annual stuffed animal festival."

Zell grinned.

"Hey, I've got no idea what's comin'."

[verynaughtymutant]

"Lets hope it's the stuffed animals," Cable replied, with a smile.

"But, yes, we might be attacked. In real life, we had to abandon this base when Stryfe found it. But, if this illusion follows the true history, he didn't have enough men to subdue the camp entirely so even if we are attacked there's no reason we'd have to get involved at all in any fighting."

And it was still safer then any other of their bases or safe-houses they could run to.

[spirited_hero]

"I'm okay with fighting as long as I can avoid the mind link crap."

A shadow passed over Zell's expression. He'd never forget the agony he'd gone through that one time. Zell was going to do everything he could to avoid a repeat of that. No mindlinks. None.

[starchilde_lost]

Silently, Rachel reached out to take his hand. "Are you really so sure about that. That this isn't real?" She wanted to believe him. Part of her needed to, but the idea that he had family out there, family she knew he missed... considering everything, it was hard for her to think that he wouldn't want to see them.

She would. If their roles were reversed, if it was the Greys out there, she would be out there with them. Even if it was all going to go away.

Besides, they all felt so real. Thoughts, feelings, she could pick them all out. Each an individual, each with hopes and fears.

[awomanscornd]

It's her dreams that wake her up before anything else gets the chance. Disjointed scraps of confusion, flying and fire and something else all coming together before Madelyne jerks awake, dreams forgotten like smoke in the wind once she notices where she is -- or rather, where she isn't.

Taking a deep breath to keep herself calm (she's been in bigger binds than this), she gets to her feet, pushing her hair back from her face and making sure that the too-large shirt she went to sleep in the night before keeps her decent. Mostly, she's wishing that she wore socks to bed.

It's quickly made clear that she's not alone in this, which isn't actually a relief until the guy coming her way through the forest gets close enough for her to get a proper look at him.

My God, he looks so much like--

"Cable? Is that you?"

[verynaughtymutant]

And that was the last of his guests. And probably the most awkward, given that a lot of what he'd told her about himself had been a lie, which meant another thing he'd have to deal with that he could really do without.

"As I once was, at least," Cable replied and he managed a small smile, despite everything. "Welcome to the 39th century, Madelyne. Or a facsimile of it, rather."