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The Writing's on the Wall; [Jacqueline Falsworth]
Topic Started: Apr 5 2011, 06:32 AM (499 Views)
Buford Hollis
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Mechanical Hyper-Competence
Time: 10 AM
Date: March 18th, 2011



Despite his protests to the contrary, Buford always worried about status. It was a result of his upbringing. Deep South patricians may have seen their world being chipped away during Buford's childhood, but they still held the reins of social and political power very tightly. Buford's family were outcasts from that power structure. He was always a bit suspicious of the types that held power. Now that he himself had power, more power than his simple barely-there mutation, he felt the need to guard it zealously.

When he had been informed of Jacqueline's promotion, he couldn't help but feel a bit threatened. He was older than the average Brotherhood member, mainly because he was older than the average mutant. Sure, there had been a number of mutants in every generation for centuries, but it wasn't until recently that their numbers had exploded.

He was older than the average mutant. He was big and strong in his youth, and even today, still in physical therapy from being shot, he felt like he could take a man half his age in a brawl, but he wasn't going to be like this forever. There were mornings where he felt every day his age. And it was going to get worse, not better.

New, more powerful, young mutant being added to the ranks? Yeah, Buford was a bit concerned about that. Never let 'em see you sweat, though. Gotta make sure that the kid doesn't think you're weak.

He agreed to meet her after his breakfast. The tubes were running smoothly today. The city's mass transit were his masterpiece here. Seeing them work that well put a spring in his step.

He stood, waiting outside her domicile, tapping the ground with his cane. "Spitfire, we're going for a walk."
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Spitfire
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The past few days had been weird. Spitfire still didn’t really know what to think about being an Acolyte; in many respects it still didn’t feel like reality. Why the hell would anyone want to put her in charge of anything? The blonde hadn’t a clue. What she was most thankful for that morning however, was that she did not get hangovers. The amount of alcohol she had consumed last night would probably kill a large gazelle and she hoped Primal was faring just as well as she seemed to be. It was a good job really, that she wasn’t hung-over as that morning, Razorback wanted to see her. Several reasons as to why had swam through her head, but nothing had really stayed put, other than the fact it would be about her promotion, which was really quite vague, considering.

When Jac stepped outside that morning, the big mutant was already waiting for her and the slender girl had to tilt her head back to look up at him. Swallowing the remainder of a croissant, the speedster gave him something of a nervous grin. “Morning,” she greeted cheerily and stuffed her hands in her pockets and cleared her throat, rocking back on her heels a little. Returning his statement with a nod, the girl fell into line beside him, getting the feeling that a ‘walk’ was going to be difficult. Walking was not her favourite pastime and part of her wondered if it was deliberate; at some point, everyone in the Brotherhood had told her to slow down, stop talking fast, stop eating so much….that sort of thing.

“So…Where are we walking to?” Jac asked and looked up at Buford, shooting the burly mutant a slightly nervous grin. Pleasedontsaythebar
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Buford Hollis
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Buford was a man who enjoyed his drink. Seriously. He never drove drunk, but his two greatest loves were drinking and driving. He liked the hard stuff, the stuff that people only used mixed with other stuff to take the sting off it.

But he had, well not stopped completely, but he severely cut back once he was made into an Acolyte. Before he became an Acolyte, he had never really had that many responsibilities. Even when he was leading the New York chapter, he was coleading that with Mystique and had capable back-ups in Black Tom and Balam. If he wanted to imbibe, he could.

Nowadays, he had an occasional beer at the end of the day, but nothing more than that. His nicotine habit was up though. Pain in the ass too. Harder to get your hands on that. It was hard to justify putting aside precious soil space to grow tobacco, which meant he had to rely of buying it second hand from either people growing it hydroponic on their own or the teleporters who made supply runs. But it didn't dull his mind and he needed that. It didn't make him dumb.

"Ain't anywhere particular, I just figured it's better this way than in chairs," He said, "Yer an Acolyte now. Figure you gotta have some ideas. Promotion for a youngin like you, probably got a lot of them."

