xp_logs | Logan meets Forge, Thursday afternoon

After talking to Kyle, Logan runs into one of his suitemates (almost literally). After some confusion, he agrees to humor some of Forge's innate curiosity.

Forge felt the weight of the heavy goggles sliding against his face,
and he reached a hand back to tighten one of the straps he'd rigged
for the apparatus. At the moment, he couldn't see a thing and it felt
uncomfortably like having a brick tied to the front of his face.
Giving the device a few more adjustments, he flipped the activation
toggle and watched the world slowly fade into view in shades of green.

With a smile, he tightened the field of view and flipped another
toggle. As if out of nowhere, lines of force popped into sight,
streaks of bright blue light through the walls, outlining the
mechanisms that were opening the door before him, revealing every cog
and piston through the plaster-and-concrete walls.

This, he realized, was how the magnetopaths could see the world, in
terms of electromagnetics. It had taken a few days to adapt the device
he'd created to track Lorna back in October into a head-mounted goggle
system able to view lines of magnetic force. Metallic objects shone
like small suns, even through wooden doors. With a wince, Forge
tightened the field of view even more, trying not to blind himself by
accidentally looking to the left and the odd EM-distortion caused by
his prosthetic arm.

Curiosity as his guide, he ascended the stairs from the lab and headed
for the kitchen.

Logan scowled at the fridge up in the kitchen. Seems he'd kicked his
case of brew already, and it was only Thursday. He'd have to go get
another. Grumbling, he closed the fridge and walked out of the kitchen
towards the garage. At least he still had the use of Scott's bike
while he was out somewhere licking his wounds.

The sound of footsteps and a glow at the edge of Forge's narrow field
of vision meant someone walking towards him. Wondering just what the
human body looked like on the EM spectrum, Forge dialed up the
sensitivity and rounded the corner, eyes wide open behind the goggles.

It was, in essence, like looking directly into a high-powered floodlight.

The flash of actinic light stunned Forge, and he instinctively stepped
backwards. Right toward the stairs he'd just ascended.

Luckily for Forge, Logan had almost inhumanly-fast reflexes. He darted
forward, pushing off on his back foot to grab the front of Forge's
shirt and hold him up so he didn't go spilling back down the stairs.
To save time, he popped a single claw on his other hand and cut the
mask from Forge's face, careful not to crease the boy's skin or skull.

Spluttering, Forge instinctively flinched away as the goggles
clattered to the ground, raising his fists to rub spots away from his
eyes. "What in the hell?" he muttered, feeling himself pulled up and
leaned against the wall. "Thanks there, um..."

He blinked away the spots, then cocked his head at the unfamiliar
figure before him. "I don't know you, do I?" Then he saw the
twelve-inch adamantium blade extending from Logan's fist and his eyes
grew wide. "...holy shit..." he squeaked out weakly as he pressed back
further against the wall.

Logan retracted the claw and then looked at Forge intently. "You all
right?" he asked gruffly. He was getting a nosefull of HOLY SHIT off
this kid, and that usually made him cranky. "And I'm Logan."

Forge shook his head affirmatively, staring at the older man's
knuckles, watching the wound close itself. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay." His
fear was suddenly forgotten in the recognition of the name and the
resurgence of his natural curiosity. "So you're Logan. Huh.
Somehow I thought you'd be taller."

With a shrug, he reached down to pick up his goggles, turning them
over in his hand. "Man, I seriously need to recalibrate these things.
Either they're misinterpreting data, or you're walking around with a
gigantic electromagnetic sinkhole inside you. You're... not, are you?"

Logan shrugged. "A giant who-what?" he asked, confused. He might have
been referring to the metal on his bones, but he wasn't sure. Besides,
it wasn't something he espcially liked to talk about.

Forge held up the goggles. "Penetrating magnetic resonance visualizer.
Kind of like the x-ray specs you see on the back of comic books? Makes
stuff stand out that carries any kind of electromagnetic charge. Those
probably do," he nodded at Logan's hands, "but unless you've got about
two hundred pounds of ultra-dense ferrous metal in you, these are darn
near useless." He shook the goggles with a scowl. "I'm Forge, by the
way. You'll probably hear half the staff either praising or cursing my
name, depending on what the crisis of the day is or how bored I get.
You one of the new teachers, then?"

"Something like that, yeah." he said, leaving it ambiguous as to what,
precisely, he was referring to. "And the goggles work correctly." he
said, declining to elaborate further.

Forge's eyebrows hit his hairline, but he kept his mouth shut. He
recognized the "don't ask questions" tone well after getting it
from Mr. Summers constantly. "Cool then," he remarked, stepping over
to grab an apple from a nearby basket. Taking a bite and chewing, he
looked at Logan curiously, cocking his head. He didn't move
like anyone with bionic augmentation - even his posture was completely
normal, if a little slouched. And Forge knew how to recognize the
telltale signs of mechanical augmentation after spending the better
part of two months rebuilding Haroun from the ribs down.

"Unless I'm wrong, I'm guessing you're also part of the, well,
non-teaching group here, too?" he ventured.

Logan just grinned at Forge. "You could say that, too." he said, and
then made up his mind. "Follow me, kid. You got questions, you should
see the answers." And with that he headed down towards the basement -
and the Medical complex.

With a disbelieving blink, Forge tossed the apple towards the garbage
and practically spring off the counter. An adult actually
willing to cooperate with his prying curiosity? This could be
an incredibly beneficial relationship.