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xp_logsWhen Marius goes to hang out with Forge in the lab to study, it winds up being an afternoon of odd discoveries.
Forge tapped in another set of commands and let the mainframe begin simulating his new designs for the Blackbird's hull configuration. As certain as he was of his design, Scott insisted on computer simulations of air resistance, flight stress, and fuel efficiency before Forge proposed any upgrades to the jet. More busywork, Forge thought as he swiveled his stool to face the next monitor, its split-screen display running a text search in one window and a web browser in the other. Glancing at the lab's other occupant, Forge began typing surreptitiously, idly mumbling to himself.
"I am a... man, yes. Searching for... dating? Companionship? Marriage? This needs more options."
Marius paused in his thumbing through his surpassingly unimpressive business text to look up. "Options for what, mate?" he inquired. His hearing had a certain selective acuity.
Startled, Forge cursed his tendency to think out loud. "Nothing!" he insisted. "I mean, not nothing, just nothing important. Just a... uh... social networking type of arrangement... website for, um... single professionals. It's not a dating website."
His friend looked at the unreadable monitor, then at Forge's face. In light of Forge's adeptness at casual subterfuge, Marius judged the odds of this being a true statement situated comfortably between slim and none.
"Ah, right," Marius replied, steepling his fingers across the table. "So, I presume the options you exclaimed this site to be so sadly deficient in providin' would be somewhere along the lines of 'Willing to embark upon many long an' thankless hours in mutual pursuit of government-sponsored research,' then. I'd imagine that is a bit of a niche field. Clearly whatsoever site you have happened upon would do well to learn the needs of its core consumer-group."
Sighing, Forge clicked through the application. "It's called 'M-Date'. I heard about it through the HeliX mailing list. It's a social networking website for college-age mutants. I mean, it's not as skeevy as a personal ad or anything. I mean, here's the main page."
Forge pulled up the site in a full window and read the main blurb out loud:
"Welcome to M-Date, the premier mutant singles community online! In today's world, many young men and women are searching for their own identity. Uncertainty can come from many sources: genetics, family, or society. We at M-Date realize that the one thing we can be certain on is each other, and so we are offering an exciting risk-free opportunity to meet and network with other singles in the mutant community. Create a free profile and log on, and make a sure connection in an unsure world."
He shrugged. "It doesn't sound all that different from the school, just... well, you wouldn't understand, I expect."
"Different from the school?" Marius mused, grinning. His fingers found a pen as he pushed the chair back to sling his feet over the table. "To the contrary, I believe we are in perfect accord, for I believe 'safer' would be a more accurate term for any option which does not include drawing one's dating pool from within the school itself. Not that I do not love an' cherish all who herein dwell, but any advertisement for Xavier's datin' would include the uncertainty of violent combustion an' sporadically fallin' to evil. No, sounds perfectly reasonable to me." He leaned back, wiggling the pen between his fingers as his smile spread. "Thought you'd sworn off that sort of thing. Thinking of dippin' a toe to the water?"
Forge looked down a his fingers resting on the keyboard. "I'm with you there. Trying to date someone from here would be... well, counterproductive to say the least. But this," he pointed to the monitor, "it's a way to expand. Meet people from outside the school, outside the small circle we live and work with. And if there's more to it..." He shrugged, but looked hopeful. "It's not like I'm spoiled on the entire concept. It's just that here, it's like living in a vault sometimes. We see the same people, work with the same people, eat dinner with the same... a vault? A vault! Of course!"
"Right, clearly," Marius said, giving Forge an odd look. He tilted his face upwards and began trying to balance the shaft of the pen lengthwise across the bridge of his nose. "I sense this would be one of those times I'm here for the answer to a question four days after the askin'. Should I repair so that you might enjoy some private genius-time?"
Ignoring Marius, Forge pulled up the text search he'd been working on in the other window. "It's something from those diaries of Irene Adler that Marie came across. A bunch of precognitive narratives, you know, like Nostradamus but without the rhyming. Here's the one we just found the other day, long story, but - Midnight demoness casting the lives of others over her skin, begetter of two children who dwell unknowning beneath the same vault. He, son of her shape and form, and she, the seed who holds her stolen lives within skin unchanging.." Forge tapped on the screen with one finger. "Children who dwell unknowing beneath the same vault. I was curious about it, because this bit - midnight demoness casting the lives of others over her skin - it seemed familiar. So I was trying to think of what it could mean and it hit me - a shapeshifter! Midnight demoness? Sounds a lot like Mystique. From which it follows..."
He brought the translated couplet up on a larger monitor, highlighting pieces as he spoke. "Begetter of two children. It says one is of her shape and form - that's Kurt. They found out Mystique is his birth mother a while back. But that second bit, the unknown sister - the seed who holds her stolen lives within skin unchanging. Stolen lives... oh my God."
When the next words failed to come, Marius uncrossed his eyes and carefully angled his head just enough to allow himself to look at Forge, the pen still precariously balanced on his nose. "Unless I am mistaken, that would be the silence of a terrible epiphany. What?"
Forge read and reread the prophecy over and over, shaking his head. "It fits with Irene Adler's paradigm. You see, almost all precognitives find a compulsion to express their visions in some type of metaphor. Marie-Ange, for example, uses her painting. Doesn't always make sense unless you know what to look for. But Adler's always been interested specifically in Rogue. You know, our invulnerable R.A.? Skin unchanging? Who absorbs the powers and memories of others by touch? Stolen lives?"
He ran a hand through his hair, then tapped the screen and turned to Marius. "I think Irene Adler is saying that Mystique has two children under this roof. Kurt Sefton... and Marie D'Ancato. They're brother and sister."
The pen fell off the younger boy's nose.