"So, what d'ya see the Brotherhood doing in five years, or ten?" Buford starting walking towards the nearest tube station.
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Spitfire
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“Well…I don’t know about ideas…” Jac hesitated as Buford gave his opinion. Spitfire was still a little confused as to why she was an Acolyte, but she figured it was something to do with the fact she was loyal and so obedient that it bordered on suicidal. “I mean, I guess I have ideas as I do kind of think a lot, but…” trailing off the blonde shrugged her shoulders a little as she walked beside the big mutant. It was a harder question than it seemed on the surface, especially as her opinion mattered more than ever before. Like the other day when Magneto had asked her what she thought should happen to Genosha. At the time she had been pretty out of it, so the weight of that question hadn’t really hit her until later on when she was being patched up in the infirmary.

Putting her hands in her pockets, the girl felt the wounds that were still healing a little more, the bandage on her arm poking out from under the sleeve of her shirt. “I guess…I want to see Sanctuary full, people able to live ordinary lives and live and work, send their kids to school without being afraid for them, all those normal things people take for granted when their genes don’t mess them up. “Realistically, I think we’ll still be fighting in five years. I don’t want to fight forever, but it’s the only way some know and we’re always going to get people trying to strike against us unless we put our collective foot down…” pulling a hand out of her pocket she gave it an absent wave.

“We have a real chance to do something great here. I want us to not lose sight of that and whatever we do from now on, has to benefit Sanctuary as well as all the mutants out there, who aren’t so lucky...”

Jac chewed on her bottom lip, watching Buford out of the corner of her eye. She was still new to this, still a little unsure about her standing and how people were going to react to her promotion, but so far, the speedster figured it was going to be less than warm from most quarters.
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Buford Hollis
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Part of Buford was pretty glad that no one put him through this shit when he was first made Acolyte. Who would? Raen never struck him as the introspective type, and Saint was probably too busy doing Ecstasy or whatever that guy had slinked off to do. Amelia could do the introspection, but the confrontation wasn't her style. Buford, at this point, didn't think there was anything that Magneto couldn't do, but he figured Magneto had better things to do with his time.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Buford said, straightening his back and staring off into the middle distance, "I kind of hoped that in ten years, we won't need to hide ourselves in the goddamn ocean floor, but that's probably a pipe dream. Unless we really start moving on the reclamation project."

He was too old now, and for the past couple years, he had rationalized in his head that he was sacrificing himself, and giving up his chance for a family for the cause. But the fact remained. He wanted to be a father. Maybe he didn't want to be one when he was younger, but today, he kind of regretted it. The city was the closest thing to a child that he had, it and the Big Pig.

"So, you want people able to raise kids, a family, here in Sanctuary, so I gotta ask," he motioned with his hand to the breadth of the city around, "What do we need to do to make that happen? What am I doing wrong, Jacqueline?"
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Spitfire
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Jac nodded her pale blonde head a little. “Of course…I’d love to be on the surface in ten years time too, but really ten years isn’t that long. I think we should work as hard as we can to get up there, but still concentrate on down here as well. Sure, its not perfect compared to up there, but compared to what a lot of the people here had before…it’s a dream.”

Trailing off, the girl sighed wistfully and looked around. Even after months of becoming used to Sanctuary, she could still look around and be awed by it, by the work that had gone into making it so magnificent and beautiful and free. It was like being in another world, only without the crazy secretarial counterpart and the whole world going to pot around them…Well, up there it could be thought of as going that way at times…However, things were not as bad as they had seemed in previous times. Maybe things were going to be ‘quiet’ or maybe she had just gone and jinxed it by even thinking about it.

