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xp_logs"Paperwork is the worst, and you are my favorite today." Marie-Ange took one of the drinks and drank a third of it in one long pull. "Is it disgusting outside, or did you have to run?" She had been in the office since early morning and still had the shades drawn.
Artie dropped into the guest chair in Marie Ange's office, two frappachinos in a paper tray in one hand. He smiled and waved to her with the other, gesturing to the paperwork and signed a quick "how's that going?" at her report before sliding one of the drinks over. He was dressed in a shirt, sleeves rolled up and chinos, damp from the rain outside.
"Paperwork is the worst, and you are my favorite today." Marie-Ange took one of the drinks and drank a third of it in one long pull. "Is it disgusting outside, or did you have to run?" She had been in the office since early morning and still had the shades drawn.
"Disgusting," Artie signed. "Can you die from humidity? Asking for a friend."
"Yes, but probably not if you are just out in it to get coffee and go back to a climate controlled office" Marie-Ange said, accompanying most of the words with sign.. "But if you expire, can you make sure to do it after you train someone in how to talk to street people. Unless want me doing it, and, I think this is a very bad idea, yes?"
"You weren't out there. You didn't see what I saw. It was Bad, boss. Real Bad." Artie settled back into the guest chair in the office and shrugged. "I mean, you could talk to them but you're not a visible mutie. You got too much flatscan passing privilege." He took a drink and settled it back on the desk and shrugged, guesting helplessly. "Hell, I have too much of it, since I pass as long as I don't open my damn mouth."
"But then you lick your own eyeball." Marie-Ange couldn't remember a time Artie had done that, but it certainly seemed like the sort of thing one might do if one were trying to be blatantly mutant. "I honestly hate that you are the only one of us with a visible mutation. On a professional level. I know it puts me right up my arse to say that, but goodness I hate that you have to be that person all the time."
"I've always thought it was weird. You get all these people who can do weird shit - fly, shoot lasers out their asses, whatever and then so many less who have fur or a tail or something really minor. And yeah, yeah, I know, they could just have a really intense waxing routine or do some surgery to the kid to chop the tail off but the degree of changes needed to cause physical mutations are so much smaller than you need to shit lasers so why aren't there more us?"
Marie-Ange shrugged, and shook her head. "Genetics are completely beyond me. I got through mendel squares in biology and sex chromosomes and the rest is completely over my head. I do not understand how any of this works. I do not even understand how I work. Precognition is nonsense, it should not be possible, and yet."
Artie shrugged. "I've never understood it. I mean, you give me information about the future and I'm going to try and change it. Pre-emptive strike on the future, you know? It's going to fuck with us, so we're taking it out first."
"Would you like to be more confused? What if what I get is a message from my future self saying how we changed it, and it is inevitable that we change things." Marie-Ange pointed a finger at Artie, with a sly smile on her face. "I had Wanda cursing my name for that for a day."
Artie shook his head. "The future is what we make it. You change one thing, something else happens. You change one large thing, something else happens. What that something else is?" He shrugged. "Some things have more events leading into them. But it doesn't mean we can't try to avoid it. This. Here. It's what we do. We try and take out anything that might be a threat to us in the future already. Some of it might seem inevitable but we still have to try."
"Oh, I agree. I just like to be confusing about it. I had to sit through too many philosophical conversations about my power not to." Marie-Ange pointed out. "If I think about it too hard I get a migraine, and I cannot afford any more migraine cures." She tapped her eye patch. "Of course, now that you are on the subject of threats to the future, have you picked up anything looming up from the sewers? Your information network is usually in the first line of victims, but it has been very quiet lately."
Artie shrugged. "You know, the usual. Alphabet men and gangs are lining up to take care of the useful looking kids who drift into the DX because we've got a reputation here these days. Dumbass kids with useless powers ending up doing sex work for guys with mutie fetishes. Nothing out of the ordinary right now."