Marius blinked rapidly, then shook his head. "Yes," he said, "this would be exactly why you shouldn't date within the school."
Forge tapped in another set of commands and let the mainframe begin simulating his new designs for the Blackbird's hull configuration. As certain as he was of his design, Scott insisted on computer simulations of air resistance, flight stress, and fuel efficiency before Forge proposed any upgrades to the jet. More busywork, Forge thought as he swiveled his stool to face the next monitor, its split-screen display running a text search in one window and a web browser in the other. Glancing at the lab's other occupant, Forge began typing surreptitiously, idly mumbling to himself.
"I am a... man, yes. Searching for... dating? Companionship? Marriage? This needs more options."
Marius paused in his thumbing through his surpassingly unimpressive business text to look up. "Options for what, mate?" he inquired. His hearing had a certain selective acuity.
Startled, Forge cursed his tendency to think out loud. "Nothing!" he insisted. "I mean, not nothing, just nothing important. Just a... uh... social networking type of arrangement... website for, um... single professionals. It's not a dating website."
His friend looked at the unreadable monitor, then at Forge's face. In light of Forge's adeptness at casual subterfuge, Marius judged the odds of this being a true statement situated comfortably between slim and none.
"Ah, right," Marius replied, steepling his fingers across the table. "So, I presume the options you exclaimed this site to be so sadly deficient in providin' would be somewhere along the lines of 'Willing to embark upon many long an' thankless hours in mutual pursuit of government-sponsored research,' then. I'd imagine that is a bit of a niche field. Clearly whatsoever site you have happened upon would do well to learn the needs of its core consumer-group."
Sighing, Forge clicked through the application. "It's called 'M-Date'. I heard about it through the HeliX mailing list. It's a social networking website for college-age mutants. I mean, it's not as skeevy as a personal ad or anything. I mean, here's the main page."
Forge pulled up the site in a full window and read the main blurb out loud:
"Welcome to M-Date, the premier mutant singles community online! In today's world, many young men and women are searching for their own identity. Uncertainty can come from many sources: genetics, family, or society. We at M-Date realize that the one thing we can be certain on is each other, and so we are offering an exciting risk-free opportunity to meet and network with other singles in the mutant community. Create a free profile and log on, and make a sure connection in an unsure world."
He shrugged. "It doesn't sound all that different from the school, just... well, you wouldn't understand, I expect."
"Different from the school?" Marius mused, grinning. His fingers found a pen as he pushed the chair back to sling his feet over the table. "To the contrary, I believe we are in perfect accord, for I believe 'safer' would be a more accurate term for any option which does not include drawing one's dating pool from within the school itself. Not that I do not love an' cherish all who herein dwell, but any advertisement for Xavier's datin' would include the uncertainty of violent combustion an' sporadically fallin' to evil. No, sounds perfectly reasonable to me." He leaned back, wiggling the pen between his fingers as his smile spread. "Thought you'd sworn off that sort of thing. Thinking of dippin' a toe to the water?"
Forge looked down a his fingers resting on the keyboard. "I'm with you there. Trying to date someone from here would be... well, counterproductive to say the least. But this," he pointed to the monitor, "it's a way to expand. Meet people from outside the school, outside the small circle we live and work with. And if there's more to it..." He shrugged, but looked hopeful. "It's not like I'm spoiled on the entire concept. It's just that here, it's like living in a vault sometimes. We see the same people, work with the same people, eat dinner with the same... a vault? A vault! Of course!"
"Right, clearly," Marius said, giving Forge an odd look. He tilted his face upwards and began trying to balance the shaft of the pen lengthwise across the bridge of his nose. "I sense this would be one of those times I'm here for the answer to a question four days after the askin'. Should I repair so that you might enjoy some private genius-time?"
Ignoring Marius, Forge pulled up the text search he'd been working on in the other window. "It's something from those diaries of Irene Adler that Marie came across. A bunch of precognitive narratives, you know, like Nostradamus but without the rhyming. Here's the one we just found the other day, long story, but - Midnight demoness casting the lives of others over her skin, begetter of two children who dwell unknowning beneath the same vault. He, son of her shape and form, and she, the seed who holds her stolen lives within skin unchanging.." Forge tapped on the screen with one finger. "Children who dwell unknowing beneath the same vault. I was curious about it, because this bit - midnight demoness casting the lives of others over her skin - it seemed familiar. So I was trying to think of what it could mean and it hit me - a shapeshifter! Midnight demoness? Sounds a lot like Mystique. From which it follows..."
He brought the translated couplet up on a larger monitor, highlighting pieces as he spoke. "Begetter of two children. It says one is of her shape and form - that's Kurt. They found out Mystique is his birth mother a while back. But that second bit, the unknown sister - the seed who holds her stolen lives within skin unchanging. Stolen lives... oh my God."
When the next words failed to come, Marius uncrossed his eyes and carefully angled his head just enough to allow himself to look at Forge, the pen still precariously balanced on his nose. "Unless I am mistaken, that would be the silence of a terrible epiphany. What?"
Forge read and reread the prophecy over and over, shaking his head. "It fits with Irene Adler's paradigm. You see, almost all precognitives find a compulsion to express their visions in some type of metaphor. Marie-Ange, for example, uses her painting. Doesn't always make sense unless you know what to look for. But Adler's always been interested specifically in Rogue. You know, our invulnerable R.A.? Skin unchanging? Who absorbs the powers and memories of others by touch? Stolen lives?"
He ran a hand through his hair, then tapped the screen and turned to Marius. "I think Irene Adler is saying that Mystique has two children under this roof. Kurt Sefton... and Marie D'Ancato. They're brother and sister."
The pen fell off the younger boy's nose.
Marius blinked rapidly, then shook his head. "Yes," he said, "this would be exactly why you shouldn't date within the school."
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