Buford’s question struck her and made her stop in her tracks, staring after the big Acolyte. “Wrong? I don’t know that you’re doing anything wrong…” the blonde trailed off and picked up her feet again, conscious of how ‘slow’ she was having to walk. “What you do is pretty important, people wouldn’t have the quality of life that they do down here without you. Just…Keep on doing it. Like, its all great it really is but if everyone stopped at great, we’d never progress, you know?” Jac hoped that he didn’t get the impression she was suggesting his work needed improvement, but rather that anything could be made better.

“When we get more people especially we could think about expanding…All the regular things you get in cities, only better. I can work my way through a library in a week or two, I get starved for entertainment in my downtime. Maybe something for fun for everyone, as that sort of thing is really important. Spirit of the Blitz,” she waved a hand then looked sideways at him. “In World War Two when Londoners were down sheltering from the bombs in the tube stations, they used to sing and play cards and just get on with it by having what fun they could. Of course, we’re not so limited but you get my point…” Jac gave him a nervous grin. “So. What do you think I could do better?”
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Buford Hollis
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Well, she handled that well enough. He knew well enough as anyone else that Sanctuary was going to still be absolutely necessary in 10 years. Even the most optimistic parts of Buford thought they would still need to hide themselves down here for thirty or forty years. That was about the length of time from the Stonewall riots to the first acceptance of gay marriages for the homosexual movement. The Civil Rights movement, well, that took even longer than than the Gay Rights movement.

"So, entertainment?" Buford said, "I mean, I tried signin' up for Netflix, but they have trouble delivering down here."

He immediately regretted the sarcastic comment. He was trying to get a handle on Jacqueline because to be honest, they hadn't worked together that much before. No need to make her feel emotionally defensive. "Nah, that ain't fair, I just didn't bother doing anything besides setting up an internet connection. Hell, I didn't do it, Savant did that. Don't care for network technology, myself."

"You got feelings for it, you should bring it to Magneto. He can appoint you, I don't know, Secretary for Recreation, or sumthin'," Buford said, chuckling, "Set up community baseball leagues or something. Its been a while since I played a game."

She asked for his opinion of what she could do better. "You're gonna be a leader now, which I don't know how much experience you got with that. My advice? Never sugarcoat. Be honest. Be direct. Don't overthink it and be paralyzed by indecision."

"Oh, and you're pretty and young. Don't let guys like Tom and Jara and Dukes and the rest push you around 'cause they're older. Magneto knows what he's doing and they should have excepted that when they signed onto this ship."
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Spitfire
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Spitfire’s smile twitched just a little as he made the joke about Netflix and she missed a step, blurring slightly to catch herself. Hopefully he didn’t notice and if he did, he would pay her reaction no mind as she was still very new to all this and it was still a bit unnerving. “Well, at least Savant did something useful for once…” Jac quipped, chirpily enough. “Maybe we can make him set up our own version of Netflix.”

“I guess it’s just important to remember the little things like that. A lot of people down here will be missing going to the cinema or to gigs and there’re people who haven’t even seen a live show, because they’d never be let in…” the blonde carried on, keeping up – hanging back rather – with the large mutant. Sanctuary was a true marvel, a real testament to the power of mutants and what they could accomplish by working together. Jac would have been lying if she had said she did not miss being in the ‘real’ world and her home country of England, but the more Sanctuary flourished, the happier and more content she felt to be there.

Thinking about Buford’s suggestion, Spitfire rubbed the back of her neck, considering it. “Maybe…I don’t know. That sounds a lot of responsibility alongside the rest of what I do. Sure, I have the time and I wouldn’t mind setting up some sports…Cricket though, more likely. Wasn’t one for baseball. Maybe football, sorry, soccer,” she teased lightly, an impish expression on her pale face before returning to a more serious composure. “No, honestly I’d probably see what sport has the most demand going for it and work around things that way. Do signups or something…”

As he gave the advice, Jac listened intently. Primal had taken her out drinking and her stomach gave a delicate flip flop as she thought about just how much she had put away and he would give his own choice advice, but the speedster valued a variety of different notions and opinions. “Well, it was a while ago now but I was in the RAF cadets when I was in secondary school. I was a Cadet Warrant Officer, but I guess being in charge of a bunch of fourteen year olds is different from being in charge of people who’re older than me and, well, yeah.”

