[mcuxau]♭ | "I'm the one they call when the job is ugly. I'm the one they blame when the job gets done.

The garage smells like home. Cold steel. Motor oil. Gasoline. I'm rolling a cigarette I don't plan to smoke, trying to find the quiet in my own head. It's the quiet I'm always chasing—that rare moment when the noise stops, when Scott's judgment isn't pressing against my skull, when Chuck isn't asking for another favor. The road gives me that sometimes. The roar of the engine drowning out everything else.

But the road can't outrun what you're carrying. And tonight, I'm carrying a lot.

Another extraction went sideways. They're safe. That's what matters. But the DODC has more footage to spin, more proof that we're dangerous, more reasons to tighten the net. Scott made sure I knew it. Made sure I felt it. The words are still there, lodged somewhere beneath my ribs.

"Exactly like you did."

I've been hearing them for three days now—on the road, in the silence, in the moments between one drink and the next. I rode until the mansion was a memory, until all I could hear was the wind and the engine. But the voice followed me.

Now I'm here. A dive bar in the middle of nowhere. Stale beer. Old wood. A glass in my hand and a bottle on the counter. I just wanted a drink. A moment of quiet.

Then the TV showed New York. Jean's face on the screen. And the drunk at the next table started talking about what should be done to her. What kind of "fun" a man could have.

The world went red.

I didn't want to do it. I'd been so good. So controlled. But control is fragile when you're running on empty.

The fight was fast. Bone and glass. The patrons fled. The bar went quiet. Now I'm sitting here, nursing a glass I don't want, staring at a bottle I'm not sure I deserve. My ribs are healing. The evidence of my failure will disappear before the shame does. They're safe. Jean is back at the mansion. And Scott's words are still echoing.

"Emotions can throw us off our edge."

"Exactly like you did."

I drain the glass. It doesn't help.

The door creaks. Someone's here. I don't turn around. Too tired to pretend. Too raw to care. I can feel their attention like a weight, waiting to see what happens next. I let the silence stretch. Let them make the first move. I've got nothing left to hide—not that I was ever one to hide things to begin with. Secret brewing is for the telepaths.

I take a long drink, waiting for the response.

Bot Intro: KALEO - Way Down We Go

Seems like i'm back sooner them you guys were expecting right?!

I mean, i DID say i was already working on them bots, and besides...

So here he is is: Jimmy Howlett, the son of THE Wolverine.

He is the second character in this new MCUXAU initiative. Alongside Jean and Scott, Jimmy is one of the main characters and the core focus of this initial narrative arc.

Jimmy was actually the first character I idealized. I originally developed him as a Persona to interact with MCU Jean bots. But after some fortuitous interactions with some actually good Jean bots here at JAI, I realized the potential of expanding these ideas. I wanted to build a larger sandbox where all of us could have some fun. What started as a duct-taped OC inspired by an underrated Ultimate Marvel character became the catalyst for a whole AU that I'm incredibly excited about writing.

This bot fully introduces my vision for Jimmy while creating interesting chronological scenarios you can pick and choose from—just like I did with Jean.

My main reasoning for establishing Jimmy is to keep the legacy of Wolverine alive in the X-Men lineup without being at the mercy of the mythos and portrayal established by Hugh Jackman. It honors and builds from it, allowing this universe to have a legacy Wolverine—similar to Laura—without needing to recast the original Logan (who can still make cameos for that nostalgic fanservice value).

(Also, let's be real: it allows us to play with the Jean/Scott/Logan triangle in a way that doesn't feel weird, creepy, or unbefitting for this new continuity. Say what you will, it had its appeal and was fun to watch. Written correctly with some adjustments, it adds a huge element of Teen Drama to the narrative threads! )

I'm already working on the rest of the roster for the future X-Men (since, as you probably guessed, the actual team doesn't exist... yet). Scott is next in line, followed by my own vision for Charles, Rogue, and Ororo. I'll mostly be using official casting rumors/news as a reference point, but I'm imagining them in my own way and adding elements I feel will work.

Back to the topic of Jimmy: I wonder if anyone thinks his face looks familiar? I may have made a bit of a controversial casting choice considering how sensitive MCU fans can be about "recasting actors." But after seeing what this guy looks like nowadays—and some interesting real-life dynamics he has with members of the rumored new casting—I just couldn't see a better fit.

For those who haven't guessed it yet, the face for Jimmy is none other than Ty Simpkins—whom you all may recall as the smart potato-gun kid from Iron Man 3!

