xp_logs | Forge and Crystal - Apologies (Reply)

Crystal delivers a thank-you note to Forge, knocking on the door this time. To Crystal's shock, she discovers what really caused the fire during her previous visit. A conversation about powers follows, but no shouting matches or raging fires are involved this time.

Feeling more than a bit of trepidation, Crystal approached Forge's workshop. Clutching the small envelope in her left hand, she mulled over her last visit there, the one that had involved a shouting match and unkind words. Neither one of them had acted towards the other in a civil manner; each one had been holding in feelings about their inability to do anything about the situation with Jennie and Marius. Now they were both back, and Marius was a student again. Perhaps Forge was a precog, or maybe he had known more than he had let on. No, Crystal decided. He had been genuinely worried about the whereabouts of Marius and Jennie. He had simply been in denial, but now what he had wanted to happen had come true.

This time, she would knock.

Hearing the knock, Forge looked up from where he'd been working, glancing at the closed-circuit monitor. When he recognized Crystal, he immediately turned off the laser he'd been modifying, looked around to ensure no flammable materials were in the open, and checked all the valves on the many tanks of gas used for welding and blowtorching metal before he cleared his throat and headed to the door. No need to facilitate another inferno, he decided.

"Crystal," he said as he opened the door. "What can I do for you today?"

Crystal smiled at Forge, holding out the envelope. "This is for you. There is no need for concern; I am not organizing another catered event any time soon. It is just a thank-you note."

"Oh," Forge was slightly taken aback, but managed to accept the envelope gracefully. "It was, uh, it was fun. Not too fancy, but nice. That's, uh..." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I... I want to apologize for calling you a selfish royal brat the other week.
Tensions were kind of high all around, and I was out of line saying that to you."

Yes, you were rather out of line. And so was I. "Thank you, Forge," Crystal replied. "I know I said some things that I would not have said under other circumstances. Of course, under calm circumstances, I would have knocked on the door and waited for you to answer it, not caused the door to open and walked in without being invited.. I was just...very upset." Truthfully, she still wasn't entirely happy, but she had calmed down significantly since then.

"Upset?" Forge said with a slightly sarcastic smile. "I wouldn't have guessed, what with the fire and all."

"The fire?" Crystal looked at Forge, confused. "As I told you then, I am sorry that I did not notice it right away. True, I was upset, and had I not been so angry and distracted, I am sure that I would have noticed the fire earlier than I did." Crystal felt a bit silly
at the thought of being so absorbed in her thoughts and ire at Forge that she had not noticed a raging fire.

Forge nodded, leaning against the door frame. "We'll keep that in mind the next time you almost sent a room up in flames. Keep her in a good mood. Check."

"What?" Forge's revelation was rewarded with a blank stare. "Forge, what are you talking about?"

Forge raised an eyebrow. "You? Angry. Air pressure goes up, wind blows, spark from the blowtorch plus oily rags equals fire... ringing any bells? I mean, you did a great job with the oxygen trick putting it out, and I know you didn't mean to start the fire. Accidents happen, even for folks who've usually got good control."

"I started the fire? But... the blowtorch... it... I..." Crystal looked at Forge, wide-eyed, suddenly at a loss for words. She had used her power to start a fire? Weeks ago? And she was just finding this out now?

"Accidents happen," Forge repeated, putting a hand on Crystal's shoulder. "Look, I'm not mad, you kept it from spreading and to tell the truth, that was impressive enough to really make me forget the whole 'almost burned the place down' thing. And besides, I really should have known better than to needle the girl who can manipulate air when I had a burning gas torch still going."

Crystal fought the instinct to have her body go tense. Americans and their disregard for personal space. As if she needed to be comforted and patronized. "I do not allow accidents to happen with me," Crystal informed Forge. "Uncontrolled abilities are dangerous. A lack in control is unacceptable."