Nodding a little, her lips twisted into a wry smile. “That’s what I’m worried about most, people not taking me seriously…I just have to stick up to them. Maybe I should have done that better when I first joined the Brotherhood, but I had no way of knowing how things would end up, so I guess there was no other way for me to act and if I’m honest, I was in such a mess when I was brought in, I wasn’t sure what I was signing on to…Not that I regret coming here, but it wasn’t an easy time. Guess it never is for anyone.”
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Buford Hollis
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"The hell is cricket? Y'know what, I don't even want to know." He waved the thought away with one of his massive hands. "And, sure, soccer's fine, as long as I don't have to watch it." He chuckled at his joke. "But seriously, community work here is important. We gotta be a lot more than just warriors and revolutionaries now. We gotta be leaders. Lot easier to blow up buildings than it is building them and keeping the water running."

"I was an Army man way back when, back in the Carter administration," Buford nodded, "I was just an enlisted man. Needed the work. Helped me pay for the first Big Pig. Never really had to lead before I got to the Bee-Aitch. I was worried, too. Riding on the road was always a lonesome experience; Very different from what I was used to."

"Play to your strengths. Me? My powers let me see how things fit together. I mean, I only got the insight when it comes to physical components, y'know, physical machinery, but that's how my mind works. I see things as components of a whole. You? Ain't ever a reason for you to be unprepared, right? You can read a hell of a lot faster than I can, right? Get your briefing books, and go through them before you do anything else."

"I always make sure I read the daily arrival schedule. We got a portal coming in from Jordan in about an hour, party of about'a dozen new arrivals. 9 mutants, a human spouse, and two kids who haven't shown any signs of mutation. Then, this afternoon, we got 5 mutants coming in from Juarez, Mejico, two of 'em with criminal records."

"I mean, I don't show up to every new arrival, but you never want to be surprised with this type of stuff."
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Spitfire
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Smirking up at Buford with an evil grin, Jac started to laugh a little as the big mutant questioned cricket. “Get enough beer in you and you’ll probably find it entertaining! It’s big in Commonwealth countries,” the speedster went on to explain, dropping the teasing tone. “I doubt we’ll have as many fans of it as like, baseball and whatever but it can’t hurt to let some kids bash a cricket ball about on a bit of grass somewhere. I think footie would go down better…and you don’t have to watch, don’t worry. Just as long as I don’t have to watch any golf…”

Sticking her hands in her pockets, the speedster listened attentively as her fragile attention span would allow as Buford shared his own experience with her. They had all come to the Brotherhood from very different places and walks of life and without the organisation, Jac knew it was hugely unlikely that she would ever have had a conversation like this, with someone like Buford, never mind the big man himself.

“I suppose, yeah,” what he said made a lot of sense. Right from the start, she had often been thrown into situations that might take the average speeded person weeks to prep for, but she’d had to do it in a couple of days. Her concentration span had improved from what it had been when her powers first erupted, leaving her twitchy, nervous and prone to random bursts of speed, mainly because she had practised in a desperate effort to keep fitting in with everyone. Despite her best efforts, of course things had not been so simple but, things had led her to where she was and she was glad of it.

“Are you going to meet the first party?” Jac asked, looking up at him again, while still thinking about the things she could use her speed to accomplish. Maybe she should learn a new language or something. She could speak French and a bit of German, but maybe some Spanish would be useful too or Mandarin or something… “Like, if you are going to, I could come with or something. If you don’t mind that is,” she hastily added, not sure if Buford played welcome wagon to that degree. It was a good idea though, getting familiar with the people who came to the city. Sanctuary had grown and flourished in ways she hadn’t even expected when she had first heard of it and it could only be a good thing to keep track on it all before it changed into something that even she couldn’t keep up with.
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