capeandcowl | two □ video.

[ there's madison, sitting cross-legged amidst the refuse-cluttered maintenence room of the xavier insitute. his hands are up in the air, assembling and reforming a floating, revolving mess of scrap into pipes and wires and setting them down beside them. after a minute of concentration, he speaks. ]

Okay. So, I guess I've been kinda scatterbrained lately. After arrivin' and all and then I got a position and then McCoy went and did the... y'know, the nobly leapin' into the jaws of the law-ion thing. It's all been a big old sensory overload. A-and I've been getting 'Nam flashbacks and bad dreams again. So... yeah. Ha ha.

[ awkward three minutes of silence, chewing his lip while working. then: ]

Not that this is particularly relevant or, well. I sorta-kinda hate it when like, people act all knee-buckin' shocked when their electronics or appliances go all kaput on them after what amounts to systematic abuse. [ his voice takes a slight electrical fuzz when he cranes his neck back in the direction of a microwave in the background. ] No, you're not broken, little guy. It's okay to need a lil' bit of help.

But, yeah. They throw a fit when its transformer comes all undone―I don't want you givin' up on me―after they, I dunno, shove a cellphone in there for shits an' giggles. Maybe if they were the mean type... crickets? Gerbils? A tiny baby in, aaa, a luchador mask out of tinfoil and spoons strapped to their feet? [ a minute passes. he furrows his eyebrows. ] Sorry, I just forgot what I was talkin' about.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ opens mouth to say something and

closes it. no. ]

See? You need a backup plan. And then, a backup plan to that backup plan because every rebellion has a backup plan.

Yeah? Well, my last backup plan was "if they try to kill you, stop them" a-and I guess it worked, but I can't see anythin' more specific, on accounta them actin' so unpredictable. You can't make an equation with half a million variables. That's luck.

Well, have a lot of "What If.." Survival scenarios.

I'd probly survive. The issue comes with, y'know. The City.

Then you should start those self defense classes.

You know? If a blender tries to blend your hand, you give it a firm slam across the plastic and smash it with a hammer.

I obviously never thought of doing that. Even when the sanctity of my phalanges were, y'know, being violated.

Well if you're going to be giving microwaves and blenders sentimental thought. The least you can do is teach them to properly behave or, teach everyone else to be prepared.

Don't worry! We can use our old nuclear fallout shelters as our robo-uprising fallout shelters. We just need to make sure it's concrete instead of steel.

This sure is a lot of thought bein' put into a hypothetical, impossible scenario. Because it is.

You were the one going off on how the blender's going to blend my hand if I put my cellphone in it.

I meant, uh. Well, when it happened to me it was literally an isolated incident, so. Yep.

You sure?

I was locked in a base with them. But could they actually spread and take a whole city? No. [ uh ] I don't know.

Pretty big city. Lots of technology.

Yeah...

Lots of things to go horribly, horribly wrong.

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