The X-Project

It was inevitable that the school's two resident power-absorbers would meet. Remarkably, neither leaves the conversation slapped, blown up, or any of the other time-honored Xavier's past-times.






Marius was quite secure in his physical capabilities. Despite the condition he'd arrived in last year, all that time spent in rehabiliation with Haroun had put him back to where he'd been before his hospitalization. Probably a bit better, given the intensity of his retraining. Maybe Kyle could bench more, but Marius had never worried about being the best in that respect. Functional muscle was good enough for him.

Even so, he thought as he entered the weights room, there was something just a bit humbling about walking in for a go at the weights just in time to see a rather slight girl lift an entire machine.

"Wow," he said appreciatively, pausing at the door, "Nice one."

Marie was startled by the sound of an unknown voice. Luckily, she had a firm grip on the machine she was holding and didn’t falter in her lifting exercise. She looked curiously at the curly headed young man who had spoken. “Thanks,” she said while carefully setting the machine down. She still hadn’t found anything that was too heavy for her to pick up…it was getting frustrating.

He didn't recognize her aura, and Marius was fairly consistant about remembering beautiful women. There was only one person this could be. "New yoga instructor, right?" the boy grinned, cocking his head to one side. He motioned to the machine. "Looks like you've got another area of speciality."

News always traveled fast around the mansion, so Marie wasn’t surprised that the young man had heard of her…it seemed like everyone she met knew more about her than she knew about them. “Yoga Ah know…this one Ah’m still sort of figuring out.” Self consciously pulling the fabric of her tank top down, she said “Name’s Marie.”

"Marius," he said, strolling further into the room. "Funny. Heard about you my first day here. Or first day awake, anyway. I'm the 'regained consciousness in medlab' sort of new arrival. There are two in my flat alone. You all right to shake?" he broke in cheerfully, one hand already half-raised. He turned the hand palm-up and wiggled the bare fingers, grinning. "Used to have some biting issues there, but it's more or less sorted. Also, gloves. Glad to see I'm not the only one makin' a fashion statement. Ah, well. Good thing we pull it off, eh?"

Eyes widening in recognition of the name, Marie replied “Ah’ve heard about you as well. Just don’t try this when Ah’m not wearing my gloves…unless you have a deep rooted desire to spend more time in the medlab.” She extended a blue silk-gloved hand. “Sometimes Ah feel like Ah keep the glove makers in business, though it can make color coordinating more complicated…and thoroughly bites in the summer.” She winced at her unfortunate choice of words, but then her mind filled with curiosity and questions for Marius. This was the first time she had ever met a mutant with similar powers to her own and she began to wonder how many more existed.

"Ah, I go for the cop-out," Marius said easily, accepting the hand with not so much as a twitch of muscle from his own. "Rugby gloves suit me fine. Can't clash with black, an' of course I can order by the gross. Bit sporty and it gets me a few looks in some of the nicer resteraunts, but I just claim horrible disfigurin' skinrash and she's right." Releasing his grip, Marius rubbed his hands together and gave her an inquisitive look. "So what's it like for you, then? Just skin-to-skin? Can't say I noticed any suckers an' that. Not that I wouldn't still respect you if there were," he added matter-of-factly, "just curious."

She smiled at him. “Ask away. Ah’d rather people know and be safe around me than the alternative. No suckers, nothing quite that interesting. It’s not just my hands, its any skin to skin contact …face, arm, leg...” Lips. She shrugged and realized she wasn’t as worried about broaching her powers negative consequences with Marius. “And when contact happens, Ah get flooded with memories, thoughts, life energy and mutant abilities if there are any.” She watched him to gauge his reaction. Forge had said he took on mutant abilities as a side effect and she didn’t know if he absorbed memories in the process as well.

A stray thought entered her mind as she wondered how two absorption-based mutations would affect each other. As quickly as the thought arose, she squashed it, knowing it was too dangerous to discover the answer.

Marius considered this. "Would explain what I'm gettin' off you. Unspecialized absorption . . . thingie," he said, punctuating the thought with a dismissive motion of his free hand. She wasn't a hard read; her mutagenic signature wasn't so dissimilar from that of other energy absorbers, although the dual physical and psychic aspect of the power was new to him. There were some differences to his own mutation, obviously, but it was . . . odd to come across someone with powers so similar. Marius scratched his head thoughtfully. "Bit more flexible than mine. My powers've got about as much romance as a round of PBSC donation, metaphorically and literally. Life-energy too, eh? But you don't need it to live?"

