15924/Give an inch

Give an inch
Date of Scene:	27 December 2023
Location:	1407 Greymalkin Lane - Breakstone
Synopsis:	A little think tanking, a little animosity, what's new with X-force and their shadowy benefactor?
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Wolverine, Rogue

---

Sinister has posed:
It was christmas not that long ago -- presumably, the children at yonder school actually had a relatively normal time of it, feeling like a life more ordinary, as opposed to the frequent latter.

Either way, out in the woods, it is cold, there's snow because: New York State and the pines make for statuesque pillars holding up a laden canopy. The lane is mildly icy in patches.

But the elk are on the move, because that's the time of year for it. They know when the hunting season is off, where they have to go not to get shot. One, a particularly fine looking buck, is wandering across the way a little further along the long path down to the school, ignorant of the world's dangers. For now. He noses in the grass, finding a bite to eat, oblivous to the red eyes in the tree watching him.

Sinister peruses the landscape, all but invisible up there on a particularly thick bough, obscured by the needles and the weight of recent silent, secret flakes. But he's watching. Listening perhaps.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan is out in the snowy area. Medium blue jeans, light brown boots, a reed flannel shrt and the dark brown bomber jacket. "Crrt." "Crrt." "Crrt." He tredges through the snow. Whle he's not tryng to be stealthy, the mutant just moves forward. Pausing near the trees, Logan almost grunts. "What are ya doin' out here?"

Logan doesn't need to look up. Sinister has a unique smell that carries on the crisp. So, it was easy t pretty much sniff him out, albeit inadvertantly. His gaze is just focused forward. WAiting for a reply from those red eyes.

Sinister has posed:
"Double-checking," the deep English tones reply downward. "I've been doing a sweep of the eastern seaboard, which inevitably leads me to lurking here. Like a moth to a particularly bright neon sign."

Sinister sighs up there in the tree, shifting audibly enough to note he probably stretched a leg along the bow -- boot leather on bark.

"I have a problem, you know. And I might just be distracting myself from it, by dropping by."

Wolverine has posed:
"What is it?" Logan says knowing that Sinister is probably entangled as somethng bad. Ocean blue eyes look up toward the arkness. Then he looks back forward. He's expecting some form of explanation. Yes, there is tension buliding in the air. At least Logan isn't trying to cut down the tree yet.

Sinister has posed:
It would probably be fruitless and might cause an explanation to be forthcoming to the ahem... groundskeepers of this place. Savaged pines on the property are a little bit of an eyesore after all.

"A continuum conundrum, of parallel worlds. This is what I get for taking assistance from the Sorceror Supreme, even when he's undead and being particularly abnormally altruistic. It'll inevitably be a problem X-factor likely needs to assist with." There is a pause, the smell of a hand-rolled cigarette drifting down and the brief little flare of chordite on the match.

"Long and short of it... well, no... what has Betsy told you, if anything at all?"

Wolverine has posed:
"What did you do?" Lga asks as he hars everythng. There's talk of Parallel Worlds, Sorceror Supreme, undead things, X-Factor and Betsy. Yeah, Logan's just going to answer Sinister's question with a question of hs own. That's a strange list of things that somehow tie together. Yeah, Logan wants to know how bad things are. He's expecting some kind of dimensional tear in the world.

Sinister has posed:
"So nothing, then." By the question being answered in such a fashion, much is brought to light. That woman's been avoiding the prickly issues and no mistake. Sinister sniffs, takes a toke or two of his cigarette and shaves ash on his heel, carefully. One wouldn't want to incandesce the pine pitch after all, that might be a particularly vigorous conflagration.

"You know Betsy's end of the world is liable to have some actual accuracy to it. Something -is- coming and there's only a certain amount of time to be had -- Too long, didn't read..."

Another pause "...I created a quantum computer with an infinite improbability drive powering it. It answers alternate choice questions, in a very immersive way. And it's quirky. We don't have time to be messing about getting it wrong on important matters."

Wolverine has posed:
"We don't know that. We don't know how accurate she is. We don't know if you n' her are preventin' it or causin' it." Logan looks up at the tree. He doesn't see the smoke dance on the air, but t's smell goes down.

