12511/Laborastories with Hank

Laborastories with Hank
Date of Scene:	01 December 2020
Location:	Hank's Lab - X-Men Base
Synopsis:	Hank comes up with the BEST IDEA EVER, that has NO MORAL IMPLICATIONS! But his friends totally don't support him. So they talk about their relationships instead.. and probably go out to eat.
Cast of Characters:	Beast, Cyclops, Phoenix

---

Beast has posed:
It's another late evening and where else would be Hank be other than his PRIVATE laboratory? Well, since his paramour is working at any rate. The big, blue, furball is literally perched on his favourite stool with that sense of balance that only X-Men like him (and the other blue furry x-man Nightcrawler) can not only manage but make look like it is even comfortable.

He looks contemplative as he looms over his workbench at whatever he has been working on as of late, tapping his muzzle.

Cyclops has posed:
The doors swish open to reveal Scott Summers as he makes his way inside. The field leader is wearing a green sweater and a pair of khakis and loafers. "Good evening, Henry." He calls over to his best friend as he adjusts his ruby glasses over his nose.

"Jean and I are going to get something to eat and figured we'd check in on you to make sure that you get fresh air at some point. You want anything or feel like tagging along with us?"

Phoenix has posed:
Given the late hour, Jean is dressed down in simple jeans and an oversized school sweatshirt that looks like it was circa their senior year. She may be off the clock, but she still represents. Also it's vintage, and there is no replicating that softness that a decade's worth of wear and washing causes.

"What Scott is strongly suggesting is that you come hang out with us, because we miss you." She walks over to peer over one blue shoulder curiously. "What'cha working on?"

Beast has posed:
It's not like Hank didn't hear both his old friends walking down the hallway but he /was/ distracted by thoughts so he sort of took a moment to visually perk when Scott and jean enter. His catllike ears did twitch though and he turns on the top of the stool to which his prehensile foot/paws clutch.

"Hmmm?" he asks, then takes a moment to focus and offers a small smile. "Ah, Scott! Jean! Good evening to you both as well!." he says. "I do apologize for not responding right away. I was just.. thinking." he admits. Then he sighs and runs his claws through his mane-like hair as Scott first makes the offer... "I'm not sure, Scott. I mean.. There is so much to..."

He stops as Jean puts her two cents in and that forces Hank to orient and.. He then sighs,m smiling urefully, and drops off the stool. "I guess I could use something to eat. And.. I guess I have been spening too much time in here.. And mosyt of all.. I have missed you both as well." he admits, then looks at Where Jean was staring. "Ah. Those." he says with.. no inflection of feeling, food or bad, in his voice at all. "Just.. a project.".

Cyclops has posed:
"You always have a project." Scott says as he looks over towards it as well. "What kind of life changing thing are you working on now?" He asks as he lifts his brows curiously over his glasses. "I'm still not trying 3D printed Chalupas if that is what it is."

Sometimes, those projects just spiral out of control.

"I was thinking of ordering a pizza and some wings and having it delivered. Save some gas and a trip into town. I'm not feeling overly social."

Phoenix has posed:
"A project you don't sound very excited about, which isn't much like you." Jean says gently to Hank with a soft pat to his shoulder before she leans back and gives him back his space. "Anything you need a few more sets of eyes on? You have that look like you've been staring at something too long."

"Delivery sounds good to me, Scott. It's cold out, and sitting in front of the fire with pizza sounds like a way better idea than freezing getting in and out of the car." Complains the woman who can vaporize half of a forest on a bad day. "Garlic breadsticks actually sound amazing right now."

Beast has posed:
Okay, Hank /has/ to grin that leonine grin at /that/. "There was nothing wrong with that Idea." he points out. "The three dimensional fabrication of food using a mixture of natually recycled and synthesized proteins, carbohydrates and sugars is the way of the future! You could have gotten in on the ground floor." he says, wagging a claw at him.

He then looks at Jean and.. shrugs. "I /am/ excited about it. But it's the unintended consequences that lower my excitement in the technology..." he says, but trails off because..