"And nothing we can do more than stop temporarily." Marie-Ange said, with a frown. "Though perhaps worth setting some of the X-Men or X-Factor on. Better to let them do the shiny rescues and bright explosions..."
Artie dropped into the guest chair in Marie Ange's office, two frappachinos in a paper tray in one hand. He smiled and waved to her with the other, gesturing to the paperwork and signed a quick "how's that going?" at her report before sliding one of the drinks over. He was dressed in a shirt, sleeves rolled up and chinos, damp from the rain outside.
"Paperwork is the worst, and you are my favorite today." Marie-Ange took one of the drinks and drank a third of it in one long pull. "Is it disgusting outside, or did you have to run?" She had been in the office since early morning and still had the shades drawn.
"Disgusting," Artie signed. "Can you die from humidity? Asking for a friend."
"Yes, but probably not if you are just out in it to get coffee and go back to a climate controlled office" Marie-Ange said, accompanying most of the words with sign.. "But if you expire, can you make sure to do it after you train someone in how to talk to street people. Unless want me doing it, and, I think this is a very bad idea, yes?"
"You weren't out there. You didn't see what I saw. It was Bad, boss. Real Bad." Artie settled back into the guest chair in the office and shrugged. "I mean, you could talk to them but you're not a visible mutie. You got too much flatscan passing privilege." He took a drink and settled it back on the desk and shrugged, guesting helplessly. "Hell, I have too much of it, since I pass as long as I don't open my damn mouth."
"But then you lick your own eyeball." Marie-Ange couldn't remember a time Artie had done that, but it certainly seemed like the sort of thing one might do if one were trying to be blatantly mutant. "I honestly hate that you are the only one of us with a visible mutation. On a professional level. I know it puts me right up my arse to say that, but goodness I hate that you have to be that person all the time."
"I've always thought it was weird. You get all these people who can do weird shit - fly, shoot lasers out their asses, whatever and then so many less who have fur or a tail or something really minor. And yeah, yeah, I know, they could just have a really intense waxing routine or do some surgery to the kid to chop the tail off but the degree of changes needed to cause physical mutations are so much smaller than you need to shit lasers so why aren't there more us?"
Marie-Ange shrugged, and shook her head. "Genetics are completely beyond me. I got through mendel squares in biology and sex chromosomes and the rest is completely over my head. I do not understand how any of this works. I do not even understand how I work. Precognition is nonsense, it should not be possible, and yet."
Artie shrugged. "I've never understood it. I mean, you give me information about the future and I'm going to try and change it. Pre-emptive strike on the future, you know? It's going to fuck with us, so we're taking it out first."
"Would you like to be more confused? What if what I get is a message from my future self saying how we changed it, and it is inevitable that we change things." Marie-Ange pointed a finger at Artie, with a sly smile on her face. "I had Wanda cursing my name for that for a day."
Artie shook his head. "The future is what we make it. You change one thing, something else happens. You change one large thing, something else happens. What that something else is?" He shrugged. "Some things have more events leading into them. But it doesn't mean we can't try to avoid it. This. Here. It's what we do. We try and take out anything that might be a threat to us in the future already. Some of it might seem inevitable but we still have to try."
"Oh, I agree. I just like to be confusing about it. I had to sit through too many philosophical conversations about my power not to." Marie-Ange pointed out. "If I think about it too hard I get a migraine, and I cannot afford any more migraine cures." She tapped her eye patch. "Of course, now that you are on the subject of threats to the future, have you picked up anything looming up from the sewers? Your information network is usually in the first line of victims, but it has been very quiet lately."
Artie shrugged. "You know, the usual. Alphabet men and gangs are lining up to take care of the useful looking kids who drift into the DX because we've got a reputation here these days. Dumbass kids with useless powers ending up doing sex work for guys with mutie fetishes. Nothing out of the ordinary right now."
"And nothing we can do more than stop temporarily." Marie-Ange said, with a frown. "Though perhaps worth setting some of the X-Men or X-Factor on. Better to let them do the shiny rescues and bright explosions..."
