xp_logs | Angelo and Forge: the Odd Couple

Forge finds Angelo moving into his new room and gives him a hand with the boxes. Conversation ensues on everything from Paige to Asgard to planning Boiler Beach 2.0.

Forge whistled as he sauntered down the hall, blazer already unbuttoned and tie loosened. No classes for five days in a row meant it was time to relax, unwind, and just crash. He had a wonderful plan in mind, involving a couch, a twelve-pack of soda, and some time alone with the new electronics expo catalogs to clear his mind of the week's events.

As he stepped into the common room of the suite he'd come to think of as 'his', a few discrepancies immediately jumped to his attention. The first was that his normally haphazard pile of engineering texts and industry magazines had been neatly stacked on the small coffee table, and the mess of empty shipping boxes and unrolled bubble tape had been arranged by one wall.

The other wall, by the previously unoccupied room, had a number of boxes sitting by the door, some with clothes hanging out the top. This was a sign, Forge realized. This meant something...

This meant someone was moving in.

Hearing a noise in the other room, he checked his PDA quickly. No, they wouldn't have put a new student in with him. The two-room suites were reserved for staff, or graduates, or...

There it was, the email from Charles about reorganizing living quarters for potential new staff, consolidating those who were singly inhabiting suites, et cetera, et cetera... then his eye fell upon the name at the bottom of the email. Forge blinked, almost audibly, then stepped back out into the hall to check his suite number. With a sigh, he shut down his PDA and stepped back inside, knocking on the half-open door to his new suitemate's room.

Angelo looked over his shoulder where he was half-crouched on the bed, fixing his dreamcatcher to the wall above it. That... was only likely to be one person. "Hey, Forge."

Inwardly, Forge laughed to himself. Despite having been at Xavier's for almost two years, it was still occasionally shocking to realize that you could go that long without ever actually speaking to some of the other inhabitants face-to-face. Less surprising, of course, if said inhabitants had been ones you'd perhaps been avoiding.

"Angelo," Forge answered, looking around at the rather spartan room that was slowly getting some semblance of personality to it. "Looks like they're consolidating some of us graduates all together, then. Thought you were rooming with Bobby, though?"

"I was", came the answer with a crooked grin as he finished what he was doing and stepped off the bed. "But he's moved in with Terry. So here I am."

"Moved in with Terry. O...kay," Forge said, trying to hide a sardonic grin. "That'll make the next breakup fun. But anyway, hey. Sorry about the, um, mess out there. Wasn't expecting anyone moving in, and I kind of tend to be... unconventionally organized?"

"Won't it just. Five bucks says he'll spend at least one night in the boathouse in the next month. An' it's okay - I wouldn't have moved anythin', but I didn't want to tread on it or knock it over or whatever while I was luggin' my boxes."

Forge looked out at the boxes, and suddenly wondered why he kept them. Wasn't like he needed them, and it certainly wasn't any trouble to take them down to the recycler. He absently remembered something Dr. Samson had said about using his routines to build a wall around himself, maybe this was just taking it a bit literally.

Forge decided that he was, at this moment, tired of walls.

"Hey," he offered, pulling another of the boxes towards him with a foot. "Need a hand? I've got nothing to do for a few hours anyway, and... well, not like we hang out or anything but if we're going to be sharing a suite, shouldn't be strangers, right?"

That got a grin, faintly surprised - more because the offer was unexpected than that the offer from Forge was unexpected - but pleased. "Sure, if you don't mind. Save me a bit of time - thanks."

"It's no problem," Forge said, rolling up his sleeves and unbuttoning his collar. "So long as neither one of us is bringing home strange women at indecent hours or throwing the wild frathouse parties." It definitely wasn't the strangest living arrangement Forge had heard of - the odd stories of Remy and Mr. Marko sharing the boathouse kind of trumped everything there - but it slowly dawned on him that he didn't know the first thing about Angelo's personal life, with the exception of...

"So how did you lose Paige, anyway?" the question was blurted out before Forge had time to think about those silly things like tact.

"I can promise no wild frathouse parties. I don't have time for..." The sentence cut off at the question, and he blinked for a second before starting to answer, slowly. "If I could answer that, I'd understand a whole lot of things better. The simple version is... we didn't want the same things. An' one or other of us could've tried... but it wouldn't've worked."

"I'm sorry," Forge apologized with rapid frantic gestures. "Totally none of my business. It's just... I work with her all the time and everyone keeps talking about how you and her were... and then her and Jono, but still you and her, and then... well, I tried asking her once and - okay, you know that look she has where it's like you just had a bucket of ice water dumped in your lap? That one." He threw up his hands in consternation, then pulled over a box of various clothes and pushed it into the room. "Me, I just chalk it up to the fact that women just don't make any logical sense. That's my new conclusion."

"Ohhh yeah, I know that look", Angelo said with a sympathetic wince, reaching for a box with a replica Spartan helmet sticking out of the top. "Basically, it's a very long, very complicated story, we both made mistakes, an' it ended a lot better than it could've done. She's... happier, anyway. An' I'm okay, so it's all good."

"Things do work out that way, at least," Forge agreed with a knowing nod. "She's an incredible woman and -- holy crap, is that a SWORD?" he yelped, finally noticing the long-bladed weapon carefully laid across the bed. "Jumping Jesus, that thing's huge!"

Angelo glanced at it, then grinned. "Yeah, it's a sword. Gonna go on the wall when I get the hooks up. Souvenir from Asgard... did you hear about Asgard?"

At the mention, Forge dropped his head into his hands, almost shaking. "Oh god, did I ever. I drove to California - and back - with Jubilee. Every third sentence was 'y'know, when I was in Asgard', with occasional 'when I fought a demon' or 'when I was in Illyana's hell dimension'..."

"When Jubilee was in Asgard", Angelo said, amused, "she spent almost the entire time pixie-sized, with wings, in a cage as a Dark Elf's pet. Until Doug bought her from him. Bet she didn't tell you that part."

"With hand puppets!" Forge laughed. "And it didn't help that Catseye's bouncing up and down in the backseat crying 'Sparklygirl tell story AGAIN!'. I tell you, eight days in a car with the ADD Duo? Hell. But then again, the beach and the bikinis made it worthwhile." He punctuated the sentence with a suggestive eyebrow waggle and leaned against the doorframe. "Good times," he said, somewhat wistfully.

Angelo shot a considering look in the direction of the door. "I wonder if that beach setup's still down in the boiler room. We could probably argue the solar-powered ones here need it back for the winter, if it isn't..."

Forge smiled at that. "You know, Dr. McCoy just sent over some plans for hologram projectors for the Danger Room. I'll bet if I modified one of those, along with the sunlamps and the deck chairs, we could put together a pretty neat little simulator. Boiler Beach 2.0."

Angelo grinned wickedly. "Sunlamps, deckchairs, one of your projectors an' a bit of real sand for effect... then sit back an' watch the bikinis."

Forge thought for a moment, then nodded and whistled. "At this rate, Angelo, we need to get you your own Genius Hat. I think this'll work out fine. Good times, indeed."