Kickin Back (Wisdom)

[marko]

He stomped into the rec room and looked around back and forth. His red hair was tied back in a red trucker's cap. He couldn't believe it when he found one big enough for him, so he was just happy to have something to wear on his head. Specially since he wasn't used to all the sun light reaching his scalp, but he has tried to keep the helmet off as much as possible lately. Turning on the TV he flipped the channels for a little bit and then clicked it off. The kids were all in class and he didn't really have anyone to teach yet so he was taking the time to kick back and relax. Turning on the radio to a hard rock station he started to bang his head with the heavy rock guitar he came on to. Picking up a pool cue he racked the table for a game of eight ball slop.

He hadn't really met any of the other staff besides for Ms Danvers. Shaking his head he kept forgetting to count Charles as staff in this place since he was so used to thinking of him as someone to pound. Oh well, then he leaned down and was taking aim when he thought he heard something, but he was safe in the school. So he just went back to aiming waiting to see who was coming towards the rec room. He fired off the shot and watched as nothing sank. Now he remembered why he hated this game. Pulling out a camel wide he struck a match and lite it up taking a drag as he looked at the table. God that was ugly.

[wisdom]

Pete slowly slid out of his classroom with a small, yet not to be underestimated, sigh of relief that he wasn’t teaching this period. He was gradually becoming accustomed to teaching the brats now, but these brief lulls were welcome moments that seemed almost to be a proverbial eye of the storm. Making his way slowly towards the Rec room it soon became apparent from the blaring music that someone else was equally blessed with such a quiet period. Well, sort of quiet anyway. He didn’t expect it to be Marco though; admittedly in hindsight considering the choice of music it wasn’t likely to be any of the other staff. The idea of Xavier listening to such music almost caused him to smirk to himself, and Sage or Storm? Enough said.

He paused at the entrance briefly to survey the scene, watching the massively taller mutant practically make a liable hack job of a pool game. Lighting up one of his own cigarettes with a hot knife, once more being thankful that his powers extended themselves to such a useful purpose, he slid forwards and chuckled softly. “I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the purpose of the game is to sink the balls, Marco. It’s probably why the table has pockets.” He smirked and gave a slight two fingered wave in greeting with his cigarette hand. “Pete Wisdom, I don’t believe we’ve met officially.”

[marko]

Looking up at the voice he chuckled a bit. Shocked the guy didn't piss him off about his bad pool playing. "I thought they were to hold my beers." He said this motioning to the pockets. "Cain, although I'm better known as Juggernaut. Grab ya stick and show me how to play this game. I promise not to slam my stick through any of your balls." He chuckled a bit as he nodded his head to the introduction. Taking a drag from his smoke he looked around. He missed those cigars cause these things were like sucking on a straw.

He smiled softly as he turned the music down a bit so they wouldn't have to practically yell to hear each other. "Sorry about that, but I like my things big. Well all besides my women." He chuckled a bit as he took another drag of his smoke and released a breath. "So what Chuckles got you in here for?"

[wisdom]

He’d heard of the Juggernaut, few people hadn’t really. The man was practically a walking disaster caged in gigantic human form. He smirked as he accepted the offer to join the game, selecting one of the cues from the racks without much delay. “We’re talking balls as in pool balls, right? ‘Cause I’m not the kind of fella that likes to have sticks go near the other kind if you catch my drift.” Probably not the best idea to taunt the reformed villain, but then again Pete Wisdom wasn’t known for making good decisions.

“I’ll refrain on commenting on that, but just this once, eh?” He remarked in response to the man’s taste in big things. In truth it was half out of respect for a fellow teacher, even if that fellow teacher was practically all but convicted felon, and out of respect that the man’s biceps were almost as tall as Wisdom himself. He likewise took a drag on his cigarette and answered the big man’s question, “Teaching History, you? No, let me guess. Home economics?”

