xp_logs | Forge and Crystal

Crystal stops by Forge's office to surreptitiously retrieve a package. Why is she being so sneaky? Who knows...?

The mail had arrived. There was a chance that the much-awaited envelope wouldn't arrive until the next day, but Crystal had been tracking the package and was fairly certain that today was the day. Now, she just had to get to the treasure trove before Forge noticed the "from" address or a well-meaning student saw it and told him about it. A light wind rapped softly on the door and Crystal stepped inside Forge's office, blue-green eyes darting quickly to the pile of mail on the desk before she focused her attention on the other occupant of the room.

"Good afternoon," she greeted Forge.

"Afternoon," Forge said absently, greeting Crystal with a nod as he focused on the small computer screen in front of him. "I tell you, the economics of business are enough to make my brain want to escape out my ears and retire to some beach in Tahiti with a fruity drink best served in a coconut husk. I'm getting more practical applications of my classes than I know what to do with, what with trying to order more parts and materials for the lab through import companies. Tariffs and taxes and regulations and - argh. I'm beginning to understand the supply-side model of economics. Much in the way that one learns how to fight by being beaten up repeatedly. Supply and Demand have taken me into a back alley and pummeled me around for pocket change, figuratively speaking. So how's your day going?"

"Your brain would last perhaps one entire day on the beach of Tahiti with a fruity drink and a coconut husk before it melted and became one with the sand," Crystal commented. "Unless, of course, it brought some sort of electronic device or machine with it in order to keep itself busy." The blonde stepped closer to the recently delivered stack of mail. "I am expecting an important delivery. If it is permissible, I would like to go ahead and look through the mail to see if it was delivered with today's mail."

Forge waved a hand at the pile. "Go ahead. It's all been scanned by the security monitor, and the girl that comes in now to sort it... ah hell, I can never remember her name. She's off home for her bat mitzvah and so I'm stuck doing it myself when I get around to it." He glanced over at Crystal and smiled weakly. "If I ever express an interest toward a career in the administrative field, you have my permission to smack me upside the head."

"Now Forge," Crystal chided lightly, "you should know that I would never smack you upside the head. Were there a need for me to smack you upside the head, I would simply have someone do it for me." Keeping her laughter inside, Crystal began to look through the mail.

"Delegation, the true mark of leadership," Forge intoned sarcastically. Pondering for a moment, he looked out the door of his office. "I've been meaning to ask, by the way - no bodyguards these days?"

"They are invisible, of course," Crystal told Forge without looking up. "Completely undetectable." She moved a few envelopes to the side. "It was in a memo I... here it is!" Triumphantly, she seized the padded envelope and looked at it, grinning.

Forge arched an eyebrow. "Really? You know, as much as you might think that's a good idea, as I'm still ostensibly in charge of security here, I... you're putting me on. Okay, you had me going there. Invisible and undetectable. Feh!" he exclaimed, waving a hand and turning away from the mail pile. "Invisibility is up there with time travel as one of the great impossibles of mutation. Or so it's claimed, anyway."

Crystal smirked for a moment, her face hidden behind the envelope. "Hm. I am not so sure about the possibility of time travel. Other dimensions where time moves at a different rate, perhaps even the existence of a dimension quite similar to our own but appearing to exist at a different point in time, yes, but actual time travel? I would not be surprised to hear about a mutant who could become invisible, though." She moved her arm down, carefully keeping the addressed side of the envelope facing away from Forge, even though he wasn't looking at her. "Keep your brain inside of your head where it belongs, yes? Do not let it take a vacation to Tahiti, no matter how much it begs."

"It better not go without the rest of me," Forge complained, focusing on his screen again.

Crystal left Forge's office and headed to her room to open the envelope and examine its contents. Forge was in for a big surprise.