Kevin & Forge | Thursday evening
Nov. 8th, 2007 08:25 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsKevin just wanted help to make waterfalls. Forge wanted to protect his friend. It all goes horribly awry.
Forge trailed his fingers over the garage wall, whistling quietly as he walked towards the machine shop. It was odd, he realized, to have someone else using it other than himself or Scott working on the cars, or grinding down a new intake cone for the Blackbird, or putting the finishing touches on an experiment - someone was actually using it to create art, and that in itself was a new evolution.
Smiling to himself at the irony, Forge opened the heavy metal door to the shop and stepped inside, clearing his throat to announce his presence. "Kevin," he said cheerfully, "you mentioned waterfalls. Care to show me?"
Kevin jumped when he heard his name. Okay, so technically he knew Forge was going to come looking for him, but he didn't know when. Also, his mind was on this strange loop where he remembered Jay saying in a journal entry he had to speak to Forge and now Forge had to have a talk with Kevin and, well, paranoid wasn't even the word at this point.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah. Ah had ta steal Yvette's back from her 'til it's all done really. There's two." He swallowed his anxiety, which he couldn't quite explain anyway, and wandered father back into the shop. He came back with a metal sculpture in each hand and set them down on a table near Forge. "This one's easy," he pointed to one that was quite literally a waterfall. Strips of metal made the rivulets and waves of the water as it seemed to free fall from a metal cliff. The entire thing was painted meticulously. Small bushes grew out of the cliff's face beside the waterfall itself and rocks populated the edges of the pool at the bottom. "Really i' jus' needs ta have some kinda motor er something hooked up so water can get ta tha top and free fall over. Self-replenishin'."
His general state of unease was weaning slightly. Stuff he'd created had a way of distracting Kevin easily enough. "This one, Ah don' know if it can be made ta work tha way Ah wan' it, too. But it's fer Yvette an' Ah figure anyone can get it ta work it's you, righ'?" Kevin peered at the two foot high metal weeping willow. He'd initially gotten it back from Yvette to paint, which was difficult at best with the metal tendrils hanging off it, but he'd managed it and save a few details he was done with the painting anyway.
Forge looked at the two sculptures, metal fingers tracing over metal leaves, ringing slightly like a tuning fork. "Very nice," he said quietly. "The waterfall is easy enough, you can rig a simple aquarium pump to pull water from a reservoir to the top. As for this..." he knelt down by the willow, brushing his knuckles across the etched metal fronds, apparently lost in concentration. "You've made the form of the tree, proper enough to mimic the function. Thin-braided copper fibers along the branches, like... what's the word? Capillaries, right. Or like a lamp wick. Heat one end with a small electromagnetic current, and they'll transport water and drip it out along here. That's what you were thinking of, yes?"
Kevin gave him a grin and nodded. "Yeah, tha's it. Tha trunk's hollow fer tha water ta move up. Yvette got really excited when Ah suggested we make 'er a weepin' willow tha' wept. She helped make 'em both. Sorta our people detox durin' evacuation." He was glad it could be pulled off like he'd wanted it. Weeping was perhaps not the best emotion for most people but it was a beauty in a way and Kevin wanted Yvette having something beautiful she'd helped him make. Tragically beautiful. Like them. She really was becoming a sort of little sister and he wanted her to have that reminder, that there was beauty in things other than shining happiness, other than the typical.
Nodding, Forge rocked back on his heels, then stood up and sidled over to the tool bench. "It's good to see her finding something positive about her powers," he said, picking up various tools and inspecting them against the hanging light bulb above the bench, brushing away flecks of metal dust. "Being able to create something, it's almost a power in and of itself, you know?"
Without waiting for an answer, Forge set down a pair of pliers and picked up a small blowtorch, flicking his thumb over the valve and making the small blue flame hiss to life. "So I talked to Jay the other day," he said matter-of-factly, letting the words hang in the air.
