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Tweak says, "U kild my fatha. Prepare 2 die"

Donald Blake (ex_stopmjoln231) wrote in age_of_miracles,
@ 2007-12-19 03:29:00

Entry tags:

brave new world, professor x, thor

Who: Donald Blake and Charles Xavier.
What: Donald doesn’t think Charles is doing very much, and is beginning to suspect why. He is going to get angry with the old wheelie, but...well, it doesn’t go to plan. Because, obviously, Charles is far more prepared than Thor realises.
Where: Xavier’s office, the Institute.
When: December 15th, 2007. Some time in the morning. I'm backdating it a little, because it DID happen at some point in the recent past, but I think it was supposed to take place AGES ago, and I just suck like a whore with debts.

It had been a fitful night for Don Blake; some of it spent tossing and turning in a pointless attempt to sleep, and far more of it spent sitting on the floor, going over far too many plans and points of correspondence than he cared to admit. He couldn’t trust the X-Men, much as he might like to -- oh, they could make their plans, and do the job, and whatever else it was that they wanted to do, but he wouldn’t be included and couldn’t rely on them to actually finish everything that needed to be finished. So there he had sat, absorbed in his own myriad contingencies and making his own preparations.

The following morning --this morning-- Thor had taken all of ten minutes to eat his breakfast, before striding off over the grounds towards the house. The night before had been spent deep in thought, and he’d come to a few conclusions: conclusions that needed to be shared with Xavier. The dear professor was stalling, forever stalling...it was just a part of his nature, but Donald didn’t need it getting in the way. If he’d had it his way, the old man would have just been locked away in a dark cupboard until it was all over, and then wheeled back out once he couldn’t cloud the matter any further, but there was all sorts of problems with THAT little scenario.

He made his way through the school, pausing only once or twice to let people through the narrower corridors, before knocking loudly on the door to Xavier’s office. He couldn’t help himself from wondering, even as he knew Charles would be ‘looking’ through the door to see who it was, why it always had to come to this. Donald wasn’t even working for the government anymore, and he still felt like he had to play the bossy great-aunt around the Institute.

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highest_ideals
2007-12-19 05:16 am UTC (link)

Charles was on the telephone. "No. I don't know why in the hell you would even begin to assume----I don't approve. I don't approve. Have you gone absolutely barking----no. Don't answer that question. Don't. The answer is no. Do not ask me again. ----Am I to... am I to what? Be your---- please, don't be so dramatic. Am I to be your downfall. You will be your own downfall, Eric, mark my words on that."

The phone was slammed down and without missing a beat, Charles practically shouted through the door, rather than giving his calm mental invitation. "Come in, Donald. I know it's you. Nothing generally stops you from barging in here. What. What is it you want?"

He was being rude and he knew it. He felt badly about being rude, but he didn't have time for this.

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ex_stopmjoln231
2007-12-19 10:06 am UTC (link)

"Well, I thought that would have been obvious," replied Thor, his demeanor matching Charles'. They had different reasons for their shortness (not in the sense that Xavier was sitting down), but with both men in a similar mood, it didn't seem like this was going to be another meeting that went well. For Donald Blake and Charles Xavier, they usually didn't. "But now I'm not so certain. Having something of a domestic argument, Professor?"

He was staring pointedly at the telephone: it had been impossible, after all, to miss the end of that conversation...and Donald wasn't sure, but suspected that was a shining example of why he couldn't leave everything to the X-Men. "You seem tense."

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highest_ideals
2007-12-19 08:55 pm UTC (link)

Charles glanced briefly at the phone to acknowledge that Donald was staring at it, and then looked back up to him. "Tense? I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," he said with exhaustion. "You no doubt heard. Eric has the nerve to call me to request that I serve as leader of his new department of education. He's intending on building mutant schools all over the country, just like this one, and he seems to think... hn." He grimaced, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"But please, go on with telling me I'm not doing an adequate job; I'm only stalling you."

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ex_stopmjoln231
2007-12-22 07:24 pm UTC (link)

Donald laughed. "If it's that obvious, Charles, then perhaps I should save my breath." It was clear enough, even without telepathy, that Donald considered what Xavier had said to be worthy of derision. Secretary of Education? Blake bit back another caustic remark, but it lay clear into the shallower reaches of his mind; the mental equivalent of writing it on a large board, then placing that board behind a thin gauze. "Magneto won't be building anything, I can assure you. But why don't we go down a different route, Professor? I'm not going to tell you anything; instead, you're going to be breaking the habit of what feels like a goddamned lifetime, and tell me something."

