Pay Your Respects

[Guy LeGrange]

Guy sighed, looking over the gravestones of old friends. Sometimes mutants died young, unfortunately. That's what happened when you gave a human the ability to bend fire to their will or allowed one to gain superstrength. Besides, it was commonly known that the older you got, the more people you knew that were no longer around any more. Deaths just had a tendency to stack up; it was the way things went. Guy had been present when several of the people resting here been put into the ground.

He walked over to one of those gravestones, using the worn stone to pop the top of a beer. Some of the liquid splashed onto the headstone, letting it slosh down the stone, leaving a few dark streaks in it. Guy raised the bottle in salute to his friend before taking a swig. He then turned it upside down, allowing some of the alcohol to spill onto the ground. He was taking another sip and moving around the front when he noticed something. Someone had apparently decided it would be fun to vandalize the graveyard: at least one stone had been knocked over. It lay on its side, looking forlorn.

Grumbling, Guy set his beer on the headstone and walked over, moving around the various stones. It looked like a handful of them had actually been vandalized in this way: knocked down and left to sink into the earth. He grunted and put his strength into lifting the first one he'd seen upright. It proved much more tiring than he'd expected: within a few seconds he was puffing. He managed to get it more or less upright, when the damn thing fell over backward. Guy spat a curse and moved to pick it up from the other side.

Didn't people know better? Honestly...

[Jason Campbell]

Jason never considered himself as a nostalgic man. But a recent fight with his brother made him want to come all the way to the town’s cemetery. He should have expected Raphael to fight with such strength. To him, Jason shouldn’t heal anyone or be ashamed to do so when he refused to save their parents. He didn’t seem to understand. Jason did what he thought was best. Their mother was tired of living, their father only wished to join her. Jason knew healing them would not do anything good to them. But that didn’t stop the grown man to feel guilt’s claws grabbing his stomach and throat.

And so he drove here. He had not returned to his parents’ grave since the funeral. He never liked graveyards. Without being superstitious, there was something in the air. It was too calm. As if people dared not disturb their sleep or something. It always brought a chill down Jason’s spine. Would it really be so offending to talk, to bring some life in there?

He thought he would be alone in there. Who the hell bothered coming here? There was something almost masochistic in coming here and looking at a slab of granite with a name on it. The name of someone we used to love but were here no more. Who liked to plunge a knife in their heart like this? Well, apparently Jason was like that today.

He was not alone in the end. Well, that wouldn’t change anything and Jason was ready not to give a crap about this other person here, probably seeking to do the same thing he wanted. He had yet reached his parents’ tombs that he heard the most peculiar sound. Not someone talking, or crying or yelling. No, he heard a loud, kind of muffled thud. He stopped, finally looked at this other person in the cemetery.

At first he thought he was the one desecrating the tombs. “Hey!” he called out. As he made his way towards the man however, he recognized the face. And he could no longer believe such a man would have fun vandalizing gravestones. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked Guy as he finally reached him, staring at the stone on the ground. What did just happen here?

[Guy LeGrange]

Guy heard the voice and turned slightly, trying to get a good look at whomever was approaching. He was only slightly surprised to see his doctor friend coming through the graveyard. The words that came out of Jason's mouth were decidedly more shocking though, and Guy looked down, realizing that he still leaned against a gravestone. "Clearly I'm drunk and have decided that the best thing for me to do is to go about wrecking the tombstone of random people. Or maybe I had something against," he stretched to look at the etching on this particular stone then grunted, "Ethel Perkins."

Guy grunted and pushed at the stone again, only to realize that he'd reached something of an impasse here. He sighed, leaning against it and looking up at Jason. The good doctor might have been a healer, but he was a healthy healer, and one that could certainly add some much needed muscle and height here. Thus it was with a much more sombre tone that Guy continued: "I came here to pay some respects to old friends. Recent mess making me all nostalgic and crap," he nodded at another fallen headstone a few rows down, "I saw that, but I didn't notice who made it. Figured the least I could do was try and fix some of it."

He paused, shifting to get to a slightly more comfortable position against the stone. "Turns out that I'm not really built for heavy lifting. Who would've thought?"

