xp_logs | Dani & Forge (Reply)

Yesterday evening after Forge gets back from being ~~tortured~~ made over by Marie-Ange, Dani comes by to check things out. They take another ride on the emotional roller coaster and Things are talked about.

Dani briefly considered knocking before opening the door to Forge's room, then decided against it. He was family. And he had appearantly gone shopping since he had come back looking like he might kill someone and was hauling lots of bags. Must not have been the local parts store or for computers. So why should he get up to answer the door? "Hahkota?" she called.

Forge's reply was audibly strained coming through the door. "One minute!" The sounds of stumbling and hopping grew louder, culminating in a loud thump against the door. Finally, it opened and Forge stuck his head out. "Hey Dani. What's up?"

She looked down at him, he didn't seem hurt, just flustered, "You hiding someone in there, Hahkota?" she asked, teasing, "I want to see what you bought."

Forge rolled his eyes, opening the door. He'd obviously been working on his prosthetics, clad in a pair of large boxer shorts, his metal leg was in a state of half-finished repair, wires and pistons exposed and hanging loose. He followed her gaze down to it and shrugged. "No one's hiding in here. Just trying to make some adjustments so that..." he sighed, "so that stuff fits and doesn't make me look like a freak." He waved a hand to the clothes laid out on the bed. Nice ones, definitely picked out by someone with an eye for detail.

What's wrong with your clothes?" she asked, confused, coming in and making herself comfortable on his bed, "I mean, you cut the leg off, so what?"

"Not these," Forge indicated. "These are nice clothes. I mean, sure, it's one thing to wear these," he held up a dirty pair of jeans, "while I'm working, but Marie-Ange had a point. You start looking
decent, you start thinking of yourself as decent." He shook his head. "And you know, I have to admit - I do clean up well." He smiled. "Now, if someone aside from Jay would notice, maybe I'd be getting somewhere. So yeah," he rapped his knuckles on the prosthetic. "Trying some cosmetic adjustments so I don't look like a one-legged scarecrow in a borrowed suit."

"So you're saying I'm not decent then?" she asked, disappointed, indicating her ripped jeans and t-shirt, covered by her poncho. She hadn't thought Forge would ever think that. "'Cause I can't afford those nice clothes?"

Forge made a "pfft" noise and waved his hand dismissively. "It's not how much they cost, really. It's just, you know, I never gave much thought to trying to look sharp, really. Like," Forge flopped down in his chair and indicated to Dani to sit down. "Okay," he continued, "I know I'm not much to look at. Let's be honest here, I'm shorter than all the girls here except maybe Rahne, and I'm maybe a buck-twenty WITH the leg on. I'm not going to ever be this suave heartbreaker like Manuel, or all tall and buff like Mr. Rasputin. So why would anyone look at me twice, hey?" He picked up the nearest shirt, a dark red silk collarless button-down, and held it against his chest.

"But see, I make an effort to look nice, and maybe someone notices. Maybe someone says 'hey, that Forge kid's making an effort'. You know, everyone keeps telling me it's what's on the inside that counts." Forge looked at Dani, then dropped his eyes. "Don't know if you've paid much attention, but the inside here ain't all that great either."

"No way, Hahkota, you're wrong," she leaned over and lifted his head up, "Never look down to me, I ain't your elder. Ain't anyone would have gone with me to Oklahoma or kept me out of trouble and all. I remember some of that trip, you made me eat, you didn't complain about the music, even though you hated it. Anyone who tells you that you ain't worth a damn is blind, deaf and dumb and I'll make sure they know it."

She sat back against the wall, looking at him strangely. "What brought this on?"

Forge shrugged, then went back to absently working on his leg as he spoke. "Over in Scotland, over the holidays - some bad stuff happened. Big accident, and I couldn't do anything about it. Someone died. I couldn't do anything, and kind of..." his voice broke off for a bit before he looked up at Dani. "You know what it's like, feeling like nothing - and then having something prove it to you? I mean, crippling level fear, I couldn't do a thing. Felt just like when you hit me with your power, just as real as that." Forge closed his eyes, remembering the living nightmare he'd gone through after his first meeting with Danielle.

"But then," he continued, "down in Oklahoma. That asshole you call an ex-husband did something. Pushed some button, I don't know. Just got tired of being thought of as nothing, that's all."

"I...hurt you?" Dani relpied, dumbfounded, barely hearing anything else he'd said. She curled up in a ball on his bed, tucking her knees up to her chin, "I didn't know. I'm so sorry...I am! I won't do it again! I'll sleep in the box, okay?"

Forge blinked, reaching forward to put a hand on Dani's shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy there. Wasn't anything." He lied through his teeth. Only the most terrifying thing I could ever imagine made real. "Come on, that was weeks ago. Heck, I think you were still in the safe room at the time." He hauled Dani up to a seated position, throwing an arm over her shoulders.

