The Marius Laverne Apology Tour Part 3: Amanda and April

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Amanda, recently extricated from NYC, receives a supplicant -- with a request.



"Usually my preference is wine, but Kurt recommended vodka. Hope Belvedere is to your taste."

In the best of circumstances, Amanda would have been confused by the sudden appearance of Marius, elaborately wrapped bottle in hand, at her door. But having only just started untangling her brain from New York's consciousness after their extended merging, she could only blink at the tall figure. At last, words happened:

"Huh?"

Okay, not exactly words, but it was a verbal utterance that wasn't the blare of a cab horn, the shriek of subway brakes or - and Amanda inwardly shuddered at the memory - advertising billboards from Times Square.

"Alcohol, that most readily-available of social lubricants," Marius explained, presenting her with the bottle as a presenter might offer a bouquet of flowers. "I'm on my apology tour for being an evil prick."

Amanda automatically took the offered bottle, still trying to summon up any degree of intelligence. "Um, thanks?" She rallied slightly. "You want to come in? Angie's at the office, but New York said I wasn't to come back until my brain was all mine again."

"How oddly relatable. Cheers." He couldn't say he was sorry to hear Marie-Ange was away; she had not been particularly friendly during their last encounter, but then, that was just as likely to be a fundamental aspect of her personality as any sort of personal grudge. The Australian followed her in.

And paused.

"Studying up a bit?" he remarked, taking in the piles of heavily marked books dominating large swathes of the floor. They ranged from 'antiquated' to 'bound in something that almost certainly wasn't human skin'. Some of them appeared to be in use as bookmarks for others.

"Research. For G... a friend. They're... cursed, I suppose you could call it?" Now Amanda's hesitancy was due to not wanting to betray Garrison's trust, on top of words being Hard. "Sorry 'bout the mess. Grab a seat, I can make some tea. Unless you want to crack this open?" She waved the bottle in her hand.

Marius waved a hand as he sank into what he instantly realized might very well have been the world's most comfortable sofa. "Thank you, no. My inhibitions and I shall be firmly united for the foreseeable future. This is strictly a social call."

That earned him a genuine grin from the witch. "Ah well, more for Angie and me." She moved to the kitchenette and put the bottle on the counter, before busying herself with the task of tea making. "Milk and/or sugar?" She called out after a moment, the familiar ritual doing more than anything to help settle her mind.

"Black, cheers." Marius let his eyes wander across the rather attractive bookshelf that held, if not every tarot deck in existence, then certainly a fair representative of them. "So, you all right? They said you were down for a bit. I gather you did quite a lot of heavy lifting back there."

"Eh, so-so." Amanda see-sawed a hand. I went pretty deep into New York to try and stop yo... Death, which always does a number on me. But I've had worse. At least this time I remembered who I was. And I wasn't wandering around homeless for a week or so."

It was kind of her to imply some sort of separation between himself and the activities he'd undertaken as a Horseman. People generally seemed to assume there had been one. It seemed Kyle wasn't the only one labouring under the misapprehension that Marius was a much better person than he actually was.

"Certainly that's a plus," Marius conceded. "I would've thought all the impalement at least would take a bit out of you. Ah, apologies for the park, though. I understand that place might've had some sentimental value."

Amanda, busy pouring hot water over the teabags in their mugs, winced. "Yeah, I won't say it didn't hurt. But the place with the most connection was also the place with the most power," she replied, keeping her tone light. "I knew that going in when we planned the whole thing. Um, sorry about the impaling. Even with the healing thing you had going, that must have hurt."

Marius' gloved hand gave another dismissive wave. "I once incurred third degree burns over 75% of my body and had my lungs scalded from the inside out, among other horrors. What's a little light skewering between friends? I appreciated the shot between the eyes, by the way. Kyle was too concerned with my continued well-being to go as hard as he should've. At least you had an appropriate enough grasp of priorities to try and put me down."

"I should have gone for the eye," was Amanda's equally frank response as she came out of the kitchenette, carrying two mugs of tea. "It would have taken you longer to fix." Without realising, she'd moved from separating Marius from Death, following his lead.

"Pass it along for the next time. By rights I should've killed that whole city. Kyle won't hear it, though. He'd do the same thing over again." Suddenly Marius laughed, surprising even himself with the bitterness. "Like he was doing me a favour. Who'd want their life saved, if that's what they'd be living with after?"

"Kyle's an X-Man. It's what they do." Amanda set the black tea in front of Marius on the coffee table and settled into her favourite armchair with her own, curling her legs up under her and leaning on the arm. "They don't understand that sometimes death is a mercy as much as a punishment."