[marko]

Shaking his head slowly "Pff, Home Economics hell naw Foreign Relations." He watched the guy grab the stick and nodded. He liked the fact that this guy wasn't afraid of going back and forth with him. So he chuckled a bit as he leaned back. "Ya you better keep that one to ya self, and of course I was talking about pool balls. You got a dirty mind, I like that." He chuckled a bit as he reached behind him and pulled out a couple of cold Mickie's 40s. "Want one?" He held it in his hand and was ready to toss it to the teach if he wanted it. "Naw, I'm thinking about taking up Combat training and the Football team being coach for the Xavier line." He smiled as he watched the guy. He kinda felt in this teacher he found one with a bit of darkness in the past. Which gave them both a common ground to stand on.

[wisdom]

“Of course, how silly of me. I can practically see all the diplomacy rolling of you.” He laughed softly and started to line up a shot. “As long as it’s only my mind you like we’re golden, mate.” He was glad that such a fabled one-man train wreck could take a joke, few of his other co-workers seemed less so inclined. Then again, he was just glad that he had another male teacher around... Xavier was fine and all, Wisdom held a good deal of respect for the man, but he was slightly uptight to say the least.

He sunk a coloured ball just in time to catch the offered beer, nodding his thanks as he popped it open. “Bit early in the day, but I’m pretty sure the clichéd line of it’s night time somewhere should cover us, eh?” He downed a small measure and regarded the man and his words carefully. “Combat training, certainly an interesting choice. Heh, I’m taking it you mean American football, right?” He smirked, referring to the fact back in Britain football was what the yanks called soccer. “Considering I hear your moniker used to be the unstoppable, I suppose it’s a good choice.” His smirk faded as he fouled his next shot up, opening the table up for the big man once more.

[marko]

"Well, you sure do have a pretty mouth." He said this jokingly, but held up his hands before the guy could have a chance to really come back with much. "Just joking man, and yeah it's Beer:thiry somewhere in this big ol world. You should have seen the look on the dude's face in the liqour store when I picked these up." He chuckled as he leaned down and tried to sink a stripe, watching it bounce every where but where he wanted. "Yeah American football, and ya it's a great fit, although I don't know about this whole X-Men thing, but I'll give it a try for a while." He thought about his brother for a minute and shook his head sipping from his beer. He was trying to fit in and so far things seemed pretty good with this guy. Puffing on his smoke he put the butt out as he looked up. "So whats the rest of the staff like?"

[wisdom]

Pete snorted slightly at the pretty mouth comment, but chose rather to tilt his beer back slightly and down a bit more of his beer than make any attempted at a comeback. “I think it was probably more along the lines to do with the fact that you’re about nine and a half feet tall and about half that again wide, mate.” He smirked at the remark about being an x-man, he himself having similar feelings in regard to that. “Hmm, running around in spandex and acting like the local Boy Scout group probably would get old soon, true. What is it with your brother and skin tight clothing incidentally? The man seems obsessed like it was going out of fashion... Er... Again.”

He rolled his eyes as the rest of the staff was mentioned. It’s not that they were bad, it was just that sometimes he felt like the only “normal” one among them, well, as normal as someone that can project knives that are the temperature of the sun from his hands can feel anyway. “Well, I’m sure you’ve met up with your brother... Other than that, I suppose we’ve got a wide range of exotic and beautiful female teachers, all sadly uptight in various ways and in equal degrees to said beauty.”

[marko]

Thinking about it he chuckles a bit and has a silly grin on his face. "Well if they are as hot as your talking about then that might be the reason for the skin tight clothing. Next best thing to seeing 'em naked, is seeing them in clothing that just leaves color shade to the minds eye." He chuckled a bit as he looked at the table and the ball finally come to rest right on the edge of the pocket, but not going into it. "Your shot man." He leaned back and shook his head for a bit as he looked up. "So got some up tight Pris, and my brother god doesn't sound like a lot a fun a red blooded guy can get into.

