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[hostage]

[This post goes up very shortly after Jesse comes out of his catatonic state, on the evening of the 23rd. He's a little frenzied, a little wild-eyed and panicked, but he has to know he didn't imagine all of it. There has to be someone else who saw it, too.]

Did anybody - Did anybody else just get back? I mean, like... Were any of you guys ported out, too? To the future, or whatever it was. I can't be the only one. I mean, I saw some of you there. It was De Chima, right? We were just in De Chima? But our bodies got left behind here, I guess. I dunno. What was it? Was it a dream, or... Like, did we seriously just see the future? Because I think that's what it was. I think that was the future. I wasn't alone. I mean, I know I wasn't alone there.

...Right?

Comments

[rathercommon]

Maybe we will! We're alive, aren't we, and we've got our wits and we've got a common tongue amongst us. I've seen worse enemies than us come to a reconciliation. We can do better than that and find real peace. We've just got to stay patient and kind and think of others as much as we think of ourselves. Peace can come, and I believe it will.

[hostage]

[If! Only! He! Could! Have! That! Optimism!]

Honest to god I want that to be true

[rathercommon]

Well, stop wanting and make it happen! Honestly! WANTING never got anyone anywhere. DOING is how things get better.

[hostage]

You say that like I don't spend three nights a week curing natives in the ICU I mean I'm only one person here

[rathercommon]

OK, it's a start. What else do you do?

[hostage]

EMT

Help keep a school running

Donate my paycheck to charity

I'm raising a kid too so there's that

[Also caring for a 52-year-old pissbaby named Walter White, which actually takes up most of his time, but he'll leave that out.]

[rathercommon]

You donate your paycheck to charity. And then starve?

[hostage]

No I live off my govt funds I don't need more than that when I have a free room here

[rathercommon]

OK, because if you're taking the piss right now it's REALLY not helpful. The school is Xavier's, right? We've already had a talk about that, so you know my feelings (which haven't changed - if I were a local that school would make me SO nervous). But the rest of it is pretty good.

[hostage]

So glad you approve

[rathercommon]

Oh, don't be sarcastic! REALLY, it's just my honest assessment, which is all I can give, because I can't really give you what you want because it sort of seems like you simultaneously want to be praised and scolded for all this. ANYWAY. What charities do you donate to?

[hostage]

Atlas Hugged Homeless Shelter, Heropa Youth Center, and a few local schools

For the record I don't want praise I'm just sick of hearing it's not enough when I never asked for any of this

[rathercommon]

Well, you want to build a better future, yeah? That means sacrificing your time and yourself. Saving lives means stepping up, and stepping up means giving it your all. Being your best and doing your best. And that means thinking about what you CAN do. And there's more that all of us can take on. So, yeah: it's pretty good. Not the best, but pretty good.

Do you do anything bigger? Looking at the bigger picture, instead of just helping locally?

[hostage]

[Bitter laughter. Good thing about text.]

Should I cure AIDS? I guess I can work on it

[rathercommon]

[ Oh - ]

Hold on, could you actually?

[hostage]

Well yeah I mean one person at a time so if we could get people to stop fucking for like fifty years then maybe I'll wipe it out

[rathercommon]

OK, thanks, I don't really want to talk about THAT with someone basically old enough to be my uncle. Look, all this one-on-one stuff is good PR, it'll make you look like a pretty good person. But I'm trying to think about if I were one of the locals here, and how I'd see all of that. And what I'd see is some guy with sad eyes throwing himself into his work. I don't know. It's got to be transformed somehow.

[hostage]

Look I can only cure people as fast as I can recover so the whole big worldwide change thing isn't like in my scope

[rathercommon]

Well, curing people isn't the only thing you've got, is it?

[hostage]

The only useful thing

[rathercommon]

Rubbish. Honestly.

[hostage]

No? Seriously

[rathercommon]

So you were literally without value back home, before you got here.

[hostage]

That's right

1/4

[rathercommon]

Hold on I need to figure something out