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It's the day after they went out to lunch. Teddy's been thinking about what had been said before they got to the restaurant and he decided to give Kaleb a call the next day. He'd like to come by in the evening and talk to him if he was going to be around. And as it turns out, Kaleb would be. "Heya." Teddy says as the door opens and he heads into the apartment.
Kaleb was still dressed up like he might be entertaining bankers for dinner: pressed slacks and matching slate vest fitted to him, but sleeves rolled back twice to the elbow with light traces of graphite on the back of his hands and arms. From the sound of it he was somehow home alone, though that traveling bubble of silence always followed the natty sonic. Eyebrows lifted in greeting and a hand vaguely waved to the kitchen and side bar. "Hey, Ted. Help yourself. I'm just reworking a schematic." Which was the succinct Kaleb invitation of: it's nice to see you, won't you join me.
Teddy flicks a glances over the paper as he heads toward the bar to pour himself something. Just what, is the question and he spends some time studying the selection. "Schematics of what? That thing you were talking about that you and Max are working on?"
The selection was pretty top shelf because Kaleb was a picky as hell and Kellan just had good taste. The question amused him somewhat, "Nah, Maximus is the engineer, I'm not." There was a little hint of subdued pride in that, and offered instead, "I'm just working on being an architect." He got a glass of water and considered waving Teddy to follow him to one of the out rooms, his room that also doubled as his studio with more records in the low shelves than MCA has even produced, Herbie Hancock playing on the vinyl selection and what looked to be a complex room schematic with curved and textured surfaces being worked on. "I've got to work on tuning that thing because of, um, well my skill set… now…" His brow furrowed and he paused squinting at Teddy, "Honestly it's a relief you believe me about this… Kree thing. The guys don't get it. And after the accident it's been interesting." he sat back at his stool and set the water down.
Teddy pours himself a few fingers of a bourbon that happens to catch his eye before following Kaleb into the other room. "What accident? And what do you know about the aliens? It sounded like the Kree are giving Max and his people trouble so he's agreed to work for them. Which is a really bad idea."
Kaleb shook his head and eyes Teddy levelly, "Sit." This would be a big talk, but one the sonic could draw and have. "Ummm unrelated incidents. The accident? Wasn't an accident. For a while Mutants have been taken. Late last summer I and a couple others were drugged, taken, and genetically experimented on." His pencil did not move and there was a pause still reconciling that, Kaleb didn't do shame or regret, but he wasn't okay with it all the same. "I came out of that kinda messed up. Now I hear… everything and I have to fight to keep sound pushed down or go deaf again, or have another seizure and it… it sucks." He looked to Teddy with a shrug of his shoulder, "That's the problem with the concert. It's also weirdly how I wound up with Max." He didn't miss Teddy's surprise, but didn't seem to dwell on his own personal life when Ted asked questions. Max and his people put me back together which is where things with the Kree started coming in. In brief." He took a deep breath and looked to Teddy observing him offering, "Jay's been all like Kale we'll just avoid them, but when two foreign outliers are having a fight in your yard you can't just close the curtain if you want there to be a yard left. You have to shoo them off the lawn."
"Except you're not shooing them." Teddy points out. "You're working for the Kree. And if you succeed in chasing the Skrulls off, then there's nothing stopping the Kree from having their way unopposed. At least now they've got an enemy to worry about so they can't do whatever they want to Earth."
Kaleb sighed and put down the pencil turning around. "Teddy, what do you know about that Penglai incident that came out at the UN conference?? That advanced city that was found that everyone's fighting over? Buddy, it's Kree tech. Apparently they've like… been around for a long ass time and they've been trying to not be here for…whatever reason. Per the UN conference they gave 2 groups opportunities to quell this Skrull thing fuckin with their shit and now they're fucking with our shit. Trust me, we're no fans, but even without the Kree that still leaves Skrulls on earth. They found one, and frankly, I'm surprised New York hasn't burned itself down in riots and witch hunts."
"Not much. But that does explain a few things." Teddy answers, considering the implications of what Kaleb said. "So you're saying the Kree are trying to leave Earth but the Skrulls are making it impossible?" He shakes his head. "I don't buy it. The same reasoning applies. If they Kree leave, the Skrulls can do what they want. And I know the Skrulls can leave if they want to since I've been on one of their ships. I bet they'd jump at the chance to have the Kree gone."
Kaleb took a deep breath and really regarded Teddy with respect on that one. It wasn't a common occurrence to see but there it was. "That sounds scary as hell, Teddy. And yeah I don't think you're wrong at all" He sighed and hung his head, "Not the first time Max has been attacked by either apparently. I guess you can't help lead a nation without incident though. Hey… you okay?"
Teddy shakes his head. "Not really. I was helping an agency free their people who'd been replaced. Billy helped too. Kind of cool actually. I'd never been in space before, not that I had a chance to do more than look out for more than a couple seconds. Anyway." Taking a sip of his drink, he thinks a moment. "How's this thing you're building supposed to work?"