"Oh yeah.. I think pizza would great. A Hawaiian. very light marinara. Added cheese, onions, olives and bacon.

Cyclops has posed:
"A Hawaiian? I thought we were friends. I'll get you a personal one of those... sausage and pepperoni for us." Scott's lips turn upwards a bit into a grin before he looks curious.

"So, what is this exciting project that you are working on that would have dire consequences?" The idea of 3D printed food almost makes him lose his appetite. "You and Tony Stark can work on that together. Earn a lot of bitcoins."

Phoenix has posed:
"Ham, bacon, and olives? Hank, we gotta talk about your sodium intake." Jean says affectionately to the blue-furred genius. She doesn't comment more on the choice of Hawaiian. She's known him half of her life. At least he didn't add Twinkies.

"I am curious about what this is, though. Wanna run us through it? You have two of the best people in the room to talk over the good and bad points. We'll tell you straight."

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy snorts. "That just goes to show which of us has a more refined sense of taste." he says, mockingly sniffing as if he were a wine snob.. Which he sometimes is, of course., then he holds his paw against his chest, looking hurt by Jeans comment. "You would me, my dear Jean. My gustatory balance of sugars and salts is renowned for.. well.. Being balanced."

He then looks between his friends.. and sighs.

"It started wityh me doing.. a thought idea. Every day, the spectrum of both low and high energy radio frequencies /not/ finding themself in use or being monitored is shrinking, and the shear amount of processing power availble for decryption of transmissions on these freauences is doubling every six months, making secure communications especially for... organizations such as ours that which more often then not /need/ to be secure against our.. rivals. And, if possible, need to be completely untracable..."

Cyclops has posed:
"So you're building an X-Men GPS?" Scott rubs his face with his hand as he listens to him curiously. "A sorta X-Men GPS that is also a walkie talkie?" When it come to the higher level technical jargon, he tends to get a little bit lost. It's why he is a black and white bullet proof type of field leader.

Phoenix has posed:
"We do need to be able to hide." Jean concurs quietly as she leans back against one of the tables with her arms loosely crossing in front of her chest. "Not just from our rivals, but the inevitable - and likely already present - monitoring from organizations like SHIELD and the rest of the government. They may be allies sometimes, but... well, paranoia is a required survival mechanism for mutants." She adds with a subdued sigh.

"What's the cons?" She asks. "We don't tend to find keeping our secrets as an immoral thing. If these frequencies aren't in use, then we're not technically stealing, right? I'm not well versed in how that all works."

Beast has posed:
Scott is a tactical and strategic genius, but even Hank knows that Scott is, while not technically illiterate by any means, isn't an engineer OR a scientist. "YEs Scott. An X-Men GPS and COmmunications system plus a whole lot more." he says. "It's also a biomonitor, which allows the easy interface of medical equipment to diagnose physical ailments.. SOmething I came up with originally to monitor the health of people like diabetics or mutants whose mutations could put their own health at risk." he tells him. "I merged all the systems on a .2mm scale chip."

He then looks to Jean. "Thats the thing, Jean.. what brings this technology together is teh communications part. It doesn' use frquencies. It uses /quantumn entanglement/. It doesn't use frequencies on the electro magnetic spectrum. These.. lets call them Transibles.. These Transibles remain entangled with their 'group' over anuy distanmces. And not /just/ distances... " he adds cryptically. "Look.. How many times has one of us been kidnapped? OR trapped. And that the enemy was able to jam not just our communications but Cerebro herself? This tech could /never/ be blocked. But the users with access to the core of the.. lets call it the Transible Network.. They Would have access to the users location AND health at at ANY moment...."

Cyclops has posed:
"Okay.." Scott trails off as he listens to the scientific babble and jargon that goes mostly over his head. He slowly blinks behind his red glasses. With a clear of his throat, he says, "So, this would come in the form of what? Our current communicators build into our belts? Or maybe our ear piece in the fields? How do you plan on deploying this?"

He gives a glance over to Jean, then back to Hank as his brows lift. He is curious. The idea isn't a bad one by any means.