[Jason Campbell]

As he thought about it now that he knew it was just Guy, he found his attitude stupid. Had he really been vandalizing the cemetery, he could have just attacked Jason. And if he could heal others, he could not heal himself. Ironic, right? Luckily for him, he didn’t have to play the hero or anything. Guy was a man who could destroy you with sarcasm. But even if he hated you, Jason always assumed the worst he could do was to piss on your grave when completely drunk, not knock your tombstone over.

He also realized his question might be a little... well, stupid. If Guy was not doing the mess, clearly he was cleaning it. Why? Who knows, but he was struggling at it so Jason came and helped him put Ethel Perkins back in place. He watched the stone as it was now in its usual position. But it was still wobbly. He pushed some of the earth against it, tested how steady it was. Yeah, it might need a little more than that.

He looked around and finally noticed the other fallen stones. He could understand how the mess they were thrown into could make the man nostalgic. Even though both of them would probably not be attacked by any military corps. At most, Jason assumed they’d be snatched and used against their will, Jason to heal the soldiers, Guy to suppress their powers. Didn’t make it any better, of course. “What kind of degenerate find amusement in that?” Jason let out, looking at the mess. Too bad none of them caught them in action. He wondered how much paying for all of this would sound to them. Then again, many people didn’t seem to understand it was illegal to just wander in a cemetery at night to begin with. “Something better happen cause those idiots need something to occupy them,” he said. He walked to another stone on the ground. Damn it, this one was even broken! Seriously?

[Guy LeGrange]

Guy sighed, running his hand over his face, his eye drifting over the graveyard. "They're stressed," he said, though his tone showed that he still didn't think this was a great reason for doing what had been done. "They were likely mutants or whatnot fearing what humans were going to do to them or something." Guy gave Ethel's stone another push, leaning on it just enough to settle it down. He had to stretch up to try and push it, and give it another wiggle. He backed away slowly, keeping his hands outstretched, ready to grab it.

"But it does feel like the tension's mounting, doesn't it? It's the gathering before the storm breaks," he said, nodding. His eyes remained locked on the stone, though he did flick his gaze over to see Jason moving to examine a few others. "Personally, I'd rather they decide to spend their time having sex or getting drunk like decent, normal human beings," he paused, then shrugged, "or reading a lot, I suppose. Something sedentary. though, come to think," Guy finally lowered his arms and moved around to study Ethel's tombstone from the other side. "I do suppose that this was likely an activity fueled by alcohol."

He paused for a moment, staring at Ethel's stone. It was crooked. Guy decided that it looked good though, so he abandoned it, moving on to the next. "Why are you in the cemetery anyway? Lose a patient? No, that seems a little maudlin for you..." Guy paused, crinkling his nose while he thought it over. What would bring Jason Campbell to the cemetery...?

[Jason Campbell]

Guy’s answer was, well, quite accurate. No joke to say about it. But he supposed vandalism, especially of gravestones, was not something you could just laugh about. Even Guy, the master of sarcasm, could be serious. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case,” he admitted. Still, it did not excuse such an irresponsible move. “Or it’s humans who think those are the graves of mutants and don’t want any abnormals with them,” he added. Again, a plausible reason, but that did little to excuse them. Jason was not superstitious, he didn’t think the soul of the deceased stayed by their grave in case their loved ones wished to speak to them. But it was still awfully disrespectful.

He nodded to what his friend said. He almost wished Guy was his usual self rather than speaking such true yet ominous words. “It shouldn’t take long before someone decides to do something stupid and it just blows in everybody’s face,” he added. How long before the stress forces a mutant to use his power, even without their control, or for the humans to strike because they don’t want to believe that mutants could be nice? Mutants were nice in comic books, not in reality. I don’t mind, but I don’t want to be confronted to it, isn’t that right?

Another nod came from Jason, even though he was listening to Guy with an ear only, focused on what happened to the rest of the graves. Shall they report it? He didn’t really like to sound like an old grouchy man or something. Besides, he doubted the culprits would be found or that the police would spend too much resource on that. They would likely just make sure the tombs were in place, they won’t even bother repairing them. Then again, they were dead, Jason doubted they really minded about this.

