xp_logs | Forge and John, Monday afternoon

Finally, Forge and John meet. There's just as much snark as you think there would be. Similar outlooks, but not the same.

The door to the office was open. John poked his head in, leaning a forearm against the wooden panel. "Got a second?"

Forge glanced up at the unfamiliar voice. Recognizing John from the journals, he closed his laptop and nodded, grateful for the momentary respite from telling his fellow staff members how absolutely stupid they were. "Mister Allerdyce. John, right? St. John, by the records, but since I gather that seems to be a rather offending appellation, we'll go with the old standby. John. Good name. Mine, too. What can I do for you today, John?"

"I don't know, Mr. Forge. I seemed to have lost my way." He rolled his eyes a little before stepping into the younger man's office. "Look, I'll forgive you for the lack of a 42 inch plasma. Right now, I'm in need of a cell phone. You're the kid--...man for that, right?"

"That I am," Forge said with a nod, sliding his chair back from his desk to unlock a file cabinet. Withdrawing one of the standard-issue Xavier's phones, he plugged it into his computer while he rummaged for the necessary accoutrements. "It'll just take a sec, uploading the latest security firmware and identification codes. Pretty standard text messaging capability, email, remote access to the journal system - although you strike me more as the laptop type. All with the latest and greatest in high-security encryption. Don't thank me for that, the coding stuff's all Kitty's doing."

He paused, feeling slightly awkward with all the babbling. "Yeah, so... what brings you back into the fold?"

John had taken a seat on one of the vacant chairs in front of the desk. He leaned back just then, glancing up at hearing the question and seemed to contemplate it for a moment before answering. "Just needed a place to crash," he said.

Well, that was a dodged question if he'd ever heard one, Forge thought. If John Allerdyce had his secrets, then he was welcome to them. "Fair enough," he said, tapping in the commands to load the security software onto the cell phone. "You've acquired quite the reputation here, you know. For the first few months I was here, all I got was 'wow, he's just like the other John'. And then, well, abducted by Magneto and I get it from that side too. It seems you've got a talent for pissing absolutely everyone off. Well done, man."

He snorted. "...hardly lifting a finger," he muttered out. "So." John let out a bit of a smirk. "Abducted by Magneto, huh. I'm guessing that you weren't in support of him though?"

"Not at that point, no. At first..." Forge paused for a moment in introspection, "I didn't exactly have the healthiest outlook on life before I knew I was a mutant. Long story short, decided it'd be a good idea to build a bomb and bring it to school, goes off early in my locker and whoosh, welcome to the good parking spaces." He held up his prosthetic arm for emphasis, smiling wryly. "So when I get refused treatment at three emergency rooms because I test positive for the x-gene, I figure life couldn't suck any worse, you know? And I come across the Lehnsherr Manifesto, you know, that statement of purpose he put out shortly after Liberty Island? And even though my parents sent me here, I still had the whole fuck 'em all, we're superior by nature mindset."

Forge steepled his fingers, a brief look of shame crossing his face. "Then, of course, I meet the man and get to see the other side of that belief. The madness, the willingness to sacrifice and to kill for what he believes in. Kind of a radical eye-opener."

"Well, you can't wage a war without shedding some blood." John gave out a smile. "So what makes you such a genius? Is that a mutant thing?"

Forge's face went cold. "War is nothing more than the failure of rationality from all involved. I prefer to think that if you think of mutants as the future of humanity, we need to be as evolved intellectually and ethically as we are in other matters. As for the 'mutant thing', I invent stuff. Technically it's a form of hypercognition focused on mechanics and engineering. That part of the brain that got the first caveman to rub two sticks together and make fire? Mine's on super-steroids. I can basically build anything I can think of." He stopped to unhook the cell phone and hand it over towards John. "Even a 42 inch plasma television."

John accepted it with a gracious nod of thanks. "I was merely stating a factual point, kid. As you said so yourself, there's no commonsense in war, hence the blood spill. And I might have regretted what I did but at least I knew what I was getting into." He slipped the phone into his pocket as he stood up. "Plain ignorance on your side is what's helped you settle into this place. So you're really one of the good guys. Now about that 42 inch plasma -- whenever you're feeling generous, aight?"

Forge raised an eyebrow at the 'ignorance' comment, but let it pass. "And what're you getting yourself into now, I wonder? Just taking life as it comes, ranting about the clichés of the day to the other wannabe anarchists outside the Hot Topic? Or do you feel like getting some actual good done?"

"Why? You gonna offer me a desk job?"

"Maybe if I was feeling generous," Forge responded, turning back to his laptop. "Just testing the waters, so to speak. I figure someone who has that much fire, if you'll pardon the pun, probably ought to have an idea where to direct it. Just wondering out loud, that's all."

"Well, if I'm ever feeling the need to share my business with you, I'll be sure to drop by. Just to keep you from wondering too much."