"What did your machine say?" Logan really doesn't believe Sinister, but he wants to know the findings.

Sinister has posed:
"Nothing so far, other than some very quixotic items of interest. It's in a state of quantum resonance, as is Betsy, but in a different regard. It's more accurate in fact, to say that -you- don't know, Logan. I am relatively convinced of the threat."

Another bit of ash is flicked, drifting down to the ground in silence, off-white to the snowy forest floor.

"In essence, this is the true timeline, but in the flux, several others of the same device were made. But no two things are exactly alike, not even clones. There are minute differences in most things in nature; the other versions of the machine are causing a harmonic dissonance. I've been pontificating on exactly -how- one is to travel to parallel timelines to recalibrate alternate infinity drives."

Wolverine has posed:
For a moment Logan has a vision of Sinister getting lost in time or space. It's a good thought. That is until he sees Sinister landing in something like Year II BCE. Ocean blue eyes look toward Sinister, "How do ya fix the other devices without gettin' lost or somethin' like that?" Logan asks as he looks toward Sinister for a moment. He admits that the presence of one of these machines is bad because it can cause issues if things are out of sync.

Sinister has posed:
"That's my quandary, Logan. What I've been 'running away' from in this ill-advised eastern sea-board jaunt. It's a doozy, isn't it?" The cigarette is finished, examined, pinched out and presumably pocketed as nothing comes flicking down from on high.

"That's the trouble with being far too clever for your own good, I'd wager."

Wolverine has posed:
"There's sayin's about bein' too smart. Too brilliant or whatever," Logan looks at Sinister. "What's the play fer fixin' it without breakin' ya apart between worls or get lost in another place?' Logan knows there's some kind of idea in place. it may not be much of a plan. However, he knows it's something rattling. He'll pull out the cigar. "I'm humorin' ya," and he will pull out a stick match readying to light it.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue doesn't know that Sinister is around, and she doesn't know that Logan is out and about poking at whatever it is Sinister is doing. What she does know is that flying through the crisp air can be both a good and bad thing. It contstricts the blood vessels which makes flying an interesting thing to do...because one false pause here and there and she could be a block of frozen Rogue falling out of the sky. But no, instead the figures of people catch her eye, and being so close to the school, she slowly makes her way down, trying to ensure she doesn't knock a branch or something to give away her presence. Until she spies who it is and then lands quite quickly and without a care of making noise. "You two havin' a meetin' and not invitin' the whole crew?"

Sinister has posed:
Up on his tree branch, Sinister rolls a fresh cigarette. There's something altogether fundamental and rather nostalgic in the action for him -- and despite the silence, he looked up long before Rogue made her quiet descent through the pines.

Tongue is applied carefully to the rolling paper and the ends are groomed of rogue sticks and dangles, a lucifer produced from his matchbox to light what is settled to his lips. Once, cigarettes were a luxury even the obnoxious like himself, could barely get their hands on. Roll-ups were what there was.

"I was in the area and it is most bracing to sit in the shadow of mind-boggling aggression and danger, my dear Rogue. It heightens the brain, provided you haven't reached the realm of poor, adrenaline fuelled choices. Luckily, I rarely reach that point." The smell of chordite once more drifts down, though there's no spent stick, or ash. He's sat on a pine bough after all, that would be madness.

"Your timing is fortuitous, in fact. Apparently some of the solution to an issue I've been thinking about, should be thought of in respect to you and your very unique talent."

Wolverine has posed:
"Sometimes me n' -him-," Logan doesn't insult Sinister. However, he doesn't give respect with the name either. "We run into each other. Talk. When I didn't want to get 'im, it was more often," Logan grunts a little bit before striking that stick match against the sole of his boot. "Fffftt" it becomes alight. He puts a cigar in his mouth and lights it up.

"Solution?" Logan questions as he is not seeing the equation here. To him it's as vague as "A" plus "B" equals Rogue saves the day. Piece are missing for the Canandain. "Talk," Logan says firmly to Sinister. He may not be on boardd with the plan.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue lofts an eyebrow upwards nearing to the end of what Nathaniel says when it readily brings her into some part of an equation she's not even aware of. Since everyone is smoking, might as well join them, and she pulls out her own pack of cigarettes to go through the motions of lighting one up. "You know...you don't have to be SO rude to them everytime you're within their presence. If I can be nice to Juggy when he comes to the school even after he made a crater outta me....you can be nice to Nathaniel here.." She says this to Logan and then turns her attention to Nathaniel. "However, now you got me all curious... what is it about my powers that can help you?"

