xp_logs | Forge & Angelo, on the lake, Monday afternoon

King Forge the First has set up court out in the middle of the lake for Spring Break, and his first two supplicants arrive bearing gifts and surprisingly fruitful conversation. Well, Angelo provides conversation. Joyita provides wet.

He'd got most of his files straightened out, so Angelo decided he deserved a good long lunch break today - and on seeing Forge's post, he knew where he'd be taking it.

Joyita splashing along beside him, he wasted no time swimming out, dragging a cooler full of sandwiches and other food.

The noise of a swimmer alerted Forge to cease his websurfing and close his laptop, especially since the distinctively dog-flavored noises meant the inevitable shake-and-soak that the animals were prone to. Sliding his laptop into its case, Forge smiled when he saw his roommate and Joyita clamber up onto the shore.

"Ah, my first loyal subjects," he quipped, "have you brought tribute for your king?"

Angelo laughed, straightening up just in time to avoid being sprayed in the face with lake water and holding up the cooler. "Doritos an' Mountain Dew in here. It's not a case, but there's food."

"Awesome," Forge said happily, sitting up in his lawn chair. He'd brought one of the small boats out - the weather wasn't quite hot enough to rationalize swimming the entire way to the island, not for him anyway. But the day was shaping up to be quite lovely, and pragmatically he'd figured that the best way to get work done was to stay out of the way of dozens of students and fellow staff members who suddenly had nothing but free time. And if he got some of that fabled "fresh air" in the process, so much the better.

He gestured to another chair, leaning back and lowering his sunglasses as he cracked open a can of soda. "So Mr. D's not letting you guys off the chain for Spring Break? Harsh. Then again, you did just get back from vacation."

Angelo dropped into the chair easily, Joyita flopping out at his feet. "Not officially. But the work rate's way down this week, 'cause a lot of other people're takin' off."

"Tell me about it. Between server upgrades, new protocol implementations, and my side projects, I had to install a timed reminder on my computer to tell me it was time to take a break. Hence," Forge gestured around himself, "break."

"Well, that's one way to go about it", Angelo said with a grin. "Writin' a break into your schedule, I mean."

"While not as obsessively scheduled and color-coordinated as some might be," Forge replied, "I find that some regular relaxation time results in lowered stress and increased efficiency. Not to mention less nagging to eat by the Teen Girl Squad." He shared a quick laugh with Angelo and reached out to scratch the dog between the ears. "So how go things over in the Save The World Through Tourism business, otherwise known as Elpis?"

"Not too bad", he said with a smile. "Gettin' back on our feet, 'specially now more of ours are out of the hospital. I wanted to talk to you about somethin' with that, actually. Sort of."

"What, keeping more of yours out of the hospital?" Forge said as he tossed an empty soda can into a trash bag, "Maybe setting up your international headquarters in a country where suicide bombing isn't the national sport might help, but the folks over in Tel Aviv tell me that the new security measures are in place there, which will help a lot. Or did you have another something in mind?"

"What I was doin' that week I was away", Angelo said casually, looking over at him. "Not Madagascar, before that. I was out tryin' to find the Preservers in New York - official undercover thing. An' it got me to thinkin'."

"All 'Donnie Brasco' and stuff, huh?" Forge was suddenly intrigued. While he knew Angelo came from a less-than-stellar background with the gangs and the crime, he'd always been impressed by how the older mutant had risen above that. Being able to use it for positive ends, however, now that was interesting. He motioned for Angelo to continue as he looked around in the cooler for the chips.

"Yeah. An' these kids I met - well, not even kids, they were about my age, most of them... it was maybe too late for anyone to change their minds on the Preserver thing, but... they're not the only ones out there who manifest an' then they're out on their own."

Forge caught where Angelo was headed with this line of conversation. "You're talking about HeliX, aren't you? Something to offer new mutants an alternative to the radical politics, from either side." He wasn't surprised; in the past weeks since the Preserver bombings, the HeliX mailing lists had been flooded with discussions on how to help and the purpose of the youth organization in the face of such events.

"Exactly. An' to try an' keep the really radical ones from scoopin' them up because it feels like they're all there is to turn to."

Forge pondered that a moment. "It's a balancing act," he said sagely, "because on the one hand, no one's going to pretend it's easy for mutants to live a normal life. Especially those who're obviously different." He didn't bother indicating Angelo as a prime example, knowing full well that his suitemate had lived through exactly what he meant. "But on the other, we have to offer something more than a future of risking your neck for the greater good. HeliX needs to be a calm medium, that's the intent. To show that you don't have to be aggressively pro-mutant to live peacefully as one - you shouldn't have to be stuck to only one option. You shouldn't have to throw a protest or a parade to not be ashamed of your genetics."

"Well, yeah. I didn't mean we should try an' get them all to come here an' put on leather. Just that... yeah, there are ways to live your life even if you can't pass, without goin' Brotherhood or Preservers or whatever."

Forge pondered that. "Show them that there are positive lifestyle options," he mused. "You know, this is where Jay needs to hurry up and have a hit album - we need visible mutants out there as successful icons to point to. Marie-Ange had an idea of a mutant-centric fashion campaign. You know, get obvious mutants on billboards modeling - stuff like that to show these emergent mutants that even though things are strange and frightening, that there's a place for them in regular old real life, with other real people."

"That could be somewhere to start", Angelo agreed. "Or... Laurie's into journalism, right? Maybe she could write somethin' up, a column about mutants who do live regular lives, that kind of thing."

"Yeeeeah," Forge said casually, looking for a way to artfully deflect that particular direction of conversation. "Marie and Ororo have been talking to some of the students about a newspaper to go with the yearbook. With Angel's photography, it might not be a bad student project to get started on. Heck, Tommy might not be the most popular guy in Salem Center, but Janet probably knows people who know people."

Angelo nodded. "It'd be a good example for some of the kids, too. I mean, not to say that they'd all end up team without it, but for the ones that don't have families to go back to when they graduate, or only have them a long way away..."

"I'll see what I can get started," Forge agreed, pulling out his laptop to make a note. "Every little step counts, after all."