Jason never did something in his youth. Maybe he was too nice. He did do a few stupid things, like any teenager, but never something like that. He helped Guy with the next stone. Maybe it was not perfect but he did feel he should try to give them a bit of their honor back. He startled at Guy’s comment when he asked why he was here. “Same as you, pretty much. To my parents,” he answered, pointing at one part of the cemetery where he knew their graves were. “The living don’t seem to have answers to our questions, why not asked the dead?” he added as he lifted the stone and tried to place it approximately in its rightful position. He wasn’t so good at lifting either but his height sure helped.

[Guy LeGrange]

"Oh yes, because obviously Ethel here had an impressive mutation. She spat acid spit, I believe," said Guy, looking over the tombstone. Considering that Ethel had died something like fifty years ago, they had no real way of confirming that. Old woman did seem to last a while, but definitely not enough to last. Guy sighed, tapping the stone a few more times. Just because he'd said a sarcastic comment didn't mean that he wasn't taking what Jason said at least somewhat seriously. It could have very well been scared human vandals.

Because as Jason soon said: everyone was scared, waiting for someone to do something stupid. It would happen eventually; it technically had to some degree. Though if they were just messing around like this, best to let them. Guy didn't even want to call the police, not least of all because there was a chance he got officers Johnson and Harver, and he didn't want to deal with either at the moment.

Jason did get around to answering Guy's last question. The trainer looked over at his old student, his face somber. Yes, this was definitely a time and a place for being somber, and it seemed like Jason was thinking much along those same lines. "Well, that's grim," said Guy, snorting. "I was just sharing a beer with an old friend...." he paused, looking around. "Your parents, their grave wouldn't happen to be here, would it?" he looked up at Jason, the likely question written on his mind. He only looked for a moment before looking around, fervently hoping that the Campbells had gotten lucky.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason was almost relieved to hear Guy’s cynical remarks, even though they were partly thrown at him. At least there were some things in life that would never change. “It’s the Witch Hunts all over again. Tell people there are mutants somewhere, everyone will be accused at one point or another,” he replied. Jason, of course, had absolutely no idea whether this poor Ethel person used to be a mutant or not. She could have been the sweetest woman, or an annoying bitch. Sadly for her, they didn’t do it because of who she was, merely because they thought it funny on the moment.

Jason was nervous too. Just because he doubted he would be the one in much trouble, even if his nature was discovered, didn’t mean he was not nervous. He didn’t want to see a war coming out of this. It would be so pointless. But it seemed like a logical outcome. Already, the military created a branch to seek them out and take care of any mutant dissidents. It was only natural for mutants to prepare themselves but of course, it would only be seen as them preparing an offense, when they merely wanted to protect themselves. Jason sighed heavily. That is in moments like this one you realize people don’t understand the mistakes they’ve shown each other in movies and decided to copy them. Doesn’t matter if half the world burns in the process.

Jason didn’t think one moment that his parents’ graves might have shared the same fate as the others. But as Guy asked him, he did realize the possibility of it. For once, he genuinely felt like caring about those graves. Until then, he found it almost silly that a scientific mind such as his would feel the need to look at stones as if they were his parents. Now, however, the possibility someone insulted their memories made him care. He ditched his friend to have a look. And sighed of relief as he saw the two stones, standing next to each other. “No, untouched,” he said to Guy as he returned to him. A good thing. Jason didn’t feel like reporting this but had they touched his parents’ graves, now it would have been different. “And your friend?” he asked Guy.

[Guy LeGrange]

"Start blaming everyone who ever did you a wrong," agreed Guy, nodding. That was especially true with something like this. Sure, there were physical signs for a few mutants, but only a few among the very, very many. Plus, people were likely to take whatever sign they could find as evidence of mutant abilities. Able to contort your body? Mutant. Able to have fabulous good hair? Mutant. Talk to your cat? mutant.