"Share a secret with you?" he asked, offering her a tissue. "Those last two days on the trip to the rez? Battery pack ran down in your inhibitor. It wasn't even turned on, Dani."

"You're not going to make me leave here too, are you?" She asked, humming softly to herself, before accepting the tissue solemnly, "Really? It wasn't? You mean...I could have...and I didn't?" she perked up a bit, still scared.

"Yup," Forge assured her. "I told Doctor McCoy, and he was thrilled. Works that way sometimes. Little steps. When Kyle first got here, he was tearing up the carpet, his bedsheets, everything. That's why we've got the big nerf-looking carpet over there. I got lucky with a passive mutant power, can't really lose control of it. But heck - I've never heard of any active mutation, especially psionic ones, that didn't bring along some control problems."

"He did?" she hadn't been here for that, "but he's okay now. And I'm a mess. And you just pick up the pieces up all the time! You shouldn't have to do that, Hahkota," she started sobbing again, wiping her eyes with the tissue.

"No," Forge agreed, "I shouldn't. But I'm gonna. Because hey," he pointed to himself, then Dani, then around to indicate the entire school, "tribe, right? All gotta take care of each other."

"Tribe," she agreed, blowing her nose like a snarfblast, "But what am I going to do now that you have nice clothes?"

"Get some?" Forge suggested. "I mean hey - no one's saying you've got to go out and hit the big hundred-dollar boutiques. But I know someone took you out when you got here and made sure you were wearing stuff that wasn't falling apart. Besides," he joked, "I'm pretty sure maternity wear is automatically fashionable, because I pity the fool who says otherwise."

"Damn straight!" she agreed, calming down and giggling at his Mr. T impression. Slowly she unraveled herself from her ball, letting go of Forge, and pulling her poncho up, "I am getting fat, huh?"

Forge took a look at Dani's stomach, interested. "Not really. I mean, yeah, you're showing. But that's because you're practically as skinny as me. Good thing you didn't marry someone like Dr. McCoy's size. Because man," Forge puffed out his cheeks and spread his arms to his sides, mimicking the wobbling motions of a beach ball, "you'd look like a bowling pin."

Dani grabbed a pillow, smacking him lightly, "Hey! There's nothing wrong with Dr. McCoy! Besides,
I'm going to look like I swallowed a beach ball anwyays!"

"And then we're going to have to name the school Professor Xavier's Home for Wayward Penguins! Waugh!" Forge slapped a panel shut on his thigh and dropped to the floor, waddling around on his knees like a flightless bird. "Waugh! I'm pregnant! Make me a sandwich! With pickles and fish, waugh!"

"Y'know," Dani mused between gasps for air, "That kinda sounds good. With that marshmallow stuff I saw."

"That," Forge gasped back, rocking with laughter on the floor, "is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. But you know what? I'll see what I can scrounge up in the kitchen. NORMAL stuff, no marshmallow. Be right back." Forge scrambled to his feet, then immediately looked down. "Correction the first - pants, THEN I'll be right back."

"Why do you need pants? You're just going to the other room," she asked, sitting up on the floor slightly dazed from laughing so hard. A sandwich did sound good, even if there wasn't any marshmallow. "But you know? Marshmallow is bad. I shouldn't eat it anyways."

"In case one of the local predators has developed a taste for penguin," Forge explained with a straight face, practically jumping into a pair of sweatpants. He flexed his left leg experimentally,
poking at the unnatural folds and bulges in the fabric. "Hmm, still a lot of work to do. Got a few weeks, though."

"Oh, you're no fun! No sese on adventure at all!" Dani declared, standing up and pulling her poncho off. She flexed her arms, "Brave the wild roommates!"

"Not when one's got a feral mutation and the other's already threatened to disembowel me for looking at his sister!" Forge called back, head in the fridge. "Although I think Jay was kidding. I hope he was kidding."

Dani wandered out of the bedroom, reaching around Forge to grab a bottle of water, "I don't think he'd kill you for looking at her, 'cause then he'd have to kill Angelo too. And Angelo has claim to kill you if you touch her...which you'd never do. So then no problem."

"It's just a joke anyway," Forge explained, coming back in with two sandwiches, "I mean, yeah, Paige Guthrie is hot, brilliant, and all sorts of awesome. Which means she's far too good to be true, and even if she weren't dating two guys - correction, one guy and one Lite-Brite - nah, I know what qualifies as out of my league." He pushed a plate over to Dani. "Eat. 's good for you."

Obeidiently, she took a bite, munching happily, "There you go thinking you're not good enough again. This is really good."

Forge shrugged again, the gesture starting to become habitual. "It's just the way things are. Maybe you didn't have cliques on the rez - popular kids versus, well, folks like me. It's just the way of things."

"Ain't that their weren't cliques, but they weren't like on TV. Only way to be really unpopular was to try to be. Everyone pretty much had the same future and all," even as she said this, she realized she had used the past tense, not including herself.

Forge raised a soda to her, noticing her phrasing as well. "Welcome to the New World," he said with a grin.