Forge laughed out loud, letting go of Crystal's shoulder and shaking his head. "Crys," he began, "whether or not you think something's unacceptable doesn't mean it's impossible. And whether or not you 'allow' accidents to happen, they still will. There's always going to
be some unknown factor, some chance at randomness that can throw a wrench into the works."

He folded his arms and gave Crystal a knowing look. "You control air, on an instinctive level. All the complex calculations of temperature, windspeed, pressure, pneumatic flow - you do it all without even thinking and it's amazing. But while pushing to be perfect might be admirable - it can drive you crazy. You're fifteen years old. Accept a mistake now and then, work past it, and move on."

Crystal was tempted to attempt the start of another fire in the workshop, or at least to hit something with a blast of hot, fast, pressurized air. "My name," she said as calmly as she could, "is Crystal. Not Crys. Crystal. I am now sixteen, not fifteen. I manifested more than eight years ago. I have spent a great deal of time perfecting my skills. When I was surprised to discover that I could also form water, I did not ignore it. I worked
on it for hours every single day. It would have been irresponsible for me to do otherwise. I am still working on that aspect of my powers, and I will work on this one as well."

Forge smiled slightly, cocking his head at Crystal in a gesture of amused curiosity. "Sixteen," he said in a solemn tone. "I do apologize. I wasn't aware that eight years of perfection meant that you never make mistakes. Clearly, then, the fire was intentional, I assume?"

"No Forge, it was not intentional." Crystal resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You know that. It was an unintended consequence of my emotionally charged state of mind. I cannot recall ever feeling such great outrage. I could not have known that starting a fire in your workshop was a possibility." The few people who had upset or annoyed her had suddenly found themselves far, far away from her. And of course, more recently, the man on the beach had found himself in a
mutant-created rainshower. "As I have already stated, I intend to work on this. If I can start a fire without intending to do so, I should be able to learn how to do so when I actually want to start a fire."

"Right," Forge said reassuringly, "but you're learning. Part of learning is making mistakes and questioning them, analyzing them. Take my power, for example. Given perfect materials, I could build a literally perfect machine. But there's no such thing as perfect materials. In any machine, energy is lost due to friction, air resistance, parts break down. So I have to learn to expect these tiny little errors that result, and work around them."

He held his hands a foot apart, gesturing in circles. "It's the same with you. There are few branches of mathematics more complex than those which express airflow dynamics. Even with your grasp of it, there'll always be those little tiny errors, because the medium itself is imperfect. And with your power developing, with you discovering these new aspects? There are going to be flaws, and flaws cause mistakes. It's inevitable." Forge clasped his hands together, looking Crystal in the eyes. "You don't have to accept carelessness, but you do have to accept the inevitable."

Crystal nodded, allowing a small sigh to escape. Tiny errors could be worked around; larger ones could be disastrous. "I am here to learn," she replied. "At least I already know how to stop a fire."

"Which, if I haven't mentioned, was amazingly brilliant," Forge said, letting out a mental sigh of relief that the girl got the point. "You've got a massive headstart on most of the other students here when it comes to controlling your powers. You've also got a bigger burden than a lot of them, because of the level of precise control you're trying for. Just be patient with yourself."

He sighed and leaned harder against the doorframe, rubbing his forehead with a tired look. "I know it sounds like a lot of condescending platitudes, especially coming from me. Because I can't do a lot of the obvious things you can, or Ororo can, or Mr. Dayspring can, or even Kyle can. I never had to worry about
control. Instead, I have to worry about how I choose to use my abilities, that's my burden. And I know how it feels to try and do it flawlessly. I've got a lot to make up for. So it's not just platitudes, Crys-- Crystal," he corrected himself quickly. "I do understand."

"Yes, you did mention that fact," Crystal told Forge. "I appreciate it. Yes, I have a better grasp on control of my powers than the majority of students here. I have worked hard to have that level of control; it did not just happen overnight." She studied Forge intently for a moment. When she had first discovered what his power was, she had been greatly amused. It was one of the more...unusual abilities she had heard about, but she was able to recognize the fact that it could be a very useful one. Still, being able to invent just about anything was not even close to being a power she'd care to trade hers for, not
that she'd want to trade her abilities for any other ones she had heard about.