Kaleb was a great many things with callous and abrasive usually hovering near the top of the list. The word 'bulwark' keeps coming up. So when his teammate says 'not really' the pencil went behind his hear and he gave Teddy the regard of his patience and his full attention. It could have been no it wasn't scary or not, ether way the conversation was his. Really, Kale was grateful for someone he could discuss this with. Kaleb paused and started with the overhead. "You familiar with how subliminal suggestion worse?"
Teddy thinks a moment then nods. "Yeah, I think so. Stuff you hear but you're not really aware of hearing, right? What's that got to do with the Skrulls?"
Kaleb scratched behind his hear. Well he told Jay, he might as well tell Teddy. "I can, um… I can do it." He didn't expect venomous and judgmental looks from a shapeshifter who carry similar stigmas. Ah well. "Well, everything has a frequency to disrupt it as solid matter. The glass," He pointed and shrugged, "I could likely make metal crack too as it's close to a fixed structure but cellular tissues? Same principle. Can send a subliminal wave that causes enough of a subtle disturbance to disrupt how molecules are communed with to hold together. In short? It's apt to make shapeshifters fall out of false form. But there's a problem."
Teddy just makes a 'go on' gesture as he drinks his bourbon.
Kaleb took a deep breath glancing out the window and back. One finger with a smudge of graphite itched at his cheekbone. "How to do this without a- hurting people is a hurdle. and b- even if it doesn't? well… you've met Skrull. You've met humans. DO either of them sound like calm rational beings? We expose a Skrull in a crowd of people to know who to kindly ask to leave? They're likely to do damage to anyone nearby. And that's not taking into account people losing their shit."
"Just look how they react to mutants, homosexuals, blacks, the Irish…" Teddy could go on but the point is made. "Yeah, the results wouldn't be good. Lots of violence, maybe deaths. But that's assuming you actually find some Skrulls. Who says there's so many of them that you'll get one just walking down the street?"
Kaleb snorted, "Uhhh yeah well aware. I hear my own all the time. Why you think I don't much care for people? That said it's not like I want to see anyone get trampled either. And no wasn't talking about wandering up to folks shaking their hand and going, 'Excuse me Sir, Madam, and/or Other, are you of alien origin to this terrasphere and if so what might be your colony of origin? Can you take a survey and sit in the blue chair?'"
"So if you know it's likely to end up being really bad, and that's assuming you even manage to find a Skrull, what is it you're actually building?" Teddy asks. "And how's it going to avoid those problems?"
Kaleb held up a finger and pointed to the drafting table, "For one this is an unrelated project. And for two? The device is just the tool. We're a bit at the beginning of this really. I brought this up and this is going to require talking to Shield, Avengers, or potentially X-Men about this… it's a mutant operation. But I think there's going to need to be some help. Now… the part we didn't hit on is how the Kree got called."
Teddy makes that 'go on' gesture again.
Kaleb summed it up in short, "The Skrull that were here set off some sort of inter-space alarm system thing and called them here deliberately." He sighed closing his eyes. Murmuring he asks, "Why do assholes have to ruin things that were fucked up enough already? I dunno. But apparently they called them here to draw them out. So… yay us.
"The Skrulls brought the Kree here?" Teddy asks, just making sure he's got that right. "Why would they do that? Though I suppose it makes it easier to kill them. But if they were trying to take over the planet, why bring competition? And they were definitely trying."
Kaleb boggled "Oh who the ever living fuck knows man." For a kid with a highbrow pedigree, Kaleb had zero interested in not just speaking his mind even if it was crass or frank. At least he wasn't swearing at him. There was a decorum to this. An eyebrow came up and there was a shrug, "Max was of the mind that it seems the Skrull are trying to just draw them to a point. Then the Kree show up and need to stay more Skrull come… I don't know. But I don't think 'takeover' was on their list of to-do from how they made it sound. Also" He was a slight bit whelmed when he admitted, "Kree are reeeeally tall in person."
"What do they look like?" Teddy asks curiously. "I've never seen one, only heard about them. And not much either. Just that they're around, really and they and the Skrulls don't like each other."
Kaleb held up a finger and went to one of the albums on his bookshelf and flipped it open. Mostly it was clippings following Capstone, and other articles saved almost exclusively about things happening by or to Mutants. Teddy really hit the nail on the head earlier: the world was highly intolerant and even he wasn't unaffected by that on a level of personal interest. Towards the back and decent things he pointed to the picture taken from the paper of Hala and Ronin from the UN meeting and taken by Peter Parker. They were clippings, not originals. But there were regular folk there as a size comparison. Kaleb told him, "And they're blue."
Teddy leans in close to get a good look then nods. "Huh. Okay." Reaching up, he runs a hand over his hair then finishes his drink. "I'm going to tell you something. BUt you can't tell anyone, okay? Billy knows but no one else."