Phoenix has posed:
Jean Grey seems to be digesting this with at least a basic understanding, in so much as early man understood that they could use a hand to pick up a rock and that throwing it at a bad thing might make the bad thing dead. Crude, but effective. She taps the tips of her nails against her forearm as she digests this as one corner of her mouth slowly ticks back tap by tap.

"So this would be a chip that allowed communication, tracking, and monitoring across - theoretically - any location of realm with no way to prevent us from reaching that person. Which is an incredible pro, given what we do and where we may end up. But the downside is, what if someone who isn't friendly managed to access that data, and this has all the information they could ever need to hunt any of us down. Am I following that right?"

Beast has posed:
This is where Hank gets a bit fidgety. "Well.. the Biomonitor itself was designed to be implantable.. It's the only way to get proper medical readings after all. The whole package is smaller than a grain of rice and meant to be subcutaneously impl;anted behind the ear just above the mastoid bone, which will allow bone transduction which will allow the user to hear and speak normally and under their breath, giving them security."

Then he looks to Jean and his broad shoulderds sag a little. "CLose.. enough." he says, sighing. "I just want you to know, right now, that I never intended to make this in any way mandatory." he quickly points out. "And there is no conceivable way I can hypothesis that they would be able to hijack this network. It all has to run through a central node. I guess you could call THAT the weak point. But.. I mean we have to be honest here. While that is a security issue, it's no more, even less of one, than the fact we have literally lost control of Cerebro on multipe occasions. So long as we secure a place for the Transible Central Node..." he trails off there and looks between his friends.

Cyclops has posed:
There is a loud sigh from Scott as he pinches the bridge of his nose, giving a slight shake of his head.

<< Dear God, Jean, he wants to put stuff in our heads now. >>

"Henry. Hank. You know I love you like a brother. I really do. You are .. very .. very .. smart. It's just that.. no.." He trails off. "Now, if you can think of a different way to make this work that does not involve surgically implanting a bean in our heads, that would be wonderful."

He plants his face into his hand, sighing. << I need a drink. I'm going to risk my life and raid Logan's booze closet. >>

Phoenix has posed:
"Sadly, I'm less concerned about our normal enemies getting ahold of it as opposed to the government and them using it to round us up. What does *that* say about my paranoia levels?" Jean groans as she rubs her palm roughly across her face. "I need therapy."

<< There's less painful ways to kill yourself, Scott. He tolerates you, but not that much. >>

"The concept is fine. It has value, a lot of it, but security has to come first even if some functionality has to go in exchange. We just... we *can't* risk that. Even voluntarily, it only takes tracking one of us to find the rest. Which brings me back to my discussions of the past of us needing to find a better base location than under the school, in case of Exhibit A here."

Beast has posed:
There are times where when one doesn't NEED to be a telepath to know what his friend is thinking. He has had years of experienced sussing out the meanings of Scott's body language, facial language and other indicative mannerisms... And, of course, reading between the lines of what he says.

Beast has posed:
There are times where when one doesn't NEED to be a telepath to know what his friend is thinking. He has had years of experienced sussing out the meanings of Scott's body language, facial language and other indicative mannerisms... And, of course, reading between the lines of what he says.

It's obvious that Hank is pouting a WEE bit. "Scott..." a turn of his head. "Jean... Again, let me point out that a> How is this any different from Cerebo? All it requires is the government taking control of it and one telepath of their own, and then how many mutants would be exposed? B> it's not major surgery. It literally as easy to install as getting one's ear pierced/ A single air-hypo injection. C) I told you this system remained entangled across all space. Well it also can be across time. And dimension." he explains. "We could.. Get Illyana to transport the Central node anywhere. Or maybe Layla Miller...

He clenches his eyes. "I know this seems very Big brother.. But I am tired, Scott.. Jean. So tired of our people disappearing. Do you know how many mutants just disappear every year? The few that we find.. You have seen how terrible the results can be? And it's me even more so because I am the one who treats them.. Or does the autopsy.."

