Master EffeX

It's been awhile.

Hi, Keepers.

ExTANT ~ an X-MEN RP

A/Ns: if you're here from the interest check and read this idea's Intro post there, jump down to the bolded text.
CS is barebones for a reason.

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The poster read:
'See the UNMATCHABLE magician!
The INDELIBLE illusionist!
"MASTER EffeX"!
And don't miss the spectacular
LIGHT SHOW finish you have to
SEE WITH YOUR OWN EYES!'

He wasn't world renowned, he wasn't even a household name city-wide, but if you ever caught a "Master EffeX" show, you talked about it.
Tourists to the city wouldn't read about them in brochures, but ask around for something cool to do and likely somebody off the street will speak of a "Master EffeX" show.

Inside the downtown club, the gentleman himself was just walking onto the stage.

He raises his hands high above his head in a showman's greeting to his already cheering audience.

Master EffeX was a young man, not even mid-twenties. His hair was dark brown, long enough in the back to cover his hair's natural neckline, but still short. Short on the sides. His bangs were kept a bit longer and loose. Not enough to get messily in his face, but enough for some dynamic of movement and wind-swept whimsy. His eyes were a strikingly clear blue.

The show was going on - Master EffeX had just made the very stage he was standing on disappear! It was as though now he was standing on air! He heard someone in the crowd remark to their friend: "How does he do that?"

"Oh! You want to know how I accomplish this task?" Master EffeX asked charismatically, "it's really quite simple. You could do it yourselves!" And with a snap of his fingers and flourishing direction of his hands towards the audience, inviting them to look at themselves, every chair had disappeared! The audience still felt like they were sitting on them, they could feel the chairs with their hands, but they were completely invisible!

"See? What magicians you all are!"

Preferring to sprinkle his shows with large and small tricks instead of building up, Master EffeX continued with a couple on the more basic side, then: "Hmmmm....now why is my audience looking a little blue?" Naturally they looked at each other. They didn't seem blue; some seemed disappointed at that!

"I think 'magenta' would liven things up. Who ever first coined that colour had liveliness to spare, I'm sure!" With a snap of his fingers and spread of his hands, he directed the audience to look around again. Everything in the room that had been blue, such as coats, purses, socks, décor accents, was now a lovely magenta!

A few more basic tricks followed before Master EffeX "remembered" to put back the stage and the chairs: "Wouldn't want anyone to trip, or get in trouble come inventory time!" He flashed a grin, did the finger snapping and flourishing gesture again, and the stage and chairs were back in the visual realm -- but he wasn't!

To the audience's impressed and wondering murmurs, he responded: "What? Are you saying I've vanished?" There was a pause as though he looked down at himself. "Oh my! I'd forget my body if I didn't have you here to remind me!" He "snapped" himself back into view.

"Wondering about your clothing and items? Don't worry. I assure you they'll return to their regular, appealing blueness once the show is through. It's just there's so much magic lingering in the air. In fact-"

The audience quieted or gasped with anticipation, knowing exactly what was about to come next!

"-the air is so imbued with magic, it's practically popping! Let's see that, shall we?!" He donned a pair of glasses. They looked similar to the old 3D glasses that used to have one blue lens and one red. Similar in the design, but these were made not out of paper but regular frame material. The arms were thick, completely blocking the side of his eyes. The lenses themselves were not one blue and one red, but each a rainbow mosaic, and gem-like more than plastic or glass.

The glasses on, the lights were dimmed without Master EffeX even having to request, and then the light show began:
light seemed to shoot out from the glasses themselves, taking the colour of whatever portion of lens they shot through.

They'd extend the length of a glow stick and then be arrested in mid air, more colours joining in this fashion.

Once enough were gathered, Master EffeX directed them about himself with his arms, occasionally shooting out more or making the existing ones fizzle away. They spiraled and criss crossed through the air above and a little in front of him, seemed to bounce off the roof and amount of wall that spanned the stage, but never actually touched.