Kaleb furrowed his brow and mumbled, "Teddy, pals don't do that. I'm an asshole, but I'm not a fucking asshole." To the point he clarified, "My word on it man." He paused and had to ask, "Someone hurt you while you were there?"
"What? Where?" Teddy asks, looking puzzled but then shakes his head. "No, nothing like that." Whatever it is Kaleb's talking about. "No. It's just that your friend Max isn't the only part alien."
Kaleb had his concern abated when Teddy said he wasn't hurt. Though the actual inclusion of aliens at this point didn't cause him to jump or tell him to get out or anything. He reasoned this was likely that id someone was dating someone they knew was part-alien and was cool with it the judgement factor was likely pretty low. "Huh." Well it wasn't screaming. Though being an alien and a shapeshifter was immediately, Kaleb could see, was now very inconvenient in this social climate. "Wow… The world has got to feel really uncomfortable for you right now I'm guessin. We just can't catch a break can we?" Still, he thoughtfully processed this and asked curiously, "I know… a few. How'd you find out? You always known?"
Teddy shakes his head again. "No, I always thought I was a mutant. But then when the whole Skrull thing was happening, a scientist noticed my blood looked really close to that of the Skrulls. More than it looked human or mutant. Not exact though so I'm not a Skrull. I figure one was masquerading as a human twenty years ago and… Umm. Well, had sex with my mom. She always told me my father was dead but if he just ran out on her…" He shrugs.
|ROLL| Kaleb +rolls 1d20 for: 18
Kaleb sat very quietly and processed that with his analytical part of his brain rather than exclaiming Dude a Skrull banged your mom!? Quietly there was a look of support after a long pause, "Okay so, likely, but not necessarily entirely..> Skrull DNA?" He paused and didn't insult him by asking but waved a hand, "I'm guessing you have zero plans to hold the world hostage. SO I guess the question is where's this put you? Like for serious do they know?"
"How would they?" Teddy asks in return. "If he just took off after… well, after, he wouldn't have even known she was pregnant. And if they have some way of detectign each other when they're shapechanged, it doesn't work on me since they never realized I wasn't human. I'm only even mentioning it because of this thing you're making that you say will only work on Skrulls."
Kaleb bit his lip thoughtfully. He looked at Teddy and finally came to the first direct words he could think of because he just wasn't generally good at communicating. "You're my friend first, Teddy. I don't wanna hurt ya and I'm not lookin to get you in trouble." His brow furrowed and he offered, "But we could sure use your help if you're able." He sighed and rubbed his eyebrow, "Max…Well so long as you're not hurting his people he's pretty groovy about these things, but… thanks for um… Thanks for tellin me."
"I didn't think you would." Teddy assures Kaleb. "Which is why I'm telling you so there's no accidents with the weapon you're making. As for help, what kind do you need?"
Kaleb chuckled and rubbed his face tiredly bemused, "Honestly? A target rich environment. And it's not a weapon. It's a scanner. I'm not Tony Stark. Yeesh. But still I mean what's a team without trust?" Though finally his 18 year old brain caught up with him and he grinned, "Shapeshifting alien? That's… pretty wild man. Ooh so in theory you too could join me in looking like Kellan and confuse him when he's really really drunk?" Yes of all the important things in the world, there was this. "God he'd be so pissed. Right. So I'm a genetics experiment now, you and Max are aliens, Billy can shoot sparks out of his finger, Vic is a magical mote, and Jay's molting… we are one interesting gaggle I'll give us that."
"You've met Billy's family." Teddy reminds him. "We've always been an 'interesting gaggle' as you put it." He'd put it batshit in sane. "But sure, let me know how I can help. I don't know anything more about Skrulls than you do though and you know more about the Kree from the sound of it."
Kaleb didn't name names or confirm but said, "Yeah. Leeeet's just say the Skrull aren't the only ones that partied and left. We might know one or two folks with some Kree blood floating around without being Kree. So… I mean… shit." He shrugged. He offered in dry humor, "If it helps being French in large part I'll never grow a proper beard so, like, everyone's got a thing." Still he offered a hand out, "Well welcome to the team Ummm you feel comfortable if I listed you as someone who has 'had a run in with one' in lieu of … ya know… making your personal shit not personal?"
Teddy nods. "Sure, you can let people know I've run into Skrulls. I've almost said so already since I actually know what they are." Standing back up, he clasps Kaleb on the shoulder. "Okay, I should be going. Keep me updated on what's going on."
Kaleb patted Teddy on the hand and paused. he thought about it for a moment and offered, "Should come by more often. I mean outside of projects? It's good catchin up man. Hey, tell Billy I said what's up." Sometimes, just sometimes, Kaleb actually enjoyed the little interjections to his day.
"I'll do that." Teddy agrees. "Tell Kellan I said hi. And I'll see you later." Giving Kaleb a quick grin, he starts for the door.