fiberoptic

Player name: Toni

Player age: over 18

Method of contact: plurk - punchpolygons, discord - zedsabre#1089, line - ID zedsabre

Character Name: Nathan Summers

Character Canon: Deadpool movieverse (with inspiration taken from the comics)

Character Summary:

Hailing from a dark future, Nathan Summers is the gritty, pouch-toting, time travelling mutant soldier known as Cable. Son of Scott ‘Cyclops’ Summers and Jean Grey, he would’ve had enormous amounts of potential as a psychic, if it weren’t for an infection from the techno-organic virus as a baby. Instead, it takes almost all his telekinetic power to hold the virus at bay so that the rest of his body won’t be fatally converted into machinery, leaving him with little psionic power to spare. Because of this, he was trained from a young age as a soldier instead, specializing in hand to hand combat and Lots of Gun, just as the X-men timeline was quickly sliding towards Bad End.

The Earth crumbled as the war between mutant vs human, and mutant vs mutant raged on, ravaging its cities, resources, and people. It was an ugly future, and something that Cable direly wanted to correct - by taking down bad men in the most efficient way he knew how.

In the midst of all this, however, he did find love. A wife and a daughter who were his reprieve from the grimdark world around him. But that was stolen away from him one day, when a villain he failed to apprehend found them in their home and incinerated them as retribution.

Grief-stricken, his mission found new direction. It was a gamble - he’d only ever used time slider for short jumps before, but now, having lost everything, he turned the clock back decades. Cable was going to kill that mutant terrorist before he became a threat, and in doing so, nip the nightmarish future in the bud. If that meant killing a child, so be it. Fighting alone against Deadpool and his hastily assembled X-Force, Cable came close… only to fail when an even bigger threat was unleashed. And so, knowing he could no longer do the job alone, he approached X-Force for a begrudging alliance..

What he didn’t account for, however, was Deadpool averting this outcome with compassion and self-sacrifice. Complicated as their relationship was, with his death on Cable’s hands, there was only one road for him to take: use up the last trip on his time travelling device to save Wade’s life.

So now he’s the straight man/gruff dad of this dysfunctional X-Force family and… on the bright side, it could be a good opportunity to make sure nothing fucks up the future from here.

Character Personality:

Considering that he was surrounded by war pretty much his whole life, it’s not hard to see how Cable grew into the take no shit, tough as nails survivor he is now. His settings are stuck on dead serious by default, only breaking the stoic wall for the occasional tough guy one-liners. Cable knows he’s intimidating and plays into it. Since a subconscious part of him needs to constantly be keeping his metallic conversion at bay, even when Cable is at rest, there’s always a part of him that remains on edge for anything that might be a threat. It makes legitimately difficult to actually relax - impossible, when he’s alone. When left to his own devices too long, he has a tendency to take himself way too seriously.

There’s a lot of baggage that comes with being the son of the leader of the X-men. You’re raised with the idea that it’s on you to set the standard, to be the one to save the world. Cable just can’t walk away from problems once he gets it in his head that it’s his duty to solve it. Not because he sees himself as a hero - that label implies vigilantism with ego and grandeur, and he’s not about that. It’s simply his job as a soldier. There’s a smidgen of a messiah complex there, especially with how self-righteously stubborn he can get over seeing it through. However, if the situation calls for it, he can and will compromise if it puts him closer to completing his mission - whether that means cooperating with outside forces or even enemies, and making deals. Half a victory is better than a complete failure if the stakes are high enough.

However, when you have your eye on the big picture for so long, it can become easy to miss the little details: the people. His instinct is to judge others by their most basic nature - it’d take a fool of an optimist to think the best of people when people so regularly disappoint. Probably doesn’t help that what little telepathy Cable has on hand only really probes surface thoughts, rather than delving into the complexities of the psyche - when you can literally read minds, it’s easy to be convinced you already know what people are all about. He’s learning though, since he’s seen first hand how much of a difference nurturing can actually make. And when he does start to care, even if he seems begrudging about it, he will self appoint himself as your guardian (and your dad).

He doesn't go out of his way to take initiative on endearing himself to others though, since what’s the point, he’s too old for this, etc. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be won over, even by morons. Cable's bark is often worse than his bite if he knows you mean well. He’ll even admit it himself, he has a fondness for people who can bring levity to a situation and lighten the mood, even when that involves poking fun at him. It’s not a skill he’s particularly good at, but some of that humour can start to rub off on him with enough exposure. For someone who exudes the aura of a pissy old man, he has a surprising amount of tolerance for jokes at his expense. Sure he’ll get exasperated, but more in a ‘you are a complete idiot/don't you have anything better to do’ way instead of being personally offended.

And just like a dad, he can be tough on the people he loves, but it comes from a place of caring - of wanting to make sure they're safe. And he's aware of when he is too rough, thanks to those soldier instincts. There's a time and place for softness, for sentimentality and emotion, but only after the threat is past. It's easy for Cable to want to distance himself in order to keep fighting the fight, but in the end having people around reminds him what he's fighting for. Doesn't matter if he hasn't seen you in years - if you matter to him, he’ll always have your back.