Someone in the audience always reached out, beckoning the lights their way, but Master EffeX would always keep them in his personal space or at least far out of reach ~ occasionally tempting the jazzed crowd by arresting the lights nearly close enough in front of or above them to touch ~~ but if anyone shifted to try, the lights would veer out of the way or fizzle out completely before so much as a finger nail made contact.

He always ended by shooting an arch of "rods" up and out, like excitement streaks in a cartoon and these lights would pop like fireworks ~ marking the show as complete as the last fizzled away.

Well, Master EffeX didn't really count the show complete until that final applause, when he would give a showman's bow before genially waving his crowd goodbye and exiting back stage.

Or, if a backstage or door wasn't to be had, the fireworks would distract the audience from his second bodily vanishing act of the night, and he'd slip away, no bow no wave ~ if anyone wanted his autograph, well....Par for the course at a Master EffeX show; an air of mystery and wanting more.

The audience filed out of the club.

Man: "Now that was a show! Just like Birthday parties of yore-"

Woman: "Really? Don't you think Master EffeX is like, a Birthday party graduate x times over?"

Man: "Well yeah! That goes without saying I just mean - good wholesome en'ertainment! Do you remember that mutie circus that tried to set up in Central Park 5 months ago?"

Woman: "Forget that! The other day I found two of them camping out in the empty lot by my place. One was doing something like instant portraits? The other offered to keep all our lawns managed if we let them be. Right! I didn't waste time reporting them - they'll get us comfortable and before long expect to be paid. Could you imagine?!"

'If they knew what they just walked out of..' Master EffeX thought, as the two went past him without catching on. On stage, Master EffeX was a showman. Off stage,

Xack

Age: 20
Physique: 5'11"; Lean
Main Mutation: Low-level illusionary telepathy.

drew very little attention to himself. Even the more magician-esque wardrobe he sported on stage vanished when he got off - it was part of the illusion.

Now, sporting a dark purple could-be-mistaken-for-black jacket, currently open, overtop a black and dark teal raglan shirt, black pants with the same teal accenting the pockets, and dark athletic sneakers with light blue accents, Xack was leaning against the building, near the mouth of an alleyway, looking through a drawstring bag for something.

Well actually what he was doing was counting his cash which he kept rolled up with rubber bands, though since he wasn't lifting any of the rolls out of the bag it could've been mistaken for rummaging. Even if someone came up lookin' for what he had inside, Xack wasn't concened - he'd just make an illusion to disguise his cash as junk.

He had the presence of mind to save most of his earnings, though for what he didn't know. Especially since.....
'Was it just five months ago?' he asked himself, playing over what that man had said about the Mutant circus. Or coming up on a year... Xack had lost sense of time. Even seasons didn't serve as reliable time markers - he'd remember something in relation but then couldn't pin down if that was recent or further back. Just another part of the strangeness...

Xack had paused in his actions, taking on a lost look.
He sighed as he made himself shift his mind.

Looking around Xack spotted a hot dog vender across the street from the far end of the alleyway and decided he could go for one.

"Cheese and mayo, please," he ordered once he'd walked up to it.
In his mind, he could practically see his Dad's face, raising a brow at the unusual combo....he thought of BBQs at their house..his house.
He'd had one, hadn't he? Xack couldn't remember an address, anything about his neighbourhood, yet he had so many memories....

Vendor (impatiently): "Kid! Your 'dog is ready!"

"Oh - right." Xack took out some cash. "Also one of those. Thanks." He'd pointed at a drink.
Completing the transaction Xack took his "lunch" -if you can call it that after 6pm. Though it was his second meal of the day- to a low concrete wall which he got up on as a seat; the feel of more personal space with a comfortable vantage point for people watching.

Getting Write Into It

Hey there, Magic Pen : )
I have an "ink"ling you quill find good adventures here!

MARVEL's 'What If...?' with FOX's X-MEN

Got one: What If...Nightcrawler could use the BAMF dimension to travel through time, and he's the one who goes back in 'Future/Past'?

Though I haven't thought of any details yet.

MARVEL's 'What If...?' with FOX's X-MEN

Just like the title sounds. Pick a movie, pick an alternate scenario, and have fun!