"At least if everyone's a special freak, then no one is, right?" Guy pointed out. He chuckled at that, tapping Ethel's grave a few more times. He didn't think that Jason was completely accurate in applying that label to this act, but that didn't make the overall message very, very much true. They were already going to be dealing with enough real problems without having people invent more.

Though fortunately it didn't seem that Jason's parents were going to be affected by this one. Guy felt himself sigh with relief, nodding. "Well, my first friend that came to visit was definitely fine," he pointed to the gravestone that still had his beer balanced atop it. "I've a few more that I haven't checked," he looked around for a bit, trying to remember where everyone was. "At least that probably means that they weren't purposefully targeting mutants, or that they didn't know my friend was one," he nodded to his friend's grave before moving over to check another. Someone had spray-painted this one, but it appeared to be another long-dead person.

"I can't say the same about your parents,' he said, turning to look over his shoulder at Jason, "since I don't believe I ever had the pleasure of meeting them. They must've been nice though, if they managed to produce a nice, boring doctor like you," he smiled, obviously attempting it as a compliment wrapped in joke or something. He walked on to the next grave, still feeling frustrated by this whole thing.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason nearly let out an ‘exactly’ at Guy’s comment. Fill a room with people who vaguely knew each other or none at all, tell them one of them is a criminal or something and you’ll see everyone turning against each other. He might sound haughty, as if he was above all of this, but Jason knew had he been thrown in that room, sooner or later, he would act like everybody else. That’s just what fear do to people. “You’d think all those X-Men movies would’ve taught us something,” he let out. Yes, he was saying us. He didn’t think the world was divided between humans and mutants. Mutants were humans.

He was relieved to see his parents’ gravestones were intact. He didn’t stay enough to talk to them as he first meant to. It seemed not as important at the moment. And frankly, as his rational mind was already reminding him that it was illogical to go to a grave to ‘talk’ to a dead person. Also, now that he knew they were ‘fine’, he wanted to make sure Guy’s friends shared the same luck. The other stones... well he supposed whoever was in charge of the cemetery would take care of them.

“It’s not like we’re marking it on the stone,” he pointed out as he said apparently the mutants were not targeted, or if they were, only specific ones. He had a light smile when Guy said he did not recall meeting his parents. “Actually, you did meet my father. But I’m not surprised you don’t recall. I don’t know if he healed you but if he did, it must have been at least fifteen years ago,” he replied. As he said, he was not surprised Guy did not recall his father. Somehow, he couldn’t imagine the two as friends. His father always had something almost snobbish about him. He did not comment the boring comment about his self. Coming from the man, it was almost to take as a compliment. “Did you learn to be so charming with those friends of yours?” he asked Guy as they walked through the stones, to see the damages. Well Jason was looking at the damages, Guy was probably trying to find his friends’ graves.

[Guy LeGrange]

"They have!" protested Guy, looking up at Jason at his movie comment. "They've taught us that under no circumstances should we put a whole bunch of mutants into tight leather outfits. Clearly that should be a female only uniform, and there should be size requirements."

Guy was tempted to point out that it did seem like most of the mutants were relatively attractive, as things went. Sure, there were quite a few people with really noticeable mutations and the like, but even they seemed to be on the better looking side of things. Or at least, that was true for the people who seemed to really matter. Guy sincerely doubted that it was those kind of people who were responsible for this mess, though he wouldn't have been surprised to find that some of his more unruly students had been responsible for this travesty.

Jason did have a point though: they weren't marking it, and the people were worried. As much as Guy wanted Jason's assertions to be untrue, they didn't have any definite evidence. Not unless someone popped out from behind a tombstone, waving their arms and shouting "it's me." "Maybe we should; add a secret symbol or something, just make certain that nobody knows," Guy sighed, tapping another tombstone that had simply been written on. He'd already made a mental note to come back with a brush and some soap, or possibly to send someone with those same materials.

He did look up as Jason suggested that he had, in fact, met Jason's father, if no one else. Guy's eyebrows raised at that, but the confusion went away as Jason timestamped it. "So when I was in my thirties..." Guy crinkled his brow, "it's certainly possible. I'd been training people for a while by then, but I think there was a rather rough relationship with a woman too..." which described something like two thirds of Guy's relationships for that matter. He walked over to another gravestone and winced at the sight of it. This one had been topped over and someone had gone to work tearing up the dirt around it.

