wedonot | FOUR ✖ VOICE

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FOUR ✖ VOICE

Nice of the Admiral to renovate the library, greenhouses and pool, but leave us to deal with an invasion of ninjas. It's not like I've been expecting much, with the way you all talk about him and his potential policy of stripping us of our powers without warning, but it does seem a bit counterproductive.

Not that I'm complaining about the changes, mind. I'd just love to get a look into what he's actually thinking.

[Private to Gaeta]

Felix Gaeta? Charles Xavier. We should probably find somewhere to talk.

[Private to Valmont]

Valmont? Charles Xavier. We, ah, spoke briefly, while Shendu was in charge. Are you alright?

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[That earns Charles a sharp, searching look. Is he asking for an explanation, or does he want Felix to defend himself? When he answers, it's stiff and cautious.]

I... instigated a mutiny and assisted in a coup against the military and government leadership of the Fleet. A lot of people died, and my co-mutineer and I were arrested and executed when the coup ultimately failed.

[While he was sort of going for seeing if Felix would try to defend what he'd done right off the bat, that's an acceptable enough answer to his question for now, so Charles just nods, expression neutral.]

And what do you think of the Barge thus far?

[He's had enough failures for now, enough to make him stick to the facts and only the facts. Getting emotional has always been his downfall.]

I think I served my sentence when they executed me, Doctor.

Charles. Or, Professor, I guess, if we're being technical. I'm not really a doctor.

[His eyes narrow slightly, something a little mocking amidst the chill of his expression, but...]

Right. Of course. Sorry. Old habits.

Do you have any questions for me? It seems a bit unfair for me to have a file on you and for you to know next to nothing about who I am and why I'm here.

Edited 2012-02-05 08:22 (UTC)

I looked up what I could find. I know you're a geneticist. I know you're from Earth, but... not human. [The first thing got him kind of excited! The second two, not so much. :/

And now there's a sudden stab of bitterness in his voice.] I know you consider yourself 'evolved.' The child of humanity surpassing his parents. Right?

Not exactly. In my world, we have evolved, but unlike some, [Looking at you, Erik. >>] I don't feel we need to "surpass" humans, or replace them or take over Earth, or anything like that. I wouldn't say we're the superior species.

Really. [For the first time, Felix allows a tone into his voice, but it's pure skepticism.] You don't believe that reading minds makes you superior to me.

No, I don't. [And he doesn't. Yeah, it's a shiny thing that's nice to be able to do, but he really doesn't think humans and mutants need to be at odds with each other. Both species were capable of great good and great evil, it wasn't like one really had the moral higher ground.]

All right. [Look how much he believes you, creepy new warden! Not even a little.]

Then, moving on, what is your... plan... from here? What is it you want me to do?

[Creepy. Bah. ~~You haven't seen anything yet. >>~~]

I want you to graduate. How we get there is fairly heavily dependent on you, but I suppose I'd like to talk more about how exactly you wound up here and why.

I told you why. [He frowns slightly.] It does say why we rebelled, doesn't it?

Yes, but I'd prefer to hear it from you. I could tell you just the facts about any event in my life, and it doesn't mean you'd understand my emotional thought processes about it, or how it actually affected me, personally.

So far, Charles, my explanations haven't garnered me very much sympathy. [Although he's frakked if he can figure out why. You'd think "because the homicidal robots KILLED EVERYONE" would be a pretty good reason.]

Try me. I'm here to be your advocate, Felix, not someone who's going to write off you off for what you've been through.

And you haven't already just... pulled it out of my head.

No. I'll never read your mind without your permission.

[This gets another long, narrow look. Felix really has no reason to believe him, particularly, but he supposes that all he has to lose is an ally he's already not sure he has or even wants.]

...Fine.

[He shifts back in his chair, mouth downturned, thinking about how best to begin. When he finally does, it's still calm enough, but there's a growing edge of passion, of rage, beneath his words.]

I believed... I still believe that the leadership of both the military and civilian fleets had grown dangerously out of touch with reality. They accepted an alliance with the Cylons without so much as hearing arguments to the contrary-- like the fact that the Cylons had already killed billions of us, or that the last time they attempted their idea of peace, they continued to kill, enslave, and torture our people.

I objected to the alliance, as did a huge number of people in the fleet. I had reason to believe it would lead to the total destruction of the human race. I have reason to... But no one would listen, no one would even try to listen! ...So it seemed to me the only way was to remove command from power and install someone who was capable of reason. I thought-- at least Tom Zarek had stopped trying to kill us all.

[Charles listens, nodding when Felix is finished, understanding where he was coming from even if he wouldn't have made the same choices himself - although it's familiar enough that it reminds him of someone else who's also stuck on this ridiculous boat - and wondering vaguely just how many worlds had similar issues. It seemed like it was becoming a running theme.

And while that made sense for the annals of history or something, it was a little unsettling to hear that he had yet to be faced with a society that had actually solved these problems.]

Can you tell me more about the Cylons? Your file doesn't explain much beyond events that you were directly involved in.

[Seriously?]

It was... hard not to be directly involved, I suppose. They involved all of us when they attacked us.

[He sighs, pressing his hands briefly to his temples.] The Cylons are sentient machines. Androids. Toasters. We built them, or... [He grimaces, suddenly.] That part of the history has become a little confused, actually. But there was a war about forty years ago, we signed an armistice, and they disappeared to their own end of the galaxy... Until they came back and destroyed our Colonies. All of them. Billions of people died in the space of a few hours. We've been running ever since.

[... There's a little bit of temptation to just see what Gaeta was talking about, but he's got enough self restraint and knows it's a bad idea to do without asking first or even this early into their assignment to hold himself back. But seriously, casually mentioning running off to the other end of the galaxy? Unfathomable back home.]

What do you mean, it became confused?

The identity of the... original Cylon creators has been called into doubt. There's evidence that they're older than we thought, maybe even as old as we are... But does it really matter? I don't see how that's relevant.

Your world is a lot different from mine in some ways, Felix. I'd like to get a better idea of what it's like and what other factors led to your being here before I go about pretending I have all the answers for you.

I don't expect you to have any answers for me, Charles. But what else do you need to know?

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