Marie crossed her arms across her chest and shuddered at the thought. “No, Ah don’t…my touch has a negative affect on the recipient. Is yours not like that? And it just always feels so… peculiar. Ah have someone else’s thoughts and feelings and theirs are stronger than my own at first. Ah prefer being myself instead of someone else.”

"Yeah, I get that," Marius said, lip curling in distaste at the memory of what it was like to have someone else's thoughts in his head. Working with Betsy and the professor to undo Masque's damage had gone a long way towards desensitizing him to the worst of his reactions to it, but psychic contact still wasn't something he'd willingly undertake. "Guess you could say mine's got some negative effects, too. Strictly physical, though. Comes of basically extractin' bone marrow. Tends to make most feel a bit fluish, but they're right again in a day or so. Me, I get a week or so upright and something of a buzz. No personalities an' that with the powers, but on the downshot there's nothing to tell me how to use what I do get. Keep 'em a couple'a days, but spend most of my time tryin' to figure how not to do things like explode the telly with a yawn."

Marie thoughtfully considered what he had said. “Ah guess Ah never thought about it that way. Ah suppose it is rather handy to have an instruction manual, so t’ speak, to go along with the powers Ah absorb.” She shook her head, her mind overwhelmed at the idea of having someone else’s power and without at least rudimentary knowledge about the power being yielded. “Ah just can’t imagine having to use it as often as you must.” She found herself wondering if people got to volunteer or if it was mandatory and there was a rotation of some sort. She then furrowed her brow as the wording Marius had used earlier finally sunk in. “What did you mean by what you get off me?”

"Ah, see, I can identify mutants," Marius replied airily, completely bypassing the remark about frequency. "Seems it's a side-effect of my 'special needs' status. Can pick 'em out of a crowd, usually get a decent idea of what they do. Dead useful at parties." He studied her again for a moment. "Come to that, how long do you keep powers for? Because I can tell benchin' half the weightroom isn't so much possible with your mutation."

“Neither was flying,” she replied while levitating a few inches of the ground. Landing, she explained, “It depends on the amount of contact.” Closing her eyes, she remembered Stanley and what had happened to him in order to make the power become hers permanently. “The longer Ah touch someone, the longer Ah have the power.” No need to tell him that it took killing the other mutant to keep the powers.

"Hrm." Marius toyed with the cuffs of one of his gloves absently, pondering this. After seven months of living with one suitemate able to sing in harmony with himself, another whose idea of entertainment in history class was doodling schematics to redesign the school's security system, and another who could blithely sever his own toes without worrying about any lasting effects the brief disregard for gravity didn't even warrant a blink.

"More I borrow a mutation, longer it hangs about next go," he said after a moment's thought. "Like my genes take longer to settle back after so much bendin' the one way. Rahne's stay almost the full week now. Not that I mind -- I'll take most anything I borrow over what I've got any day." He stopped fiddling with his gloves and clasped his hands behind his head. "So now you've got those, what, permanent like? Can think of worse fates."

“Yeah, Ah actually really enjoy the flying...its fun, makes me feel free. And the super strength comes in handy now that Ah’m not patting people on the back and sending them flying.” She smiled, able now to look with humor on those first few weeks of adjusting to her new powers. Even with memories to guide her, it had been quite an adjustment. “Ah was quite the handful for a while…snuggling up to lights on the ceiling when Ah got cold in my sleep, ripping doors off their hinges…” she said while chuckling.

Seeing the time, she realized she needed to head out. Deciding to move and doing so within a week had been difficult…trying to arrange entrance to college was proving even more of a challenge. “It was nice to meet you Marius,” she said. “Nice talking to someone who understands what its like. Feel free to find me whenever y’ wanna chat.” As she left the gym, Rogue continued to feel intrigued by the similarities between her mutation and Marius’s. She would have to explore it more in the future…but it was nice knowing there was someone in the mansion who could at least partially understand what it felt like to be somebody else for a day.

"Pleasure was all mine," Marius grinned after her, watching her go.

And she does yoga too, eh? he thought as he selected a set of weights. That settles it. I don't know what teaching pool Xavier's drawing from, but this is officially the best school ever.