spring_lost

For questions, comments, critique, and anything else you may have to say about my portrayal of Cable.

Comments are screened!

"You've reached Cable, but he's not here right now. Leave a message."

Nathan... was already used to getting up really early in the morning in order to cater to the whims of a child. After four years with Jan, the concept of this particular weekend was about as frightening as the idea of getting into a fistfight with a cow.

So he was up and about already in the kitchen, frying eggs.

Domestic? Yes. But utterly necessary. Jan had gotten a taste for sunny-side up eggs recently, and, well.

He was kind of putty in her hands.

[[ for the guy, the girl, and the kid. ]]

Don't ask how he'd gotten the suit on overnight.

Don't ask why the suit had rubber nipples.

Don't... just don't ask anything at all.

But sometime during the night, BATMAN had gotten out of bed with the man he'd clearly been... protecting... or something... and stalked through the apartment. Now he was perched outside the door to the child's room. Standing guard. Perkily.

[[ for one, and for mass SP. ]]

Cable prided himself on guarding Janice at all times. It was his main priority, the one to end all other priorities; the only way he would possibly give her up to, say, go spend some time in an X-Men warehouse with certain mutants he had a small amount of trust for was if her life was in danger if she didn't.

Three hours dealing with the pollen yesterday and it had become very obvious that such an emergency had arrived.

Twenty-four hours later and the bathroom of the apartment above Wellspring Arms was, not for the first time, in need of a refit.

As was a chunk of the kitchen.

They'd probably have to do groceries, too.

... and shop for a new fridge.

Their lives were very dangerous indeed.

[[ establishy! ]]

Cable had not been absent these past few weeks, though it might have seemed that way. He had been on-island, listening to all the radio broadcasts, debriefing Zoe about what she knew, and poking around the machinery held within the island, hoping for a solution.

He had come here to keep Jan safe, no matter the cost. He planned to keep to that.

Jan was in the living room watching America's Next Top Model reruns when he came back into the living room. He kneeled down by her side. "Janice..."

"She can't say Iceland!" Jan proclaimed, sounding terribly affronted by this hideous lack of knowledge.

[[ for one. ]]

Jan's birthday party had been a private affair, for once, partly because Nate felt there really wasn't any topping the last time without massive security concerns. One-upping Anakin did not beat security concerns. Also, it meant more plush giraffes, and rather less real giraffes that would eat stuff.

Though Jan seemed to be going off giraffes a little. Finally.

Cake, however, was something she had not gone off of. She had in fact eaten most of her own birthday cake, or whatever she could squish into her stomach, and then, as newly-four-year-olds did, had passed out.

Partly on top of it. The side of her head was sticky.

The apartment was also full of popped balloons.

Nate took in the scene, and was mollified. No security concerns, and she was finally asleep.

[[ for the guy. ]]

The grey was gone and life was back to normal. Normal-ish, since it was a time travelling mutant messiah and a talkative mercenary raising a small child. Whatever counted as normal there, at least.

This could clearly not stand in Fandom.

Which would be why there was a dingo, a puppy, and a lemming in the living room looking, respectively, pissed off at the world, excited to have a tail again, and annoyed.

The lemming looked particularly piqued, though Nate supposed he was happy he wasn't in any danger of being put in a hamster ball right now.

The puppy mostly just slobbered all over him.

The dingo just sighed, trying to change the channel with his mouth. Because he was totally the one in charge based on being larger than a lemming.

Right. Well. The lemming peered up. If it could just get on top of the couch, it could leap off on top of the remote...

The puppy began to gnaw on her own foot.

So... still normal-ish, all things considered.

[[ 'stablishy ]]

"Bam! Bam! Bam bam bam bam!"

In retrospect, Nathan was incredibly glad he'd let Wade talk him into bringing some of Jan's toy guns with him. She'd been sulky and angry since they'd gotten here, and only taking shots at objects propped up in the sand outside the house was keeping her occupied.

Grace was a little easier to handle. He was going to have to ask Zoe for parenting tips - if the situation was ever resolved at all.

Then again, Jan was proving to be something of a bad influence.

"No, Grace, it's a bad guy. Shoot it!"

Nate facepalmed from his seat in his little plastic white lawn chair (which both looked out of place and was really too small for him). Janice was proving to be a little single-minded at this age. He would hope that was going to wind up a good thing later on, and not a bad one - focus was good. Obsession was another thing.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket, and gave it a look. What was happening in Fandom right now?

"Shooting it dead!"

Jan was an influence all right.

[[ open to phone calls! ]]

"We are here," the driver said in broken English. He stole a look in the mirror, squinting at the strange man in gloves and sunglasses-- and the two girls with him. It wasn't often he saw Americans here, let alone such peculiar ones. He could swear the man's hand shone under the admittedly questionable lighting of his cab.

But the man didn't answer his unspoken questions. He reached over instead, handing over a set of bills that more than covered the cost of the ride. "Keep the change," he said, and pushed open the door of the vehicle. He stepped out into the desert, and shot a glance across the quiet, abandoned road.

Huts up ahead. That was his destination.

Jan fumbled a little on her way out of the car, but she stood by dutifully as Grace did much the same. "Are we home yet?" she asked, once the other girl had stumbled out; the driver quickly pushed the car into reverse.

"No," Nathan said, his mouth set into a grim line. "Not yet... but there is an upside."

Two pairs of tiny eyes blinked up at him.

"You get to ride a camel."

Jan sighed. "Wanna ride a giraffe," she muttered, but slogged after her father anyway.

[[ open to phone calls if anyone has them, otherwise establishy ]]