"At least let the TEAM use it.. And if it works out we can offer it to the others.."

Cyclops has posed:
"Henry, there is no way you can sell this to the team. This is stepping into sleep deprivation and mad scientist type of ideas. Come on, let's just get you out of here and get a few drinks at Harry's. We'll have a good time and you can get some sleep tonight, and then we can think of a different way to make this work that doesn't involve piercing our ears."

<< I think he owes me anyways. >>

"Look, let's just figure out how to do this like with maybe utilizing a bracelet, or our utility belt. That way we aren't having even minor surgery and we can take it off in our downtime and not always feel like our big furry best friend is using Find My iPhone on our skulls at all times."

Phoenix has posed:
Jean generally keeps her empathic abilities well tamped down, both out of ensuring the dignity of those around her and because she just does not feel like being bombarded by twenty-odd teenagers at any given time and their hormonal and psychological dumpster fires. She has enough reasons to drink. But people like Hank are her friends. More. The first class are as much her brothers as her biological ones and maybe even more so. She doesn't need her powers to know their turmoil.

She pushes off the table she was leaning on and walks over to Hank, and like it or no he gets a two armed and fierce hug. "I know, I know. And believe me, I hate that damn machine down the hall." Says the woman who spends hours each week and countless bloody noses and migraines sifting through the world like trying to pick out different colors of sand grains in a windstorm. "I wish it didn't exist. I wish we didn't need to use it. But that can be destroyed. I can walk in there right now and melt it into a puddle, but then we're utterly blind."

"And I get Scott's hesitation to have something permanent. Even if a computer can be destroyed what's to stop someone from reverse engineering something by yanking a chip out of our head? But an item we can remove can be taken and it can be lost. Same issue. The idea is in the right place. I agree that we need more secure ways to find and protect our own, but we need less risks. There's bound to be a way to make this work, but we need to give it time to be found."

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy is silent for a moment, not able to look at either of them. He isn't angry, not really, but he isn't sorry for what he believes. He understands, and agrees with, the concepts of freedom and privacy in a perfect world but.. the world isn't perfect. Those who think that paying for safety and the freedoms they /do/ enjoy with a few other freedoms, mostly the anarchic parts, is shortsighted. The concept of a /nation/, a culture, has ALWAYS been a compromise between like minded indivduals. Always.

But.. he is NOT going to argue with his friends, because thats what democracy is. Their 'votes' outnumber him. nd he HAS to respect their opinions.

So, he sighs and nods. "I understand. I will.. work on a a suitable alternative vector." he says.

Cyclops has posed:
Reaching out, Scott gives his broad shoulder a gentle patting. "And you will make it work, I know you will, because you're one of the smartest men in the world." He gives Henry an encouraging smile, nodding his head. "It's a great idea." He assures him.

"So, besides that, how have you been doing? You and Sandy are going on almost five months now. Congratulations. I can tell that you're happy." He gives Jean a look, brows lifting upwards. "Everything okay there? Things are still solid between you two?"

Everyone remembers when Trish Tilbry broke up with Hank. That reporter who was peer pressured by her friends to ghost him due to his physical looks. There is always a bit of worry in his mind that he will see his friend become crushed again.

Phoenix has posed:
"I don't have your brain, Hank, but if you ever need some brainstorming sessions I'm always here. Scott doesn't let me go punch bad guys anymore and if I have to do one more expense report I'm going to lose my mind. So I am happy to sit here and let you bounce ideas off of me." The redhead says to her blueheaded friend with a reassuring grin.

She's leaning back as Scott brings up the poor man's dating life and there's a quiet huff from Jean that may be a stifled chuckle.

<< Timing, Scott. And stop worrying. If someone breaks his heart, I'll make sure they don't get a peaceful night's sleep for weeks. >> Did anyone mention recently that she's a dangerous friend to have? She didn't say she'd turn them into a pretzel at least.