"But I got to be this charming all on my own. Care to give me a hand here?" Guy had already moved to repair this one. He did recall that he had a few of his own friends to check, and he sincerely hoped that he'd get as lucky as Jason. Something told Guy that Fate wouldn't quite allow that much good fortune to befall the two men though.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason frowned at first when Guy told him the movies did teach them something. Of course, it had to be something silly about the costumes however. Jason shook his head, a smile showing at the corner of his lips. “Not me, I’m in the lab coat, dealing with all the stupid and suggestive jokes about ‘examining people’s entire body’,” he replied. He leaves the tight leather outfits to Guy and the others. Lab coats were more his thing. He didn’t feel the need to point out the sexism in the comment. Unless a woman was to come up and claim this was terribly insulting, it sadly was what most men thought. Some women should really learn to dress according to their size. And their age, come to think of it.

“The problem with secrets though is that everyone ends up finding out,” he said, sighing at the sight of the graffito on the stone. Great, just great. He supposed they would never know what caused this. Probably nothing in particular, other than the fear mixed with alcohol. Or a stupid bet. The tombs were probably picked at random. Like he said, they were not marking them.

Jason nodded as Guy tried to settle in time when he might have met his father. Not that Jason thought it would have been eventful. He bet his father didn’t like Guy’s humour and thought little of the man. “And I was your student. Isn’t that nice to think about ancient times?” he let out in a somewhat joking tone. That did age though and for that reason, Jason was not surprised Guy would not remember meeting the man. Like he said, he doubted it had been that important to Guy. “Not expecting you to remember. But I wouldn’t be surprised he healed you or some students back then,” he added. The comment on the woman however, Jason was not really surprised. Of course, back then he was but a student and a trainer’s relationship was the last thing he cared about, unless it was a scandalous thing with a student. But he didn’t imagine Guy doing that really.

Jason helped his friend lift up the stone, trying to replace it as well as they did with Ethel. “I’m sure a psychologist would like to find an answer to it. But since I’ve always known you like that, I’ll believe on here,” he commented as he helped him with the stone. He did wince like Guy at the sight of this one. It seemed they just got worse with each stones they put out. Or maybe it was the first and they had more strength and will to destroy them. “It’s amazing the efforts they put into trashing the property of dead people. I suppose it’s better than breaking windows but still...” he let out. He did find this little attack pointless. Did they think the dead would be hurt by this? They were dead!

[Guy LeGrange]

The thought of Jason in a labcoat was... predictable, actually. Guy was fairly certain that he'd actually seen that before and that he would likely see it again. It did make sense though, both in their analogy and in real life. So Guy let that one lay, instead focusing more on the other, slightly more important bits in the conversation.

"Not everyone," he pointed out. "Some secrets really do go all the way to the grave. That's why they have that expression: 'take it to your grave' [which in restrospect wouldn't have been a bad title for this thread]." They were soon thinking about times long since passed though, when both were younger men on a decidedly less equal footing. Jason was one of the few students that Guy had taken under his wing that he actually preferred now, as an adult. Sure, she ended up hanging out with a few of them, particularly the ones that stayed around Kalispell, but he actually enjoyed associating with Jason, all comments about the man being safe and "boring" aside.

"I'm sure your father healed me. I visit doctors regularly, as you well know," more regularly than most, considering that Guy often found himself on the receiving end of some rough abilities. it was what left him quite sturdy and strong for his age and size, though not strong enough to move headstones on his own. Fortunately, Jason was still proving to be quite willing to lend his much stronger shoulder to the cause.