Marius stared at the tea for a long moment, silent. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

"I know you lot will understand this," he said. "If I'm ever in a state like that again, put me down. I mean it." He raised his head to stare her dead in the eyes. "I don't fucking care if there's a way to get me back from it. How many people do I have to hurt before . . ." His voice was starting to shake. Marius stopped and pulled a deep breath.

"Just make sure I'm stopped, all right?" he said quietly. "Know it's what I want. Sound mind, sound body and that."

Amanda nodded, her expression curiously empathetic. "I will. We," she reiterated, meaning X-Force. "will. You can hold us to that." A wry grin crossed her face. "After all, we basically have the same sort of agreement with each other going on. Not exactly a job requirement, but after a while, you realise some things shouldn't be allowed to happen."

The younger man chuckled weakly. "Always important to establish a solid retirement plan." He grasped the mug between two hands and stared into the liquid, a little sheepish.  "Ah . . . refrain from mentioning this conversation to Kurt or Kyle, if you would. I don't want that in Kurt's head, and Kyle already half-thinks I'm going to string myself up when he's not looking."  

"Cross my heart," Amanda replied, using one hand to make the gesture. "I love my brother, but there's a lot I don't tell him, pretty much for the same reason. I don't chat with Kyle a lot - different teams, different cohort, all that - but he's too good a person to be carrying that sort of thing, like most of the leather brigade." She sipped from her mug and tilted her head at him. "What happens next for you? Are you going to stay? Go back home? Somewhere in the middle?"

"Don't know." Marius took a sip of the tea. "I was on medical leave when Akkaba got me, nothing professionally pressing there. Truthfully, right now I just need to know if my marrow's still depleting. If yes, then it's off to Muir, I suppose. Though me and my hunger around sick mutants . . ." He swirled the tea in his cup, avoiding her eyes. "Until last year I was Executive Director of a mutant focussed medical charity out of Brisbane. Had to quit when I got sick again. Too much exposure to too many people I could've done real harm if I'd lost control."

"Which the Australian media would have had a field day with, pushing the mutant menace thing." She didn't voice the thought, but it was likely Marius' family connections would have protected him from Australia's more draconian anti-mutant laws. "How did Akkaba get hold of you?"

"Hematologist at a private clinic. I prefer France for medical. He asked about my powers, you know, to see how it might relate to the underlying disease . . ." The Australian took another sip. "Saw something he liked, I suppose. It was all normal testing and treatments for months. Right until it wasn't."

"I won't turn this into a debriefing session, but at some point the Trenchcoats will need all of this. Names, places, dates, all that," Amanda replied quietly. "And Topaz and I can give you the magical once-over as well. But that can wait a little bit."

"I will compile the list with pleasure. Let me know if you'd like me to kick in for ammunition as well." Marius leaned back against the couch, one hand creeping up to rub against his aching chest. "Seen Topaz a time or two already, actually. She packs a punch. Can't say I've had much experience with magic until recently, but I was never much good with empathy after the incident with Manny- ah." He abruptly remembered who he was talking to and hastily closed the door on that particular memory. "At any rate, I owe her. What's she like? Any recommendations? My love-language is 'shameful extravagance', and I've yet to settle on the ideal reciprocation for the gift of free will."

"Hey, you can say his name. We sorted our shite out before he left the second time." Amanda's smile was still a little sad, however. "And there's been no sign of him here. And I should have known Topaz would have been on top of things while I was getting my head together. As for a gift... she likes tea. And she's not averse to a good wine now and then."

"Hm. Tea feels vaguely colonial of me, but I'll workshop it." Marius swirled the contents of his mug. "Apologies if my conversation is a bit stilted. Talking to Kyle, I realised I'm not sure I've properly had one for half a year or so. Not about anything I cared about, anyway."

"Eh, we're walking stereotypes, at least where the tea's concerned..." Amanda held up her mug to illustrate. "And I wouldn't worry. You're making proper sense to me, at least."

"That's a relief. Not much else is. Apologies," Marius amended, gesturing vaguely with the mug, "that wasn't meant as self-pity, I simply wasn't expecting to see this place again. It's thrown me a bit."

"You know what they say about this place. You can check out any time you like, but you can't leave? No, wait, that's some old song. But yeah, I thought I'd never be back myself, back when I left. Remember that? We ran into each other out in the snow." She smiled at the memory. "I seem to remember things were kind of the reverse, back then."