X1 & X2

I do not support abuse of any kind. I'm just responding to the art.
So this "What If...?" comes from reading an opinion that Famke Janssen's Jean Grey's character/plot is too wrapped up in the love triangle, when in fact you can remove the love triangle from the movies without affecting much, but you cannot remove Jean Grey without significant changes! So let's do that: What If Jean Grey wasn't in either movie?

X1: The key pivot point here is after Mystique has messed with Cerebro, rendering Xavier catatonic. Not only is Jean the one who finds how to fix Cerebro and does so, but she then makes the choice to use Cerebro which informs them of where Magneto is going. Magneto's plan of which they only just manage to thwart. So without Jean, they'd have to reason things out. I imagine they'd be able to come to the conclusion Magneto is at the Statue of Liberty, but their delay in doing so would likely mean Magneto's success.
I mean, they could be just arriving at Liberty Island when Magneto's device is firing up, see it before they land, and fly over to disrupt it from above. But, we know Magneto could just use his powers to move the jet away given he stopped it from crashing in X2.
Ultimately I think we're either dealing with the death of Rogue, or at least the assembly -if not more non-mutants- suffering the fate of the senator: reduced to liquid by Magneto's faulty mutant machine!

X2: Now, we're not dealing with the death of the X-Men because Jean wouldn't be there to divert the gushing water and lift the jet to safety - the whole reason the dam is busting in the first place is because of Jean's duel with mind-controlled Cyclops. So, that wouldn't happen. Of course Jean not being in the movie wouldn't change the fact Cyclops gets mind controlled, but it would change who's fighting him. It could be Magneto and Mystique, since they're who're with Jean in the movie when Cyclops attacks. Jean actually telekinetically pushes them out of the way of Cyclops' blast, though. But say he is fighting them - Magneto would probably rip out some metal and trap Cyclops similar to how he did on Liberty Island. Cyclops' mind control would cease once Storm freezes Jason Stryker, and they'd just have to return to him and have Wolverine slash him free - no knock down into the boiler room, no destroyed dam. That last bit would be true if Cyclops goes past them and fights the other X-Men. But, if he does go past Mystique and Magneto, that would imply he's knocked them out of commission, and they'd played important roles in thwarting Stryker in the movie. Plus then there'd still be Cyclops to deal with. Like with X1, I think the delay would be critical - Stryker might succeed.

BUT, actually they wouldn't even get this far because on their way to the dam, Jean is the one who prevented the X-Jet from being blown out of the sky by missiles. Now in the movie she only succeeded in stopping 1 of 2 missiles and they went down anyway, but with far less damage than if both hit. Even if they manage another way to go down with only damage instead of in pieces, Jean is also the one who subsequently assesses that damage and repairs the jet. It could be assumed Storm may know how to perform repairs too - each of the first 3 X-Men (that being Storm, Cyclops and Jean) have been shown capable of piloting, so one could extrapolate Xavier would have them all learn mechanics as well. But in the movie Jean specifically says "it'll take me hours" - time was important, so if Storm had the know-how too, you'd expect that to be reflected in Jean's statement.

So, again, like with Jeanless X1, Jeanless X2 = delay in getting where they need to be in a timely fashion; Stryker will succeed!

Last Stand

What If Cyclops Doesn't Get Killed?
Let's say Phoenix's still intent on killing him, but Jean is able to at first fight against what's going on in her own mind - basically things go as normal up to the point at Alkali Lake when they kiss, then instead of Scott's annihilation, Jean backs off as though overcome by dizziness and/or a headache - they head back to the Mansion together (Xavier could've gotten a sense of things still, or Cyclops calls him, and either way they're going back in the Jet with Storm and Wolverine).
We could still get the scene where Xavier is probing Jean's mind and he explains the mental split that is Phoenix - if memory serves, this was like a psychotic break caused by Xavier putting up psychic blocks to prevent Jean from accessing her full power? I don't think either Jean herself or Cyclops would be happy with this news. Anyway, things progress and escalate (Phoenix could still kill Xavier and we'd get the "kill me before I kill anyone else" moment; with knowledge that likely the next death would be Cyclops'), and then similar to the Animated Series, Jean decides she can't resist the Phoenix forever.
But here's where we get our next big change - Cyclops would do all he could to figure out another way to stop Phoenix. And the answer is right there in the original structure of the movie: The Cure! Jean's powers are taking over. So instead of Magneto getting pumped full of the stuff by the end of the movie, it's Jean. We could still get the Wolverine/Phoenix face-off, but it would be part of a distraction.
And we know Magneto's powers were returning at the end of the movie, so Jean's would, too: this would solve now, but not the future: there's still the aftermath to deal with, and the future to face: this'll happen again when Jean's powers return completely, or perhaps even before. What's to be done?

