video | "01." backdated to the 30th jump.

[anybodies]

[filtered to Gunnery | 0% encryption]

[Emma Swan blinks into view on the network video.

Emma Swan is not exactly Emma Swan lately, but she sure as shit looks the part, from the blonde hair to the lovely, heart-shaped face, fringy eyelashes, the collar of her jacket. The ID number behind the vid is true to every comm she's ever posted to the network. She also looks a little pinched, harried, in that miserably familiar way that the Jump often leaves people-- especially those brave adventurers who went into Engineering. She smiles a little, though, for the camera.

(Mystique had thought about sticking with audio, but the stakes are high; there is no better time to go all in.)

Emma is walking down a hallway. Could be any hallway. The buttresses are remote and pixellated in the dark background.] Looks like the Jump put something new in my locker. Do you guys have magazines for a .45 semi-automatic? And a holster, so I don't shoot an ass cheek off?

Comments

video. private.

[forgodssake]

[ Already back in his quarters in record time, Charles Xavier is still flush from recent showering, dark hair sleek against his skull, and a crooked smile ready in the vague victory of having cracked the bare minimum required to view unencrypted posts. As if the distraction of some new puzzle were a good enough distraction and ice breaker both to then talk shop to her about this past jump.

Hi Emma. ]

Failing Gunnery, we're not short on elves and those of variously medieval leanings who might be able to tool something together. I'd be devastated if anything of the sort were to happen to either ass cheek, really.

1/2

[anybodies]

[The transmission lasts for two seconds, which Emma spends looking at Charles as if he sprouted an unexpected and especially protuberant mole.

Or maybe as if he is the unexpected and protuberant mole. His whole person.



She disconnects.]

2/2

[anybodies]

[--But then she is back, in less than thirty seconds. Her lingering dismay transitions in a moment or five; she doesn't look unequivocally delighted to see him, but her eyes search his digitized face and there is unmistakable exasperation affection there. It's a vast improvement over the rejection symbolized by the flat color of a cut video, so.

So he's a couple steps to first base maybe. (Maybe not.)] --Thanks. Charles.

[A beat.]

Charles, right?

video. private.

[forgodssake]

[ Oops. Oops? In the privacy of his room, Charles' eyebrows go up, briefly wondering if this is yet another case of being clever compl e t e l y backfiring on him, and he's thirty seconds into constructing an apologetic text by the time she's returned. ]

Charles is right, yes. Also, not Gunnery, you've caught me.

[ Should he apologise?? She doesn't seem offended anymore. (unsure) ]

I received a gun this month as well, actually, you'll have to let me know how you fare with either thing.

video. as private as 0% encryption can be.

[anybodies]

[Emma acknowledges this with a vague lift of her eyebrows, which is probably about Not Gunnery, rather than Charles; of course Charles is Charles. Emma Swan would know that. Everything is fine they aren't talking about her butt anymore.]

Sure, [she says.] I've never asked about equipping people outside of Security, but I'm sure it can't hurt to ask. Listen, Charles. [--it's not hesitation, exactly, that lilts pause into her words; she seems momentarily distracted. A blue light flows over her shoulder. By default, the elevator.]

Can you meet me in the shuttle bay in an hour?

video. as private as 0% encryption can be.

[forgodssake]

Er-- yes? Yes, certainly.

[ However it is that Charles knows Emma Swan, it doesn't regularly involve spontaneous meet ups. Maybe it should. Any notions of maybe he's about to get lucky are held in reserve of but shuttle bay?? and normally it takes more effort, and so there's a pinch of worry at his brow. ]

Is everything all right?

[ It's a light question, almost instinctive -- whatever it is she wants to say, clearly it ought be off network. He can understand that. ]

so private omg

[anybodies]

[It is so nice to be on the same page, even if Charles has no idea what he's metaphorically reading. 'Emma' smiles; not enough teeth to imply that lucky will be gotten should Charles make the shuttle bay rendezvous.]

Nothing that can't be fixed, Charles, [she tells him.] I'll see you in an hour. Oh-- [Her finger blurs near momentarily, and away again, backing off the disconnect button just once.] I can grab a holster for you on the way.

can't break dis firewall

[forgodssake]

Oh, good.

[ Though, now that he thinks about it, he's not sure the pistol will live anywhere else but the shadowy interior of his sock drawer. But a holster is good to have. And Charles no longer seems to believe he's getting lucky--

--but curiousity is plenty powerful on its own. ]

I'll see you then, Ms Swan.

i sure hope i did not fuck up on ooc info here (unsure)

[mindtricks]

( the armoury is stocked with weapons and ammunition for those weapons, but none of them are precisely identical to the weaponry people bring with them from their home worlds. )

A holster, but no ammunition.

( maybe someone has some, but gunnery does not, and neither does anderson. )

[anybodies]

You're sure? It's pretty standard. Back home, I mean, any .45 caliber box magazine would fit in this thing, ['Emma' says, a faint uptick in her brows, surprised, probably not in a way that's meant to offend Anderson's sensibilities. It's only that .45 ACP literally was everywhere, in her time, with no sign of going out of style.

(Maybe the guns here shoot lasers. Or knives. Or rounds that burst apart in plasma. Hank would love it.) (--Well, to the extent that he'd disapprove entirely of what she's doing, possibly, but--)]

[mindtricks]

The weapons here are different than what is standard in most worlds.

( no lasers, and they don't shoot knives or plasma either. except her primary weapon, but that's not part of the armoury. )

[anybodies]

[Mystique inclines her head. Overloading a weapon's ammo rating is incredibly dangerous and generally stupid, she knows, and after a moment, she decides the situation does not yet rate action that desperate.] All right.

Thanks. ['Emma' inclines her head.]

[mindtricks]

You're welcome.

( a slight shrug. she hasn't done much except give some basic information that she would have thought common knowledge for those not new. )

[anybodies]

[EMMA SWAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE don't worry about it Anderson.

There is nothing to worry about at all.

Emma smiles at the other woman, and disconnects.]

( gunnery filter )

[kutte]

Better hope the jump tosses you a case of ammunition too, darlin'. You headin' to the range with that?

[anybodies]

Thinking about it.

[Emma seems like the type. Practical enough to make with practicing.]

But unless I'm planning to throw the thing at the target, I think it might have to wait a month.

[And she has no intention of being here that long.]

[kutte]

You get a sudden urge for target practice? We got guns that'll fire blanks, if you ain't in the mood to wait.

[anybodies]

Sounds good. I'm probably done for the day, but how about tomorrow?

[kutte]

I'll be around. You looking for an audience or a little competition?

[anybodies]

Let's call it competition.

A girl's equilibrium has gotta come back some day.

[kutte]

You got it then. Tyke doesn't mind you kicking around the range for a while, come on down. I'll be here.

[anybodies]

All right. See you topside, [what does it say his name is.]

Jax.

['Emma' smiles at him.

Disconnects. It won't be an hour out before the ruse is up, and he might well discover that it wasn't all a lie: the impostor did, in fact, Jump in with a firearm. Any and all resemblence to the truth from thereon is either circumstancial or shapeshifting.]