The Australian's smile mirrored her own. "Right. First day they cleared me for unsupervised activity. Ah, sage sixteen year old I was, lecturing you on mistakes and moving past them. Little did I know, eh?" A little of the warmth pulled away from the edges of his smile, leaving the expression strange and stranded. Again he returned his attention to the liquid in his mug.

"Only later did I appreciate the reality of what you were going through. Making bad decisions, having to live with them afterwards. That was a lesson I had to learn on my own." Marius closed his eyes and took another sip. "Though not well enough, it seems."

"You tell which mistake you made, and I'll lecture you on it. But from where I'm sitting..." She shrugged. "You went to a clinic to get help. You had no reason to think it was the front for a doomsday cult. That wasn't a mistake. And you know me well enough to know I wouldn't make excuses for you." She grinned. "After all, I did shoot you."

"Oh, even I can't fault myself for failing to anticipate a doomsday cult. But seeking private care because I wanted to spare myself a few even slightly uncomfortable conversations if I went to Muir without so much as a word to anyone here . . . well. Kyle has already made his opinions known." Now it was Marius who shrugged. "At any rate, the importance of open and honest communication has now been impressed upon me. That's not a mistake I'll be making again." The man gave her a mirthless smile. "Ah, well. Just recall that in the event I discover exciting new ones I'll be holding you to that promise. In the eye next time, yeah?"

"Definitely." She held up her mug like a toast. "Both, even, just to be sure."

Marius raised his own mug.

"Cheers to that." 



April proves surprisingly unfazed by both Marius' apology and the general explanation of his mutation, although this might be expected from someone who recently spent weeks locked in the form of an alien symbiote.



Marius checked an internal urge to straighten a tie he did not, in fact, possess. It was likely better he did not. Whilst the borrowed sweats did make him feel somewhat under-dressed a tie would only have increased the impression he was some sort of door-to-door missionary, and the point of this exercise was to reassure people he'd left a cult.

Well, no use for it. Apologies did not wait for fashion. Marius knocked.

Boris barked himself awake at the knock, using April's stomach as a launching pad to go skittering across the floor and to the door, a tiny, fluffy tail thunking furiously as he waited for his human to catch up. April was just as startled, letting out a soft "oof" and then calling out a louder "Just a minute!" as she scrambled upright and tugged her hair into a messy bun while crossing the room.

The guy on the other side of the door looked familiar, but not. "Can I... help? You?" she asked slowly, eyebrows furrowed as she worried the fabric at the edge of her shirt.

Boris, for his part, had no qualms about greeting the stranger on the other side of the door, eagerly shoving his face and nose against the man's knee.

The older man smiled, blithely ignoring the canine excitement happening in the vicinity of his lower leg. "You already have, technically speaking. We've not been formally introduced. Marius Laverne. I don't shake," he added. "And you are April Parker, correct?"

"Ooh, the guy that snacked on me in the middle of the park, right. Come on in, don't mind Boris. New people are just friends he hasn't made yet, but he's pretty good about not sticking his nose higher than your knees unless you let him in your lap to sniff your face." April opened the door wider, gesturing him in. "And please don't mind the mess, I'm still adjusting to being human most of the time again. Drink? I have vodka and water."

Marius shook his head as he followed her in. "No, thank you, though I've brought my own contribution. Veuve Clicquot. Do you like champagne? Feel free to re-gift, I was just told never to come empty-handed to an apology." He offered her the box, keeping an appropriate distance between them. She didn't seem at all afraid of him, it simply made things easier.

"I've never had it, actually." April smiled as she accepted the box and set it gently on the counter. "Mom and Dad weren't big drinkers, and Pyotr was mostly a vodka drinker, hence the whole half freezer of it." She held out her fingers towards Boris, wiggling them as she said something in short, accented Russian until he joined her at her side. "Apology? Oh, for trying to eat me? You were possessed or something, right?"

"It can safely be classified as 'or something,'" the Australian confirmed. "Still, being thrall to a millenia-old consciousness beyond mortal ken is no excuse for bad manners. At the very least you were owed dinner first."

She turned bright red, hands covering her face as she plopped onto the couch. "Oh gods, no, sit, it's–" she stammered about 5 words in the space of one, then looked up at the ceiling as she fanned her face. "Right, just ask next time if that's like. A powers thing you need to do. Is that, I mean. What was with the snacking on people, if that's not terribly rude? I never know. Some people are really open about what they can do, others not so much."