"You are not the only one who has to be concerned about how to use your mutation. Everyone should be concerned about the way he or she chooses to use his or her abilities. In the wrong hands, nearly any type of power can be a deadly weapon." The ability to destroy with a look, a sound, a touch.... you didn't have to have a long-range power to have the potential to cause harm. Surely, if he wanted to, Forge could invent machines that would allow him to mimic
and use some of the abilities of other mutants. "Also, although you might not have had to worry about developing control per se, you do practice a lot, do you not? You seem to be working on something almost all of the time."

Forge smiled at that. "That's not practice. That's keeping my sanity," he explained. "My powers don't turn off. If I don't do something with them, it starts to become almost a compulsion. It gets harder to look at a television as more than just a set of electronics displaying a signal - if you wonder why I don't watch much TV or play video games, that's why. I look at a machine, and I see... more than other people, I guess. I see how it works, how it could work better, what else I could do with it." He shrugged and spread his hands noncommitally. "Imagine eating a plate of pasta and only being able to think of it as wheat plus egg plus water plus salt plus tomato plus basil plus oregano plus beef. That's how my power lets me see things. And if I don't use it, then that's all I see."

That had to be one of the most disturbing things Crystal had ever heard. It was sad, too, and did sound like it was quite capable of driving someone well past the brink of insanity. "I cannot even begin to imagine what that must be like," Crystal said softly. "I know that I perceive the air in a different manner than other people do, but not to the point where I am compelled to do something." She paused, looking thoughtful. "I do prefer being in the air to standing on the ground, but I can do that just about any time, and when classes are over I can fly high and free, not just hover a few inches above the floor. Of course, if I do not get the chance to use my powers, the air will not suddenly look different to me."

"Welcome to the fun world of mutation-induced divergent brain chemistry," Forge said with a sardonic grin, "Or at least that's what Dr. MacTaggart's report said. On the upside, when my power's running full-blast, my brain treats it like I'm asleep. That's why I can stay up for days on end without going bonkers. On the downside, well, I tend to think of the benefits more than the drawbacks. But my point is - you can't be too hard on yourself about control when your powers are
still developing and changing on you. Accidents happen, but they only have to happen once, you know?"

Crystal nodded. Were they back to that? "I will do my best to ensure that I will never again accidentally cause a fire in your workshop," she said solemnly.

"Fair enough," Forge said. "Thank you for the, um, 'thank you'," he said awkwardly, holding up the envelope. "Or, 'you're welcome', I suppose."

Crystal smiled. "If you are thanking me for the note, I believe 'thank you' is fine. Then I can thank you for thanking me for the thank-you note. I am sure that you need to utilize your powers, and I do not wish to be late for class. It was nice to speak with you without shouting or setting your workshop on fire."

"We can get some shouting in if you'd like," Forge quipped with a carefree wave of his hand, "And if you're interested in exploring your powers further, the Professor asked me to put together a lesson plan for a day of the Powers Class later this semester. Should be fun."

"No, I think I have had my share of shouting and harsh words, enough to last me for the next few years," Crystal replied with a small smile. "I am always interested in working on my powers, strengthening them, and discovering new ways in which they can be used." And this one, fire... it was definitely an interesting development. It was almost a shame she'd never screamed at anyone like that before. Now she was back to that newly manifested feeling yet again.

"Then off to class with you," Forge stated imperiously, giving a melodramatic wave of dismissal with his hand. "Unless your powers are going to extend to time manipulation, you've got about two and a half minutes to make it to class."

"No, I cannot see that my powers would ever allow me to do any sort of time manipulation. Also, while super-speed is not one of my powers, I can move through the air at a fairly nice speed. Stay sane." Crystal turned, left the workshop, and flew off to class.