noassgardian | Inbox [Eudio]

Well, I'm glad I could help.

[ please don't take advice from charles on emotional issues. but billy's question distracts him enough that he gives a bit of a sigh, wistful despite himself. ]

I would hope we'd be able to achieve something like the kind of detente we've managed here. I miss him.

[ ugh. ]

[Hey, it's okay. Billy already has plenty of unhealthy coping mechanisms.]

I hope you can. I think-- that's one of the hardest parts about this place in a way. We come here and reconnect with people we might not see again back home. We meet new people... but it isn't permanent.

On the other hand, I guess we do get to keep our memories back home of this place... at least, I think we do. It's a chance to change things.

[ gosh, they really are like family. ]

If I thought we wouldn't remember any of this... I think it would be almost unbearable, truthfully. Erik says - he's not going to be willing to talk to me, the age he is in my time, but I suppose I'm stubborn enough to think that I could make something change.

[They really are. No wonder they get along so well...]

Right? It's going to be sad to go home and lose some of the friendships made here, but I'd rather deal with that than not remember any of them at all.

[He pauses, laughing.] Sometimes being stubborn is what it takes, right? And maybe a little bit of recklessness.

I feel the same way.

[ he'd rather have the memories and the pain than nothing at all. that was true of how he felt about erik too, even if he started leaning toward the oblivion side of things near the end there.

billy's mention of recklessness makes him grin. ]

Did I ever tell you how I met him? Your grandfather.

No?

[But Charles should be able to hear the grin mirrored in Billy's own voice, along with the curiosity.]

How did it happen?

We were - I'd been contacted by the CIA in relation to a plot involving mutant interference with Russia and America's nuclear warheads. We were on our way to intercept the mutant in question, and it turned out Erik had already arrived, separately from us.

[ he's not really sure how much billy knows when it comes to erik's history with shaw, and he's not sure it's his place to get into it, so forgive him for being vague. ]

He has - had - a rather personal history with Shaw, and he was trying to kill him. I could feel his power - I'd never felt anything like that in my life.

[ ahem. ]

But he was trying to raise Shaw's submarine and he would've drowned doing it. I couldn't talk him into stopping so I...jumped off our ship and into the ocean after him.

[Well, that explains why Erik was asking if Shaw is still alive in Billy's world, doesn't it? But he won't pry into the details right now. Maybe he can ask Erik about it later, but--

Right now, he's hearing about Charles' daring rescue apparently. He can't help the surprised laugh that comes out because wow.]

Wait, really? You just... jumped into the ocean to what? Drag him out?

He would've drowned himself.

[ it sounds very mild, but that's the only excuse he's got. ]

And he was magnificent. I wasn't about to lose him - nor see all that potential snuffed out.

That's amazing... that you would do that, I mean. Incredibly reckless, maybe, but it was brave.

And I guess stubborn, stupid decisions run in my family.

Reckless is about the sum of it, I'm afraid. I can't say I'd recommend it but I don't have any regrets.

It would seem that they do. But there's a lot of - passion and drive behind those decisions, I think.

Well, we've all had to pull people we care about out of dumb situations, right? I think it comes with this sort of life.

[He laughs.] That's true. I guess it's kind of a positive, right? Except when it goes all wrong, of course.

Inbox [Eudio]

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