Pulling out another smoke he fired it up and started puffing away at it. He liked this teacher he seemed to have a sense of humor, if a bit dryer than Cains own at least along the same wavelength. "I keep forgetting Xavier don't mind bringing in you Brits so yeah I don't coach no girlie soccer." He wanted to bait the guy a bit and see if they couldn't have a go at it about sports. He heard all the jokes before and didn't really mind. As long as he could have a laugh out of it he should be good.

[wisdom]

Pete snorted and shook his head slightly. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, but he also makes the male members of this school dress that way too.” He leant on the pool table and stared intently it for several seconds, assessing his possible shots. “Welcome to Salem Center, mate, welcome to Salem bloody Center.”

He bodged his shot once more, causing him to grimace and wonder if he really should of made fun of the larger mutant if he himself was going to bring a barely better level of gameplay to the table. “Girly soccer, eh? I’ll let that one slide as well, there’s only so many times I can reference your sexual preference before it gets old” He smirked and took another swig as he leant against the wall, resting his cue stick against the wall to free his hand up for his cigarette. “You’re shot. So why, if you don’t mind me asking, not that I do mind if you do, did you end up here?”

[marko]

He leaned down and nodded his head slowly. He took aim and actually sank one. Walking around the table looking at it he chuckled at the jokes flying back and forth, and the idea of skin tight clothing for guys too that scared him. He was going to have to talk to Chuckles about his preference for uniforms. Yet, what he really thought about was how much to tell this guy about why he was here. "I spent some time in an alternate universe fighting battles and seeing things I would rather forget. Well, toward the end of it all I got sent to an island universe, spent some time there as a pacifist monk. Battle came, and I had a breakdown trying to figure out which side I was supposed to be doing. The fighting or the hiding people. Well, my head got so screwed up after that, well I asked to come back home so I could try and put things to right." Shrugs his shoulders as he sends a ball into a banker and well thank god he was impervious otherwise that would have hurt really bad. "Dang, your shot." He tosses the ball back on the table just to let it lie where ever. "What about you?"

[wisdom]

Pete stood drinking his beer, his gaze fixed on the table but his attention solely on the larger mutant’s words. Alternate Universes, the entire concept seemed laughable. Then again, he’d seen some stuff aswell, stuff that you couldn’t rightly explain, not to mention they had a veritable future girl based at the school, so who was to say what was real and what wasn’t these days.

“Nothing that dramatic or fantastic, more of a case of my ‘unique’ genetic disposition being less well received by my former bosses given the current political climate... So...” He gestured around him at the school and shrugged. “Here I am.” Of course there was a little more to it than just that, but it wasn’t the sort of thing you let a near-complete stranger in on within minutes of meeting them. Besides, half of it he probably wouldn’t of even been able to tell his own mother even if she was still alive. Placing his drink on the side table and stuffing his cigarette back in his mouth, he grabbed his cue once more and belted a shot, sinking a ball without much hesitation. He purposely missed his next shot, not really wanting to rush the game if possible. Getting to know what kind of a person his colleagues were was important, even if the other half seemed to be slightly up themselves at times.

“Redemption, eh? That can’t be an easy path to walk.” Pete hadn’t even started on his own, what he’d done had only really started to sink in after he’d left the service. That, and he knew that the way the world was turning at the moment, his personal salvation would probably be a long and most likely impossible route anyway.

[marko]

He nodded slowly as he listened to the guy. He wasn’t stupid, not the brightest bulb in the box, but he wasn’t stupid. The guy wasn’t telling him everything, and he really couldn’t blame the guy, hell if he would have thought about his story a bit more he would have realized that it sounded like he was in need of guys in little white coats to come pick him up. He watched the next shot and chuckled a bit as the guys next shot went flying off target and rested next to a bumper. He looked down at the cue in his hands and thought about the guys choice of words.
‘Redemption’ that was a good term for what he was looking for. He couldn’t think of a better one right off the top of his head. He chuckled a bit to most people it would sound like some kind of machine chewing gravel, but it was actually his chuckle. Then again he was right it wasn’t going to be an easy road, and he had a feeling that this guy was trying to walk down the same path.
“No, you’re right, it won’t be easy. Yet, I am Juggernaut, and going forward is the only way I know how to do. And if there is anyone else that wants to come with me, get behind me and hold on, I don’t care how many of us I have to drag. I’m getting there.” He smiled, but there was a light in his eye’s he wasn’t lieing he was going to make a new start for himself and if anyone wanted to join him, he would carry them with him. “The Ruby made me this way, as in huge and powerful, so I don’t care who I have to take with me. Hell, I’ll drag the Hulk with me if I have to.” He chuckled a bit as he looked up and shook his head slowly.