Kevin was going to say something about Yvette and positive and creation, but Forge didn't give him the chance and the next words made him blanch. Technically, Kevin was not in the wrong. Technically it wasn't even his fault. And technically Forge said those words without inflection while he held a blowtorch. Well, wasn't that just reassuring? "Yeah?" Kevin tried to keep the words casual but his tone matched his paling face. "He does tha' sometimes. When he's no' too grouchy ta function."
"You two are pretty close, then." It wasn't a question as much as it was a statement. Forge extinguished the torch, then rested his knuckles on the bench. "Jay doesn't tend to feel things in halves. His first boyfriend's name was Kevin, did you know that?"
"We live together." People knew stuff like the fact that Jay was moody and talked a lot when he felt like it from being roommates. That didn't really need to be explained, did it? If there was any color left in Kevin's face it drained away with that bit of information Forge just. "No, Ah didn'," and the trouble was Kevin didn't quite know how to feel about that. Honestly he wasn't quite sure how to feel about a lot of things. "So wha'?" The question, amazingly enough, was calm and genuine. "Ah gotta know his whole history ta live with 'im?"
"Not necessarily, if you're just being his roommate," Forge explained. He turned to look at Kevin, folding his arms across his chest and looking at the younger mutant critically, as if trying to see through him somehow. "But Jay might see things in a different light. Is he wrong?"
So Jay did tell him. He told him without ever telling Kevin he was going to. It felt like betrayal in a way, like pushing a button he didn't want pushed. Not the way he normally didn't want them pushed but Jay pushed away. He really, really didn't want that one pushed. For lots of reasons really. "His past don' matter in tha' situation either." The words were declaration enough if Forge chose to look at them that way, but Kevin knew it might not get him off the hook.
Forge pondered that, then nodded. "No, I suppose it doesn't," he said. "But Jay's my friend, as emotional and confusing as he can be. He's been hurt before, and that does matter. Like I said, he doesn't feel things by halves. I don't think you're the kind of person to play games with him." He glanced up, meeting Kevin's eyes. "Am I wrong?"
Kevin did not like the interrogation. He didn't like the insinuations he was interpreting and he didn't like how somehow he was the person who should be watched out for. He was dangerous and Kevin wouldn't ever consider denying that, but Forge was putting these questions to the wrong party. "Lookin' at tha wrong half fer game playin'," his tone was short though he hadn't meant it to be.
Silently, Forge walked over and put his left hand on Kevin's shoulder. Even though the contact was metal through layers of clothing, the significance was there, a silent way of saying I understand. "Talk to him," he advised Kevin. "Jay's a good person. He just... he leads with his heart a lot. And yeah, he's confusing," Forge added with a smile. "I've been there too."
Kevin did not want understanding. In fact he wanted a good quarter mile between himself and Forge. The flinch at initial contact wasn't subtle. Neither was the wrenching of his shoulder away from the metal hand or the several steps back Kevin took. Jay could do that, Forge could not. "Let's get somethin' straigh' so all present parties are on tha same page, alrigh'? Ya don' know me. Ya don't know anythin' 'bout me or mah pas', no' really. Ah understand yer worried 'bout yer friend but if he needed protectin' ya shoulda done it before he did somethin' ta create tha situation. You've got all yer chess pieces backward on tha board."
"Kevin Ford. No middle name listed on your paperwork, but your birthdate's July 17th. You turned eighteen on Muir this year. You're from Atlanta. Your father raised you after your mother died, and when your mutant power emerged, well, I'm sure you know the rest." Forge didn't make another move towards Kevin, but his voice was back to the cold and inflectionless pronouncement he had when he was looking at one of his machines. "I know enough about you. And I know that Jay seems to care about you as more than just his roommate, for whatever reason. Now maybe that embarrasses you, maybe it's not your kind of thing. But he seems to think differently, and if you're going to let him..." Forge shrugged and crossed his arms. "Then we're playing an altogether new game, and I don't think it's one you want to start. Because it will not end well for you, Kevin Ford of Atlanta, Georgia."
