Look At Your Life, Look At Your Choices

[playhavok]

Honestly, Alex hadn't meant to go to a bar. He's been trying to look forward, not think about past mistakes, but since his present is pretty full of... present mistakes, he had needed somewhere to go. That 'somewhere to go' is a villain bar probably isn't great for his attempts to turn his act around, but considering his success rate, it's probably still a step up. From something.

It would be nice if one of the other patrons dramatically announced that Alex shouldn't be there, but that wouldn't happen even if the bar wasn't mostly empty. At least the barman is very good at looking nonjudgmental.

Comments

[notrosecolored]

He's apparently dead, now. That's freeing on a number of levels, but it limits the bars he can be in.

This one suits him well enough, though what he expects and what he gets aren't exactly in line. Which is to say, he didn't expect his brother.

"Seriously?" he asks, while he takes the stool beside Alex and orders a whiskey.

[playhavok]

Alex props himself upright when he hears the familiar voice, turning to look. He was expecting Jimmy, but, somehow, he's not really surprised. Maybe it's just the nature of being with the X-Men, eroding any real surprise when someone comes back from the 'dead'. Maybe it's just because Scott showing up right here, right now, is just what part of him expects.

At least the television isn't currently showing the footage calling him a terrorist.

"The beer's okay."

[notrosecolored]

"The beer's okay in a lot of places." He's not drinking the beer. He's drinking terrible whiskey. He could probably use it to fuel his bike, it's so rough,but he's missed that kind of thing.

[playhavok]

The beer isn't actually okay, at least, not when it's watered. It's depressing that he's pretty sure the bartender's making the right choice, but it might help stop him from destroying two buildings in one day.

"It's okay enough here that you decided to visit." Which, seriously, he knows why he's here but Scott should probably be told the latest, "Everyone's cool with you, again. You could get 'back from the dead' drinks pretty much anywhere. I assume it's a recent thing?" Stuff hasn't been great, but he hopes that someone would tell him if they were throwing a resurrection party, if only to make sure he didn't come.

[notrosecolored]

"It's discrete here." Which is to say, people mostly keep their mouths shut and leave him alone.

He's totally thrown by the rest, though, and stops and stares at Alex. "How drunk are you?" Because what?

[playhavok]

"Not very, the bartender won't give me much in case I break something." He likes that someone seems to think he would need help to make bad choices.

"Oh, come on, you know how these things work. It's all 'you're the worst' and then emotions settle down and you weren't around to annoy anyone so now people are back to how great were." He genuinely prefers that to people going on about Scott being terrible. "Plus there was a badly thought out fight and I think there was a whole evil government plot and the general... everything..." He waves a hand, these things happen, frequently.

[notrosecolored]

"Probably sensible."

He should probably not have said that aloud, but he's still trying to get his brain around the rest of what Alex is saying and, more importantly, not to say 'you mean that I was right' aloud. That would be really rude.

Especially since sentimentality is, it sounds like, most of it.

"Sounds like I've missed a lot. Why don't you loop me in?" Properly, Alex.

[playhavok]

There are times he would argue with that, this isn't one of those days.

He runs a hand through his hair, trying to get things straight.

"The school's in central park now, and also working as an outreach center. Kitty's in charge. She has the copyright for 'X-Men' now, I didn't even know you could do that. I don't really remember a lot of stuff that went down clearly because... some memory issues. Uh. Emma's doing okay, kind of evil, but you know. Magneto's being a teacher again. Henry's at Harvard. Rachel's hanging out at the school. Nate's backpacking through Europe or something. Hope tends to disappear, but she seems weirdly well adjusted when she does show up. Nathan is... himself. And Jean has come back from the dead and has a cool undersea base."

[notrosecolored]

Most of that isn't a terrible shock. Jean no longer being dead is, but since he's just come from the barge he can just about, sort of, handle that bit of news.

He'd rather continue to hide, maybe run further away, but can just about manage to no.

There's a pause while he takes a drink before he asks: "What about you? What are the memory issues from?"

[playhavok]

Alex sighs, taking a drink of his terrible beer.

"The usual, got caught up in mystical brainwashing, hang out with Emma, being evil, until she fixed my mind. Destroyed a lot of stuff."

Honestly, the only thing missing had been the need to apologize to Scott.

[notrosecolored]

"Okay."

Okay no, he does know his brother and this general story isn't new, but it isn't okay and -

"Who brainwashed you and what kind of evil were you doing?"

[playhavok]

"Oh, you know, the whole Red Skull and using Xavier's brain for evil thing. On one level it was about creating more mutants, on the actual level it was inducing an unstable mutation into the populace, once that allowed for mind control."

He shrugs.

"So that's what I've been up to."

[notrosecolored]

"I really wish I could send you to where I've been a couple of years. They'll still fuck with you, but at least no one pretends it makes sense and you won't be screwed with more than anyone else."

Actually, he wants to protect Alex, because even second hand this is his brother and he's had so. much. shit.

"Maybe ask Jean about mental shields?"

[playhavok]

"I've always thought the pretending this stuff makes sense thing is just a long game of chicken."

He shrugs. "Not really a viable long term solution. Or short term. Not so for." But on the subject of Jean, "Where have you been? I thought you were dead. Actually, I refused to think you were dead and Emma had to stop me from making a scene," In case Scott might get mistaken and think he'd been reasonable about it, "But there was evidence."

[notrosecolored]

"It probably is, and probably a self-cycling game of chicken. If no one else thinks it's insane, they're insane."

He finds it amusing in a vague way, but only a very vague way. He also finds it inexplicably frustrating. "I appreciate the faith in me, though I want to know how Emma prevented a scene." He should worry about her - and about Jean. Jean continues to be harder to panic about after all the time with a Jean on the barge, but there is a slow growing sense of dread that he is... ignoring. "I was being a warden on a prison on a space ship, where all the prisoners were dead."

[playhavok]

He shrugs. "I had faith in you being obnoxious and ready to play a long game." As unfair as he can admit it is, he needs to believe that Scott would never give up, that's something like faith.

"It wasn't exactly a scene, but if she hadn't shown me a body, stuff might have gotten a bit heated, which I guess would've been a little awkward since we were at your funeral."

He considers Scott's answer a moment. "Huh."

[notrosecolored]

"My funeral - any mutants funeral - without a body would be awkward. Though now I need to figure out if who died was actually me, or if there was a ruse on her end." Which does not sound like a good time.

"The surprise is that I wasn't the one locked up, isn't it?"

[playhavok]

"It's pretty easy to get a body, especially under the circumstances..." His slight smile isn't particularly sympathetic. "That should be a fun conversation." Depending on who faked what death - he's pretty sure everything's deserved, on all sides.

He shrugs. "Not particularly? I don't know what standards they have on a space ship prison for the dead."

[notrosecolored]

"You need to come up with a less twisted idea of what fun is, Alex," Says Scott, like that isn't hypocritical at all. "And don't worry, none of the rest of us did, either. How Evil is Emma right now, exactly?"

[playhavok]

"That's like saying I need to make relationship choices that don't involve your exes." Probably correct, but not particularly helpful.

He makes a so-so gesture.

"Depends on the scale, I guess. Less evil than I was, and seems generally sane these days. Might be fighting with Magneto, but that's on both of them. I think she had a reasonably pleasant conversation with Jean, which I should probably try."