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy actually looks at Scott.. and Snorts.. though it is with an edge of wry humour. "You do not need to stroke my ego, Scott. I am tyotally egotistical enoigh to realize I am, yes, a genius." he says, half seriously. "I'm not /so/ dissapointed that I am falling into dispair." and he pats Scott on the back. ANd he smiles and nods at jean for her offer. "Of course, Jean. ANd thank you.

He looks back to Scott and raises a brow as he asks about his relationship.. Which, he guesses, is sort of fair. His friends, his family/, know how.. rough it has been. They know the worst, darkest things that have befallen him in the past. Yet, as heavey as those memories are. His smile grows a little.

"You do not need to pussyfoot around the subject, Scott. Things between me and Sandra are quote well. You could say out relationship is quite.. healthy and energetic." he says, and doesn't offer much more because.. what else can he add to THAT 'vaguerie'.

Cyclops has posed:
<< Timing is perfect. It puts his mind on something else besides brain surgery. >>

Scott gives Hank a wry grin on his face, then taps the side of his ear. "Yes, that much I believe we have all gathered by the noise." He doesn't even beat around the bush, much. "But that is good to hear that you two are going strong and happy. She seems like a very nice woman. You should invite her over for Christmas for dinner and gift trading. She can meet some of the kids and have dinner with our family."

Phoenix has posed:
There's a low groan from Jean who just shakes her head and finds her prior table to resume her cross-armed lean. She'll just leave out commentary on that regard.

"Yes, you should invite her over. I'd love to get to talk to her more. I did promise my family I'd come by for at least some of Christmas. I was nearly excommunicated for bailing on Thanksgiving, but with this Metaforce causing an uproar I... I just didn't feel right leaving the school."

"And yes!" She immediately adds in protest, just knowing one of them will likely insist that she has nothing to worry about. "I know, I know that this place is relatively safe but relativelies don't help me sleep at night. Speaking of that... I suppose I should go take a crack at our 'guest'. No one else has had luck interrogating her yet, and before Betsy just goes in and liquifies the poor girl's brain I'd like to see what I can do."

Beast has posed:
Henry McCoy doesn't blush at Scott's insinuations. In fact he may look a WEE bit... smug. "Yet I have better ears than anyone in the school and do not hear ANY noises from /your/ room." he says, completely deadpan.. then grins and gently punches Scott in the shoulder.

"And As much as I would like tio invite her here for dinner you know I have a standing appointment with my Parents for christmas. And if her job will let her, I'll be inviting her back to the farm with me." he tells them both. "It may be too soon for her to met the parents, and I'm not doing it because I'm trying to speed things up between us. My parents live in Ohio so I haven't been able to intoduce her to them less formally. And you know my mother. She wants to 'interrogate' Sandra." je rolls his eyes. "But also.. my parents are getting older and.." he shrugs.

then gives Jean a wee bit of a chastising look. "Now now. Elizabeth is much more subtle than you give her credit for." he says defending the telepathic ninja as she is a friend of his as well.

Cyclops has posed:
"Of course not. Why would you?" Scott says simply as he reaches into his pocket to pull out a piece of gum. He slides out a piece and unwraps it. "We use Jean's room."

He says it so simply without so much as a smug look or tone. He puts the gum in his mouth for a few chews, holding the pack out to his friend. "But, I understand. I hope the two of you have fun. Tell your family we said hello and send our best to them. We'll make sure to have your presents wrapped ahead of time so that you have something from us under the tree back home."

He gives a glance to Jean, then to Hank. "When it comes to interrogating, Betsy can be quite the demanding woman. It's one of her best skills."

Phoenix has posed:
"He likes the view in my room better." Jean deadpans like a champ. "Though maybe come spring it may be time to.. I dunno, maybe look at getting a /real/ place of my own. Nearby, but, I'm thinking it may be healthier for me to finally move out of this place. I've only lived here since I was eleven and in the same room at that. Actually splitting my work and my Work and my life may help keep me in a better headspace."

For reasons.

"But! I don't feel like dealing with that crap in the middle of winter. So everyone here is stuck with me hearing all of their embarrassing dreams and relationship drama for a little longer."