"Ya know facts," Kevin clarified hotly. "Ya don' know tha firs' thin' 'bout me. There's a difference an' jus' 'cause Ah talk slow don' mean Ah'm stupid. Yer a guy Ah know, an acquaintance an' nothin' more. Ya don't have no insight on me. Ya know wha' mah paperwork says an' tha' Ah'm a shiny ex-con 'cause of it. Why don' ya use yer fuckin' head, since tha's what yer known for an' maybe think abou' some thin's." The more he spoke the softer he got because Kevin, he realized, was actually angry. He was being threatened for no reason and it really pissed him off. Anger was not an emotion he liked nor was it one he was used to being possessed by, but he recognized it all the same.
"No, I think you're stupid for completely different reasons," Forge shot back. "And you're right. The paperwork never said anything about you being a gutless coward."
Kevin actually laughed at that. "If Ah'm such a coward why'm Ah even botherin' ta be 'round people? If Ah'm such a coward why ain't Ah keepin' Jay far from me as possible? You. Know. Nothing. Jay is not tha person tha's gonna get hurt when hurtin' happens. An' Jay is tha person that went an' started it all anyway. Ah 'void people so they don' get hurt. Ain't mah fault 'e walks righ' inta it. Ya come down wit' all yer good intentions but ya haven't thought none o' them out, have ya? Ya see yer frien' who migh' get hurt, but ya don' think o' wha' kinda decision's gotta be made when ya coul' kill 'im by touchin' 'im. Even wit' a healin' factor. You people, don' none of you ever think. An' you, Forge, are just as tunnel visioned as tha people who thought they could punish me fer my father's death."
Forge just shrugged. "Then prove me wrong. Prove me wrong by doing the right thing here. Don't lead him on."
He turned and opened the door to the garage, then looked back at Kevin. "And for what it's worth, you don't need to touch someone to be important to them. I know more about that than you'd think."
Kevin glared at him. "Jus' 'cause Ah ain't talkin' ta you don' mean Ah'm leadin' no one on."
"As you say," Forge replied with a nod towards the sculptures. "I'll bring by the materials for the water pumps later. You do good work."
Then he shut the door, leaving Kevin with his work.
Forge trailed his fingers over the garage wall, whistling quietly as he walked towards the machine shop. It was odd, he realized, to have someone else using it other than himself or Scott working on the cars, or grinding down a new intake cone for the Blackbird, or putting the finishing touches on an experiment - someone was actually using it to create art, and that in itself was a new evolution.
Smiling to himself at the irony, Forge opened the heavy metal door to the shop and stepped inside, clearing his throat to announce his presence. "Kevin," he said cheerfully, "you mentioned waterfalls. Care to show me?"
Kevin jumped when he heard his name. Okay, so technically he knew Forge was going to come looking for him, but he didn't know when. Also, his mind was on this strange loop where he remembered Jay saying in a journal entry he had to speak to Forge and now Forge had to have a talk with Kevin and, well, paranoid wasn't even the word at this point.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah. Ah had ta steal Yvette's back from her 'til it's all done really. There's two." He swallowed his anxiety, which he couldn't quite explain anyway, and wandered father back into the shop. He came back with a metal sculpture in each hand and set them down on a table near Forge. "This one's easy," he pointed to one that was quite literally a waterfall. Strips of metal made the rivulets and waves of the water as it seemed to free fall from a metal cliff. The entire thing was painted meticulously. Small bushes grew out of the cliff's face beside the waterfall itself and rocks populated the edges of the pool at the bottom. "Really i' jus' needs ta have some kinda motor er something hooked up so water can get ta tha top and free fall over. Self-replenishin'."
His general state of unease was weaning slightly. Stuff he'd created had a way of distracting Kevin easily enough. "This one, Ah don' know if it can be made ta work tha way Ah wan' it, too. But it's fer Yvette an' Ah figure anyone can get it ta work it's you, righ'?" Kevin peered at the two foot high metal weeping willow. He'd initially gotten it back from Yvette to paint, which was difficult at best with the metal tendrils hanging off it, but he'd managed it and save a few details he was done with the painting anyway.