All on belief of Guy being charming, of course. No, Guy was willing to bet that Jason helped because it was the right thing to do; Jason was one of those sorts after all. It was part of why Guy liked the younger man so much. "I'd almost rather they broke windows. Live people can get up and kick ass and give us descriptions. The dead need us to do all their work, and I'm clearly not--hold it steady there!" This last was called to Jason as Guy felt the headstone starting to shift the other way. Guy adjusted to try and get it wiggled into place, reading it. "This one is at least a little newer," he said, "so we can leave out prejudice against the elderly," Guy sighed and looked down, sincerely hoping that he wasn't going to find one of his friends' graves vandalized.

His hopes were sinking with each passing moment though. Graveyards could do that to a person, especially a well-weathered man like Guy.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason did expect Guy to scoff or say something when he said he’d be wearing a lab coat. He was already doing so after all. But even though it was kind of boring and lame, it was also the truth. Doctors rarely dress up as the superheroes or go on the battlefield. They stay behind, in their lab coats, healing the wounded. “I don’t think they’d ask you to wear leather either. Besides the fact you’ll scare your student in a tight latex suit your power wouldn’t serve anyone in a fight. Unless they send mutants to fight mutants,” he said. He wanted to tease Guy a little. Because the image of the trainer in that kind of suit was... well he’d rather not have that image.

Jason nodded as Guy had a point there. He supposed there were some secrets that would remain a secret. But he doubted a symbol would ever be able to do so. There were all sorts of rumours about freemasons and other secret societies. If people were not sure what was going on in there, they could recognize the symbol.

Was it the fact they were in a cemetery that got them to talk of the past so much? Jason wondered if Guy knew his mother but that would be asking him to think even further in the past, at least twenty years, probably even more. He doubted he would recognize her anyway. “Oh I’m sure you did. Just as I’m sure he probably looked snotty to you and you a peasant to him,” he added. His father had this old mentality that a doctor knew better. He was old fashioned. And with guy’s cynicism, well it was easy to guess how it went. But that wouldn’t help Guy remember him as he was certain his father was not the only one who thought this of the man.

He chuckled at his comment, putting some more weight on the stone to force it back towards him as apparently it was not steady yet. “Yeah, I guess so. In the end, it’ll cost us anyway, right?” he replied as he made sure the stone was steady. You’d have to call your insurance and pay for new windows or you’d have to pay for repairing the stone. Though something told him Ethel and the others might have ended where they were when Guy and Jason found them. Not everyone wished to pay. Jason wasn’t sure he would, had his parents’ gravestones been damaged. “Do I know your friends?” he asked. Maybe they taught at Bellefonte back when he was a student. Or it could date from before than.

[Guy LeGrange]

"I could intimidate our foes with my manly physique," protested Guy, striking a pose for a few moments before moving back along. They had enough to worry about without having to deal with those particular mental images. Like their respective pasts, which probably did have some crossover, though Guy again found himself shrugging. He'd like to claim that he'd met Jason's father and had some opinion, but he honestly couldn't recall one way or the other. Guy met so many people with his job, not helped by the fact that he was now the head trainer, that they all sort of blurred together after a while.

At least they hadn't seen any that Guy recognized so far. With Jason's help, Guy got the latest victim settled, though he already knew he'd have to report the incident anyway. Neither he nor Jason had anything on them to actually clean the damaged headstones, and they'd at least need a good scrubbing. Guy stared at this particular one for a few more moments, pretending like he was orienting it, making sure that it wouldn't lean over or collapse or anything like that.

"You might know some of them," admitted Guy, "though most of the ones that passed on were older than you. Hell, at least one person in here died legitimately of old age. Great old coot though. His wasn't the stone I was at when you found me though; that was another. Died actually attempting to save a student who'd lost control. That happens some times," Guy stroked his chin. "There's one just a little ways down, we can look at---" he stopped as he turned, seeing the gravestone tilted. "Oh hell no," he mumbled, hurrying over to the stone. Sure enough, his friend's stone had been pushed over, and apparently scuffed with what looks like grease.

"This was Marla Ibenez; we went out once before deciding we made better friends. Little older than me, History Teacher. Got cancer," Guy looked back at Jason, his face hardened with anger. "Now I kind of want to find who did this and remove their fingers. Or is that too barbaric," he moved to begin righting this one, but he shook his head as Jason drew close. This was one he had to do on his own.