Marius blinked at the girl's reddening face and immediately dialed back his personality by half.

"Apologies, that was inappropriate," he said hurriedly, raising his gloved hands in mollification. "Force of habit. I find making a joke of it distracts a bit from the mild cannibalism. As you can imagine some people find the ability a bit off-putting. I promise, under normal circumstances the process is strictly consensual."

"No, no, you're fine don't apologize I'm just–pretty guy, innuendo, not really used to it. My brain short circuits a little. At least you've got clothes on this time." April gave him a very quick grin once she'd gotten her face more or less under control. "Sorry for licking your face without asking first. Not something I thought I'd ever be saying to someone, but here you are. We can both make jokes about the weird things our bodies do when we're not the ones driving."  

"No worries. As you said, I am pret--" Marius recognized his error and course-corrected just in time, "--ty absorbing whilst in the heat of battle, especially if I'm stacking more than a few additional mutations. The teleportation, shape-shifting and that. Those aren't native, by the way. Unless I'm borrowing my only talent is identifying other mutants."

"Huh. So you... get a little nibble and receive their powers for a bit? Cool. Blood? Marrow? Anything that transfers DNA? Is it DNA based?" April was bent forward, fully in science mode as her brain sped past any filters her mouth thought of having. "I mean, I assume because the X-gene is genetics, and how could you sniff us out otherwise, it's not like we all have a... wait, do mutants have a distinct pheromone scent?"

"To some, perhaps. Mine is sight-based. Can't describe it, but I can look at a person and know if they're a mutant. Over time I've found certain powers hit me a certain way -- psionics, energy projection, feral traits and so forth. I can make decent guesses at a basic power profile." Warming to a subject that was in no way related to any recent attempted murders, Marius raised his hands and touched his thumbs together to frame April's face in his field of vision. "Yourself, I perceive physical augmentations. Standard compliment of speed, strength, agility. Perhaps a sensory enhancement. How am I so far?"

"Spot on or familiar with spider enhancements. Could be both. That's pretty rad though, it's... haha nope, I'm not comparing it to X-ray visions except where I definitely just did. But yes, I'm your garden variety spider-enhanced scientific experiment."

Marius' head bobbed amiably. "Yet not quite. When we fought I was a bit puzzled, since I don't read anything indicating an ability to manipulate your form. Then Kyle said you've something else mixed into your DNA."

"That's where the science experiment part comes in. I get the spider from my dad - apparently there's one in this universe too but he's a lot younger - but I'm also a clone and had something else done on top of that. The specifics were destroyed at some point, so I'm not aware of them." April shrugged at that, voice matter of fact. "I'm not sure my tendrils actually have any of the humanoid DNA in them, I've never checked. You might've just been nibbling on the wrong part."

"If it's derived from an x-gene, it's so adulterated I can't read it. Or metabolise it. A fact about me," and here Marius matched her tone, "you ever need to slow me down again, Kyle had the right idea. You can overwhelm me by hammering me with enough different powers, or feed me non-standard marrow. Last time I hit something similar it wrecked my system for months. Useful thing to have on hand."

"Huh, today I learned..." She trailed off, thinking for a minute, then continued. "We may have to test that eventually, see if biting in human form causes the same reaction. It could be that my tendrils are more like spider webbing, where they contain trace amounts of all the DNA they've come in contact with. And mine's heat, primarily, if we're sharing takedowns. Sound too, but I'm almost always wearing some level of hearing protection if I'm outside my suite. And that red stuff Wanda does knocks me out of form and prevents me from using those powers for several days. Killer headache, too. That's what happened when I first arrived."

Marius' smile faltered slightly. He wished she hadn't told him how she could be disabled. Searching for distraction, he leaned over to present a hand to Boris, who had begun to wander.

"Wanda's powers disrupt a lot of things, myself included," he said. "As for any experiments . . . probably best we not push the point. That last go is what took me off the team. Ah -- not that I'm staying." He grimaced down at the dog. "I'm here for a bit, obviously, but only to make sure I'm safe. Sometimes I only feed to borrow, but others I need it to avoid total myelosuppression. I can't go anywhere until I know where it settled."

"You're not the first person to say they're not staying, you probably won't be the last. But experiments in a strictly controlled environment only with data gathered. Otherwise it's just fucking around, and I don't know you well enough for that. Do standard treatments for myelosuppression not work at all, or do you have the healing factor issue of burning through too fast to pass?"