Forge looked at the two sculptures, metal fingers tracing over metal leaves, ringing slightly like a tuning fork. "Very nice," he said quietly. "The waterfall is easy enough, you can rig a simple aquarium pump to pull water from a reservoir to the top. As for this..." he knelt down by the willow, brushing his knuckles across the etched metal fronds, apparently lost in concentration. "You've made the form of the tree, proper enough to mimic the function. Thin-braided copper fibers along the branches, like... what's the word? Capillaries, right. Or like a lamp wick. Heat one end with a small electromagnetic current, and they'll transport water and drip it out along here. That's what you were thinking of, yes?"
Kevin gave him a grin and nodded. "Yeah, tha's it. Tha trunk's hollow fer tha water ta move up. Yvette got really excited when Ah suggested we make 'er a weepin' willow tha' wept. She helped make 'em both. Sorta our people detox durin' evacuation." He was glad it could be pulled off like he'd wanted it. Weeping was perhaps not the best emotion for most people but it was a beauty in a way and Kevin wanted Yvette having something beautiful she'd helped him make. Tragically beautiful. Like them. She really was becoming a sort of little sister and he wanted her to have that reminder, that there was beauty in things other than shining happiness, other than the typical.
Nodding, Forge rocked back on his heels, then stood up and sidled over to the tool bench. "It's good to see her finding something positive about her powers," he said, picking up various tools and inspecting them against the hanging light bulb above the bench, brushing away flecks of metal dust. "Being able to create something, it's almost a power in and of itself, you know?"
Without waiting for an answer, Forge set down a pair of pliers and picked up a small blowtorch, flicking his thumb over the valve and making the small blue flame hiss to life. "So I talked to Jay the other day," he said matter-of-factly, letting the words hang in the air.
Kevin was going to say something about Yvette and positive and creation, but Forge didn't give him the chance and the next words made him blanch. Technically, Kevin was not in the wrong. Technically it wasn't even his fault. And technically Forge said those words without inflection while he held a blowtorch. Well, wasn't that just reassuring? "Yeah?" Kevin tried to keep the words casual but his tone matched his paling face. "He does tha' sometimes. When he's no' too grouchy ta function."
"You two are pretty close, then." It wasn't a question as much as it was a statement. Forge extinguished the torch, then rested his knuckles on the bench. "Jay doesn't tend to feel things in halves. His first boyfriend's name was Kevin, did you know that?"
"We live together." People knew stuff like the fact that Jay was moody and talked a lot when he felt like it from being roommates. That didn't really need to be explained, did it? If there was any color left in Kevin's face it drained away with that bit of information Forge just. "No, Ah didn'," and the trouble was Kevin didn't quite know how to feel about that. Honestly he wasn't quite sure how to feel about a lot of things. "So wha'?" The question, amazingly enough, was calm and genuine. "Ah gotta know his whole history ta live with 'im?"
"Not necessarily, if you're just being his roommate," Forge explained. He turned to look at Kevin, folding his arms across his chest and looking at the younger mutant critically, as if trying to see through him somehow. "But Jay might see things in a different light. Is he wrong?"
So Jay did tell him. He told him without ever telling Kevin he was going to. It felt like betrayal in a way, like pushing a button he didn't want pushed. Not the way he normally didn't want them pushed but Jay pushed away. He really, really didn't want that one pushed. For lots of reasons really. "His past don' matter in tha' situation either." The words were declaration enough if Forge chose to look at them that way, but Kevin knew it might not get him off the hook.
Forge pondered that, then nodded. "No, I suppose it doesn't," he said. "But Jay's my friend, as emotional and confusing as he can be. He's been hurt before, and that does matter. Like I said, he doesn't feel things by halves. I don't think you're the kind of person to play games with him." He glanced up, meeting Kevin's eyes. "Am I wrong?"