He leaned down and stared at his shot, and for once actually looked like he knew what he was doing, when he sank one in the corner pocket. He shook his head as he realized that was about the end of his luck. His next shot bounced so hard it knocked two of Pete’s in as well as shift the table a bit. “Crap, did it get ya feet?” He hoped it did, but he was smiling too as he took a drink of his beer. He wasn’t really looking for much when he started this game. Just a bit of relaxation, but here he might have found a guy to hang with so for now he didn’t mind things working out this way one bit. Even if he had to have a messed up head to get here.

[wisdom]

Mystical lumps of rock that gave super powers, alternate realities, future girls... Sometimes he really wished he could just be one of the ignorant masses, and content himself just to being happy not knowing half the crap he did. Then again, with his personality he’d probably end up finding out about it anyway. He was like a dog with a bone when it came to wanting to know the how and the why, a reason that probably lead him to study history. He watched the man carefully as he played his shot, weighing up what he’d just said. It was plain to see that he believed fully in finding his way back to the “good path”, that or he really wanted to believe. Of course, in Pete’s experience they occasionally meant the same thing. Still he wasn’t too sure if there was even a way to get back on that path per se, or even if you could stay on it once you managed to get back on.

The table lurching suddenly towards his unprotected feet snapped him out of his semi-self reflecting and caused him to hop-skip back a pace to avoid getting said appendages crushed. “Bloody hell, mate! Perhaps you should, I don’t know, hold back eh? I kind of like walking under my own power, and have no intention of joining your brother in a wheel chair.” He frowned slightly at his last statement, the remark being slightly too fresh to the bone given current circumstances, even for him. He’d disliked Magneto from the get go, but even he hadn’t seen his betrayal coming. What’s more he couldn’t really stand that the man had gotten practically away with it without much in the way of repercussions. Outwardly he continued to grumble about the man’s near destruction of his toes, lining up a shot and sinking a ball quickly followed by one more, unfortunately it just so happened to be the cue ball rather than anything useful.

“You’re turn, just try not to break the table... or me for that matter.”

[marko]

"My bad, my bad. You wanna heard something funny. First few days back and I get set out on a little hunt and peck mission. You wanna hear the best part, sent me out to New York city to find an Asian Mutant causin problems. Yeah why not just send me out to find a taco in the middle of china town." He shook his head a bit and lined up for his next shot after setting the cueball down on the table. He bounched it around a few times even made contact with one of the striped balls, but didn't get any where near sinking one.

He was thinking about his brother and for some ungodly known reason he wanted to get his hands on bucket head. "All we need is a chance and someone to keep them off me long enough to get my hands on his helmeted head. Then we'll find out how much pressure it takes to turn his head into a real melon." He looked up from the table and grinned. "Always wanted to know how much juice I could get from squeezing a melon." He stood up and stepped back a step and wondered about how things were really going to go with this. Since he was getting fed up with the way things were already he wasn't sure how long he could stay on the straight and narrow.

"Devil Dogs. That's what this school needs. A Devil Dog unit, Improvise, Overcome, and Adapt. A team that isn't made up of pretty boy's that doesn't mind getting their hands dirty with a bit of blood and guts." Shaking his head he looked over at the guy. "Sorry my opinon and I know it goes against the mantra of this school, but damn we need a mean machine in this school, and the X-Men ain't cutting it."