But that's it for this movie.

Dark Phoenix

Let's have Jean cause more damage at the student party - we see other students' injuries, and say Cyclops breaks a rib or something. I always think Jean's reaction is too overblown for what actually happened - it's not even clear that the power burst was emotion related. What makes it different than any other loss of power control? Like that's what they're at the school for. She just immediately thinks she has to be away from everyone and she's a danger because she knocked people down. The X-Men even treat her like a loose cannon when they confront her - the situation doesn't fit the inciting event, I think. So we'll change that and make the incident bigger.

Then we get to the main of the What If...? What If Scott finds Jean instead of Telling Xavier?
This comes after Jean knocks Scott out. Instead of telling Xavier she's gone and having him find her, Scott manages to find her himself. "What you said to me goes both ways, Jean. I'll always come back to you." I don't really have the whole of this change thought out, I just think it would be an interesting dynamic if Scott's with Jean the whole time rather than "Jean against the world". Perhaps Mystique even doesn't die, because Scott convinces the other X-Men, when they show up, to leave them alone - OR, Scott had told Xavier about Jean's disappearance and Xavier's still the one who figures out where Jean is, but he believes in Scott bringing Jean back and lets him go - come what may.

I just realized each of my above 'What If...?' scenarios revolve around either Jean or Cyclops.
Gotta' think of a Nightcrawler one...oo! And Jubilee! My two first favourites.

the alphabet game. lol

Hyacinth

X-Men: Cosmic Crusades 👽

@Morose Oh! I'm sorry - I think I had just erased the part under Possessions about her watch being set to go off when her power window resets, since it's no longer like clockwork; I'd forgotten about that sentence after her powers were finalized. I won't edit without clearing it, in future!

hey there!

Hello fellow concision lacker! : ) I tend to have to write out a paragraph to figure out how to say something in a sentence. Ha ha.

Fun avatar you've got there. Did you design it yourself?

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

In planning stages.

Come to X-plore! Come to X-perience! Come to be an X-Man!

So the aforementioned Themes (on top of the ongoing X-MEN theme of Civil Rights) are:

• Heroes & Villains Are Human
  (we'll see Xavier brought down, and Magneto in a new light)
• Fatherhood
• Choices/Self-Determination

Additional Note:
Jean Grey may become a part of this story near the end. There will be an intense "final battle" between Xavier, his son and Cyclops, where nobody comes out undamaged in some way.
Jean could get a premonition of this and come to the location ahead of, or in time to see, the end of the battle.
Or, Jean could get a since via her and Cyclops' psychic connection that something major is/has happened to him over there, arriving sometime after the battle when Cyclops is in the facility's Medical Bay.

In either case I have an idea for a spin-off story where it's decided it's not safe for Cyclops to recover in their present location (the high level/close proximity of anti-mutant groups; concerns of another flare up from Xavier's son; lack of security) - Xavier stays behind with his son (with whom he's also carefully preoccupied), while Jean and Cyclops try to return home. Only it's not as simple as walking back to the aircraft that brought them here - things get complex.

As aforementioned, I don't mind RPing in chunks: if you think you'd like to give Jean Grey a whirl I'm happy to jump ahead and play that with you (over PM) ahead of having anyone to RP the main story with. Please see the second point of the On Story section in "Quick Notes" above.