Kevin did not like the interrogation. He didn't like the insinuations he was interpreting and he didn't like how somehow he was the person who should be watched out for. He was dangerous and Kevin wouldn't ever consider denying that, but Forge was putting these questions to the wrong party. "Lookin' at tha wrong half fer game playin'," his tone was short though he hadn't meant it to be.
Silently, Forge walked over and put his left hand on Kevin's shoulder. Even though the contact was metal through layers of clothing, the significance was there, a silent way of saying I understand. "Talk to him," he advised Kevin. "Jay's a good person. He just... he leads with his heart a lot. And yeah, he's confusing," Forge added with a smile. "I've been there too."
Kevin did not want understanding. In fact he wanted a good quarter mile between himself and Forge. The flinch at initial contact wasn't subtle. Neither was the wrenching of his shoulder away from the metal hand or the several steps back Kevin took. Jay could do that, Forge could not. "Let's get somethin' straigh' so all present parties are on tha same page, alrigh'? Ya don' know me. Ya don't know anythin' 'bout me or mah pas', no' really. Ah understand yer worried 'bout yer friend but if he needed protectin' ya shoulda done it before he did somethin' ta create tha situation. You've got all yer chess pieces backward on tha board."
"Kevin Ford. No middle name listed on your paperwork, but your birthdate's July 17th. You turned eighteen on Muir this year. You're from Atlanta. Your father raised you after your mother died, and when your mutant power emerged, well, I'm sure you know the rest." Forge didn't make another move towards Kevin, but his voice was back to the cold and inflectionless pronouncement he had when he was looking at one of his machines. "I know enough about you. And I know that Jay seems to care about you as more than just his roommate, for whatever reason. Now maybe that embarrasses you, maybe it's not your kind of thing. But he seems to think differently, and if you're going to let him..." Forge shrugged and crossed his arms. "Then we're playing an altogether new game, and I don't think it's one you want to start. Because it will not end well for you, Kevin Ford of Atlanta, Georgia."
"Ya know facts," Kevin clarified hotly. "Ya don' know tha firs' thin' 'bout me. There's a difference an' jus' 'cause Ah talk slow don' mean Ah'm stupid. Yer a guy Ah know, an acquaintance an' nothin' more. Ya don't have no insight on me. Ya know wha' mah paperwork says an' tha' Ah'm a shiny ex-con 'cause of it. Why don' ya use yer fuckin' head, since tha's what yer known for an' maybe think abou' some thin's." The more he spoke the softer he got because Kevin, he realized, was actually angry. He was being threatened for no reason and it really pissed him off. Anger was not an emotion he liked nor was it one he was used to being possessed by, but he recognized it all the same.
"No, I think you're stupid for completely different reasons," Forge shot back. "And you're right. The paperwork never said anything about you being a gutless coward."
Kevin actually laughed at that. "If Ah'm such a coward why'm Ah even botherin' ta be 'round people? If Ah'm such a coward why ain't Ah keepin' Jay far from me as possible? You. Know. Nothing. Jay is not tha person tha's gonna get hurt when hurtin' happens. An' Jay is tha person that went an' started it all anyway. Ah 'void people so they don' get hurt. Ain't mah fault 'e walks righ' inta it. Ya come down wit' all yer good intentions but ya haven't thought none o' them out, have ya? Ya see yer frien' who migh' get hurt, but ya don' think o' wha' kinda decision's gotta be made when ya coul' kill 'im by touchin' 'im. Even wit' a healin' factor. You people, don' none of you ever think. An' you, Forge, are just as tunnel visioned as tha people who thought they could punish me fer my father's death."
Forge just shrugged. "Then prove me wrong. Prove me wrong by doing the right thing here. Don't lead him on."
He turned and opened the door to the garage, then looked back at Kevin. "And for what it's worth, you don't need to touch someone to be important to them. I know more about that than you'd think."
Kevin glared at him. "Jus' 'cause Ah ain't talkin' ta you don' mean Ah'm leadin' no one on."
"As you say," Forge replied with a nod towards the sculptures. "I'll bring by the materials for the water pumps later. You do good work."
Then he shut the door, leaving Kevin with his work.
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