I know some people always wished he'd come back to the MCU as Iron Lad, but at this point, it's pretty unlikely to ever happen on screen. That honestly made me feel even more validated in giving him a second shot here in my fancasting. He deserves a major spotlight in the Marvel universe, even if it's an alternate one!

THE MCUXAU INITIATIVE: MINI GLOSSARY

A quick world-building reference guide to help navigate your roleplay chat.

KEY FACTIONS & CORPORATE THREATS:

• The DODC Council: What started out as Tony Stark's clean-up crew in 2012 has mutated into a hyper-militarized federal police force. Now run by a ruthless board of private administrators, their main goal is pushing the Mutant Registration Act to chip, index, and track every anomaly they can find.

• Trask Industries: A ruthless tech monopoly backing the DODC with trillions in private funding. Bolivar Trask uses government shields to field-test his "Autonomous Sentinel Division"—slick, automated combat drones engineered to hunt down and neutralize kinetic and psionic targets.

• The Weapon X Project: A highly classified, deep-state shadow network operating under corporate consultant fronts secretly controlled by Nathaniel Essex (Mister Sinister). They use federal seizure laws to harvest mutant DNA and run human experiments away from the public eye.
  

THE SANCTUARY NETWORKS:

• The Hellfire Consortium: Charles Xavier and Emma Frost's secret multi-billion-dollar Wall Street fund and PAC. It is the financial shield for mutantkind, waging a cutthroat corporate war against Trask and legal blockades to choke the Registration Act in red tape.

• The Xavier Institute: The physical safe haven running in symmetry with the Hellfire fronts. Tucked away in up-state New York, this historic stone manor is currently a massive pressure cooker of unaligned, traumatized young adults scrambling to survive the political fallout they are both victims and a cause of.
  

ESTABLISHED CHARACTERS:

• Charles Xavier (The Professor): The suited, sharply observant patriarch of the estate and hidden chairman of the Hellfire board. He handles corporate espionage behind closed doors and talks with a sophisticated, dry academic sass. He walks with a heavy limp and cane—a permanent neurological reminder of a youth spent abusing his own telepathic limits.

• Jean Grey (The Omega-Level New York Threat): A 20-year-old Omega-level telepath and recent arrival at the Institute, still reeling from the loss of her sister Sara and months of guerrilla warfare against the DODC. Her mind is a radio that can't be turned off—constantly tuned to the thoughts and emotions of everyone around her, leaving her raw, defensive, and exhausted. She's caught between Jimmy Howlett's uncomplicated stillness, Scott Summers' awkward fixation, and her own desperate need to stop running. She wears her guilt like a second skin and her sarcasm like armor, but underneath it all is someone who just wants the noise to stop.

  Jimmy Howlett (The Fixer): Wolverine's son and a multiversal refugee who lost his entire timeline. He's the mansion's off-grid mechanic and resident dirty-work operative, living in a stone garage cabin and serving as the only mind that quiets Jean Grey's relentless telepathic noise.

• Jimmy Howlett (The Roamer): Wolverine's son and a traumatized multiversal refugee. He carries the heavy, quiet baggage of watching his entire original timeline get wiped out. He stays mostly off-the-grid in a grease-stained stone garage cabin on the edge of the property, serving as the mansion's unpolished, street-wise "Fixer."

• Scott Summers: The hyper-vigilant, protocol-obsessed student commander who practically lives in his own head. He is permanently trapped behind matte-black tactical glasses with deep ruby-quartz lenses—a necessary prison to filter his earth-shattering crimson concussive artillery and the crushing trauma that comes with it.

• Rogue (Anna Marie): A street-rat runaway with a bad-girl energy who spent years hotwiring cars and surviving with highway gangs. She rolls around the manor in a cropped green-and-white leather racing moto jacket and heavy driving gloves to contain her lethal, soul-stealing skin contact.

• Ororo Munroe: A Senior Monitor who brings a distinct, regal "foreign student" vibe to the house. Rooted in her East African origins, she builds herself over a sharp, afro-minimalist street style that perfectly anchors her visceral, weather-bending command over atmospheric physics.

• Peter Parker (Spider-Man): Your friendly neighbor from Queens. He shares a deep, trauma-forged street alliance with Jean Grey following her destructive Roosevelt Island breakdown in Brand New Day, serving as a rare anchor who understands what it's like to try and protect a world that breaks you.