Sinister has posed:
"I'm still working that out, Rogue. It's a conundrum, but I was advised by an interesting party, rather than an interested one, that perhaps the solution lay with your biofield. I'm still not entirely sure how--" his phone gives a soft 'ding' right then and he looks at it, as if the device is somehow prescient "--which also reminds me, welcome to X-force and don't mind the not-terribly-silent but mostly hands-off backer you have. You've got a state of the art Jet. You're welcome to not use it of course."

FInally, he shifts his back from the bowel of the tree and lets his feet dangle over the edge, leaning forward enough to prop his elbows on knees and gaze down at the pair. "You want the cliff-notes version?"

Wolverine has posed:
"I ain't a saint like you," Logan does think of her as better than him. Ocean blue eyes drift to her. She does have some points, but Rogue is a bit more forgiving than him.

"Give me the kinda notes that won't make me go cross-eyed," all the technical jargon can weigh Logan down. So, he doesn't quite say something like "Captain Dummy Notes" but that's the impression he's trying to leave.

The welcome to X-Forc doesn't get an eyeroll. However, he takes a little bit of will to fight off the motion. So, he just waits for the explanation.

Rogue has posed:
"Took a lot of convincing to this one to let me join up in the first place and I know he still don't like it. But it was either let me join or know that I'm just goin' to be his shadow." Rogue says this much with a shrug and takes another hit off her cigarette. "Technical jargon aside... what are you workin' on that somehow pointed a finger at me? Even if you don't know why, you can at least give me the courtesy of knowing the what..." Gently saying this to Sinister but in a stern kind of fashion.

"And no, you ain't a Saint, but you can still swallow yer pride and tighten yer ass cheeks a little bit to give the man some common courtesy." Saying this to Logan as she flicks ashes off the end of her cigarette and then looks between them both, almost waiting for either things to come to blows or Nathaniel speaks his mind.

Sinister has posed:
"Alrighty then," -- what follows is the short-short version of 'machinery was made, some of it is in parallel timelines and out of synch and it's screwing the real machine up' -- but frankly, Essex cannot easily go in a straight arrow line from a to b without a bit of explanation. Luckily, it's mostly brief.

"And now I'm thinking about it, because separate realms are a thing more easily transversed, but parallel timelines are a whole different ballgame. And although I'm sure the world would be happier without me in it, the alternative to this iteration of me is not as personable."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan's just silnt during Rgu's comments. Yes, he -could- do that. Just like CEOs -could- give better wages to all of their employees. it doen't mean that will happen.

"Cause I ain't seein' what it takes to get from point A to B wit' her," Lgan asks as he looks back to the man.

Rogue has posed:
"So wait...there's this realm, and other realms. And these other realms are almost sorta kinda like our realm but not...with more of these machines, and more of the same problem.... and yet we're really the ones that gotta fix it?" Rogue asks this and then shakes her head. "Feels like an awful lot of pressure..." She thinks on it a bit and then sighs. "Well when you figure out what I have to do with it let me know. Unless you need me to do something to try and help you figure out the whys of it all..."

Sinister has posed:
"Naaaaaah. As I said in the beginning of this, I'm in a conundrum and I needed to think. Believe it or not, sometimes just being here and talking to your inestimable selves helps the thought process. And when /I/ know how it relates to Rogue, if it relates at all, I will let you know Logan. I swear." Sinister finishes his cigarette, dragging the last and pinches it off.

"Well, it has been delightful, gruff and gritty... but I will depart. Maybe actually looking at the machinery will assist, but really, I need Worthington's keen eye, or an extra pair of hands for that... the latter of which is a lot easier to achieve. Good evening to you both. Don't let this plague your brains too much, or we'll all go bonkers. Toodles." And with a wave, he leaps skyward.

There's a fwoosh that might indicate going super fast, or it might indicate wings erupting. You never know with him.