It wasn't clear whether Blake thought Xavier was simply ineffectual or actively working with the master of magnetism, but the distinction didn't seem to matter. "You were the one saying we needed to prepare...well, I know what I've been doing, but how about you? Or have you just been sitting back, as usual, letting the situation run?"

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highest_ideals
2007-12-23 04:00 am UTC (link)

Charles listened to all of this, knowing damn well what Blake thought of him, but he remained passive and quiet. Irritatingly passive and quiet as always, unlike his earlier outburst of annoyance. Sitting back? Letting the situation run? Please.

"I'm not entirely certain if you are aware of the situation, Commander Blake," began Charles. "You have your files and you have your top-secret insights, but none of that can really explain to you the relationship between Eric Lehnsherr and myself. We're in the middle of a constant chess match, and while it seems like he is busy running the country, I assure you he is making every possible effort to be aware of what I am doing. He may have granted us back power, but it's only to keep a closer watch. Telephone conversations and electronic correspondences are being watched. Eric is completely aware that if anyone will stop him, it will be some grand design of the X-Men. It always has been. Whenever he makes a move I have always been there to counter. Eric would have taken over the country twenty years ago if it weren't for my efforts, Commander. Not the army, not the police, not the government's, but mine."

Charles, quite frankly, had had quite enough of being criticized, and he was tired of being looked at in that way, of the poor old man in the wheelchair who hadn't the slightest clue what he was doing. He was doing his best. "Cerebro has been disabled and no one but Eric Lehnsherr knows how to get it working again. We've had to do extensive repairs on the Blackbird, the Danger Room, and all of the X-Men's communications. Without Cerebro, I cannot find or contact allies by psychic means. With our telephone and e-mail conversations bugged, I can't contact allies by those means, either. Scott has been making a phenomenal effort communicating by handwritten notes to the X-Men, we have been holding meetings in private, and the X-Men have been sent out, scattering across the area to find allies in other superheroes who have agreed to come together and organize in a unified battle against Magneto. However, our numbers are too small at present to have any sort of success against a nationwide Brotherhood network. Our resources are so cut that we have to work slowly, but I assure you, Commander, we are working." He frowned deeply, leaning back in his chair. "You don't know about it because you are not a member of the X-Men and we, quite frankly, haven't sought your assistance because you have none to offer that is of any practical use at present."

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ex_stopmjoln231
2007-12-23 01:41 pm UTC (link)

What had there been to do, whilst Charles was talking? The sweet summarised history of Mr and Mrs Lensherr-Xavier was interesting -and certainly would help to resolve a few questions he'd had about why the Xavier Institute had acted quite so erratically over the years- but most of it had been more than he wanted to know. Twenty years? He didn't believe it -- it was ~~definitely~~ probably true, and Donald knew it really, but not believing it made things easier. It made it easier to be angry at Xavier, a man he respected, at a time when Donald needed to stay angry in order to get anything done.

He realised that he was standing, supported against the wall. Thor had been all but blown backwards by the force of Xavier's words, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. In some respects, it had been what he needed -- Charles was almost reborn to him, and it would be useful later. But now, he simply wanted to keep up appearances.

"No, Professor. I'm not a member of the X-Men. Neither do I want to be, if all this is par for the course." He wasn't on the team, but Donald lived at the Institute for the time being, and he had to remember that in his dealings with Xavier. "I have been critical with you, Xavier. At times, perhaps too much so. I hope you realise why, but..." Blake exhaled heavily. "To be told I am useless is a little closer to the bone than I expected."

There seemed to be more he was going to say, but Donald held his tongue. For the first time, Donald was displaying the kind of deference that he'd only reserved for Branch in the recent past.

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highest_ideals
2007-12-24 03:48 am UTC (link)

"You can be an asset to us, commander, but not if your sole purpose in life is to look down your nose at us and insist you can do everything better," said Charles softly. "I am proud of this institution and I am proud of my X-Men, and you have come in here with nothing but derision for this place. I understand why, but it is not the time or the place. If you wish to support us, you may. If you don't, you will be left out. This is not the place where you make the rules or the decisions."

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