"I chew right through it," Marius replied, not bothering to assert he did, in fact, have some sort of life he should really consider returning to in Brisbane one of these days. "Had a bone marrow transplant in my teens that held me for over a decade, but last year I slid into full-blown recurrence. Transfusions help to a point, but they take longer and is less effective than direct extraction. Harder on the donor, too. It varies, but typically I ended up needing to be topped off every two weeks or so."

"Well that's unfortunate." Sometimes the myriad needs of the other mutants around her made April wish she'd gone into a different area of science for study, but ultimately she always circled back to the absolute need people had for the things she helped design. "And X-gene marrow tops you off longest, so long as it isn't contaminated with anything particularly foreign like I am?"

He bobbed his head. "Body doesn't respond to baseline marrow, not even to seek it out. Ah . . . here."

The man peeled off a glove, exposing the rima oris nestled in one palm. He held out his hand.

"Easier to demonstrate. But no closer than twelve inches, please."

April moved to just out of the range Marius had indicated – close enough to see the demonstration, but far enough back that she was confident in her ability to stick a web over his hand should the need arise. But still. Munching on one of her tendrils hadn't hurt, it'd just been weird and a little uncomfortable. At least on her end. "I don't think your snacky hands want another bite, but if they try I'm going to clog them with webbing. It's probably worse than giving my dog a spoonful of peanut butter, but at least Boris enjoys eating that." Her dominant hand was decidedly less human in an instant, short claw tipped nails in blue while the rest was the slick-looking black she tended to take on.

"Web with my blessing. They get a daily flush anyway. And a floss, if necessary."  Marius' fingers remained flat, but the teeth that rimmed the orifice bowed towards April's hand like a blooming flower.

"As you can see, they're not especially discriminating," he said with the easy cadence of a speech given with such regularity it no longer required any active involvement from his brain. "It's an involuntary reaction to the presence of an x-gene, regardless of palatability. It's how Kyle knew I'd go for you if you got close enough. That slick forming around the ridges is a mild topical anaesthetic. I'm told it's a bit like lidocaine. Makes the feeding process fairly painless for the donor if I latch naturally. Dries like cow gum, though, so I'll give my hands a quick wash if it's all the same to you." He closed his fingers and withdrew his hand. "Once they latch there's no way to force a release til my body says enough. Try to pull away too soon and . . . well, Kyle's wrists took a bit to close up."

April winced. "Yeah, I didn't want to intrude on medical stuff, but he was in pretty rough shape when we brought the two of you to medical. Feel free to give your hands a quick wash. My bathroom's the one on the left, or you can use the kitchen sink." A few moments of silence, and then her mouth was moving before her brain again. "So, painless for the donor? How very vampiric of your hands."

"I've always thought it a considerate adaptation, yes." Marius pulled off the other glove and made his way to the kitchenette, which also happened to provide him with an excuse to avert his face. He opened the tap and gave the hand soap a few pumps. "I'm not aware of any specific category for mutants such as myself. Feral is perhaps the closest in that we're both beholden to certain instincts, but that's as far as it goes. If my levels drop too low I end up attacking the nearest mutant until I've fed, hence my caution at leaving before we're quite sure where I'm at. Incidentally, should you happen to see me looking especially glassy-eyed and confused web me in place and give Amelia a ring. She's dealt with it before."

"I can do that. It might be easier to web your hands and then take you directly to her though. Definitely faster. I'm sure you're not outside my lifting range, unless you've got some secret metal form like my last roommate."

Marius gave his hands a final, brisk scrub and closed the tap. "Oh, I'm actually quite harmless unless I'm borrowing something. Just likely to be a bit on the feisty side, you'll find." The Australian patted his hands dry with a dish rag, careful to keep the teeth from snagging on the fibres, and turned back to April with a bright smile. "At any rate, such is my mandatory public safety announcement. When I first arrived more than one person found themself subject to a rather unwelcome hickey, so I find it best to get such things sorted early."

"I'm sure I can handle feisty just fine. But thank you for the public safety announcement, I guess? I'll web you if you start looking chompy in my line of vision." April couldn't resist smiling back, and Boris decided it was a good time to rub against the new person's knees again, tail wagging happily.

Marius tugged his gloves back on and clapped his hands together. "Merci. Given the nature of our introduction I strive for there to be clear air and a clean slate between us for the duration of my stay. It has been a pleasure to meet you under more normal circumstances."

April waved him off. "It's been nice meeting you when you're well... you, and not a thrall. But some of my most fascinating introductions here have started on a violent note."

"Ah, yes," Marius nodded, "there's that old Xavier's school spirit."