Character in Imeeji:

By necessity, his techno-organic virus is gone, since if he doesn’t have his powers, it will kill him. But as a result his left arm, which has been metal for practically his whole life and never had any chance to develop muscle at all - is just pathetically weak. So he’s got one beefy arm and one useless noodle and that needs correcting immediately because 1. it’s not practical, 2. aesthetics, and 3. the masturbation jokes are going to get real stale real fast.

Even without the memories of war, he’s still an old man, surrounded by this idol business with no idea why he’s here or how any of this appeals to people. He’s too old for this! All of this! Do not get him involved in your drama! So the begrudging grumpy attitude is still ever-present, even if he’s not as grimdark about it. When it comes to people he doesn’t know, he is more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt - even help them out. But when it comes to a Game? He takes them seriously, and he expects the people around him to do so as well.

Thankfully, he was trained to fight even without his psychic powers, so put a weapon in his (right) hand and he can make good use of it. The more wacky, melodramatic events though, uh… Cable is about as useful as a cardboard cutout.

Under normal circumstances, he’d be looking for a way out - but lacking any real power against the production agency that put them there, the next best thing any of them can really do is look out for each other. Lacking any ties to the people here, Cable’s definitely going to end up wanting to play guardian to his unit, and probably anyone else that he feels needs guidance. Someone needs to lay down order amidst all this chaos. He will probably gravitate towards the other adults to commiserate their situation too (seriously, who other than kids watch shit like this). His parenting style is probably not all that different from his usual, but the harsher soldier instinct will surface once danger rears its head. Cable is more than willing to sacrifice himself to protect others. Even moreso because it’s not permanent. It just makes the most sense, most of the others are just kids compared to him. On the flip side, it’ll also make him significantly less willing to hurt kids, even for his goal. There’s still enough of an idealist in him that he’d rather avoid spilling blood - but push him far enough, and he’ll do it. Even kids gotta grow up sometime.

Survey

>Evaluate yourself honestly: what do you think your soul is worth?

Starting right off the bat with the loaded questions, huh.

First, what you gotta ask is… are all souls worth the same. Is the soul of a worthless, irredeemable scumbag equal to the weight of a soul with the will and power to change the lives of their fellow man for the better? There’s some that’d say yes, on principle alone… but if you think the world gives a flying fuck about your principles, you have never been more wrong.

Maybe there was a time when people thought I was destined for something. T’them, I gotta guess my soul was worth betting on… but not because of me.

A soul’s commitment to its purpose gives it its worth. That’s all I’ve got to say on the matter.

>Is there anything you would do anything to achieve?

Securing the success of my mission. Preserving the lives of my comrades. Protecting my loved ones. That’s the creed that a soldier follows. ‘The end justifies the means’ is uttered like a dirty word by the shortsighted. Once you contemplate the timeline of the world, the road forward and behind you… they’re both drowned in blood. If there is something - anything - I can do that keeps the future safe, I will spend the rest of my life ensuring it.

It’s shitty, messy work, but it’s better than the alternative.

>What does hell mean to you?

And here’s the alternative. War. And I don’t mean some faraway skirmish happening an ocean away that only shows up as an afterthought on the evening news. I mean war on your doorstep, the unavoidable kind where your only choices are run, hide, or fight.

And maybe you think that’s easy enough, tough guy that you are. But how are you gonna protect the injured, the elderly, children as rations grow thin and you don’t know who to trust? All the while, death could rain from above at any moment. Soon, desperation starts driving men and women into the most monstrous versions of themselves.

Who needs demons when some fuckers are perfectly capable of bringing hell on earth all on their own.

>Which of these nine words is the most meaningful to you, and why? Idolatry, lies, transgressions, vengeance, sorcery, plague, devastation, inquisition, or temptation?

You’d think, living with an endless war raging all around me, that the concept of devastation would start to grow… thin. And that’s partially true. You get numb to it eventually. Learn to pick yourself back up and put that gun back in your hand, like you’re supposed to.

But then something happens. To the one thing in your life you thought was safe and… sacred.

You thought you grew accustomed to the horror, only for the ground to give away beneath you and... you fall. Further than you’ve ever fallen before. Because you know it was your fault for failing. And now all you have is ashes.

>Do you want a puppy?

And now a swerve. Is that a tactic to keep me off guard?

Puppy wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Train one right, could actually be useful - provided it wasn’t one of those prissy toy breeds. So, sure.

>Have you previously owned a puppy?

No.

>Are you worried we've been recording this conversation?

It’s a safe assumption that you already have.

>Do you have any last words for us?

...Let me ask you something. What am I actually doing here. You realize I’m too fucking old for this idol crap, right. What, if any, is the strategy behind stringing me along for this freakshow? Is this what passes for entertainment these days?

God, the past has gone to shit.