Entry tags:

-complete, charles xavier, rogue

Who: Charles & Rogue
What: Talk about genetics and powers
Where: The common room
When: Recently
Warnings: Of course not. We are quite civilized.



Rogue was trying to focus. Juggling her own voice with those left behind in her head was getting exhausting. Sinister had helped keep her in check with all the experiments but now she was alone.

And it was a lot harder than she expected. She'd mastered a few of the abilities she'd stolen but her own? Left her feeling lost. She struggling to keep everything under control, and she felt scattered.

She still hurt, her ribs were healing well, as was everything else, but it was still slow going as she walked through the halls. Green eyes flicked around, trying to memorize everything without drawing on anyone to do so.

Part of her mental walls were slipping, and while it gave nothing away of her real purpose (she didn't think about it often) she most likely gave off a bit of a jumbled feeling as she turned a corner down the hall towards the common room.

---

Charles took a deep breath, attempting to focus on meditation. Clearing his head was always a challenge, he just had too many things he was interested in knowing, learning, thinking about. But now, he first had to push out all the other voices, and then his own thoughts, over and over, as they bombarded the center of peace he had been attempting to cultivate since he was a young adult.

Now, his visualization was about building a screen. Not a wall, because he wanted to be able to push it open to let the awareness in, and then pull it closed to give others, and himself, the privacy of his mind being inaccessible. He had deliberately decided to sit in the common room, to practice shutting out and letting in the sensation of the others moving through the space.

He was supposed to be shutting out, but Rogue’s mind was distracting. Not in any specific way, he was not rude enough to try to dive into her thoughts, but her presence seemed different. Not the same as the others with genetic mutations, but different in another way that he couldn’t identity.

He opened his eyes, deciding that it was still too jarring to greet the girl in her mind. “Hello Rogue,” he said, well before she came into his line of vision.

---

Rogue would likely not react well to having someone say hello in her head. Well, someone from the outside. She was having enough trouble and she really wished she could be back on Genosha to risk touching Sinister again. But that had it’s own dangers, and if she didn’t succeed on her mission, she’d likely die. It was not an outcome she liked the thought of.

As it was she just jumped a little. “Oh, hello sir.” she smiled a bit as she found him when she came around the corner. “How did you know it was me?” she asked carefully as she moved to the fridge to find herself a drink, and to give her a second to steady herself. She was skittish normally, but this place put her further on edge.

How long until someone knew what she was up to?

“How are you doing?” she asked as she finally moved to sit down at the table nearby, her fingers curled around a waterbottle. She kept a respectful distance, not because of who he was but because she didn’t want to accidentally touch him.

---

“Telepathy,” he said, then felt the need to explain. “Even when I’m not trying to read someone’s thoughts, which I’m not, It’s like I can feel the shape of their brain. Like I’m driving down the street and can see your living room through the window, but I can’t hear the conversation going on inside, if that makes any sense? I can identify everyone in the building, down to the baristas who work downstairs.” He didn’t mention that at the moment, he could also identify Tony and his family 3 miles away in their penthouse and Moira and his favorite concierge 5 miles away at the Plaza.

“I am doing well,” he answered, gesturing for her to sit. “No lasting injuries. I had an unfair advantage really, since half my body doesn’t feel pain. How are you?”

---

Ah.right. "oh that sounds both frustrating and useful." She knew the double edged sword of such abilities. Useful didn't mean good, not all the time.

"So you can 'see' people, but they're like you can see them behind glass almost - that sense of there but no context to a conversation?"

Rogue tucked herself into the seat, both knees coming up to her chest. Small add possible. "That might be counted as unfair." A small smile, "ah'm healing. It'll take awhile but ah'm okay with that."

---

Charles cleared his throat, deciding against discussing the extent of his telepathic powers. He had made control his primary goal, due to the need to build trust, having decided while he was still being held captive that nobody would trust a man who could read their mind and did so indiscriminately. So since he wasn’t overhearing thoughts all day, and when he did, was circumspect about the information he learned, he didn’t always consider the volume of private information he could know if he chose to be unscrupulous.

“I find it fascinating to be honest, finding my way around all the intricacies of my new abilities. I am also something of a telekinetic, but that is honestly exhausting and I’m not as young as I once was.”

He looked at Rogue with concern, “Have our team of great minds been able to give you any support around your powers?”

---

That was likely a wise choice on his part. Rogue was skittish enough, she'd bolt at the first sign of being cornered in any way. She'd learned far too many self preservation skills to do anything but run.

"Ah can't even imagine how exhausting any of that is." She shook her head, tucking one leg under her, a nervous gesture. It the good leg anyway, though she winced a bit.

"No. Nothing yet. Looks like full body clothing and gloves are going to be my go to for a while. It is tiring being mindful to not accidentally brush my fingers against someone when ah'm trying to buy something."

---

“I think it depends on what your goals are,” Charles said thoughtfully. “Not just you, but all of us who were.. activated by Sinister.” He waved his hands vaguely at the word “activated.”

“Dr. Kinross’s preliminary research suggests that the mutations that enable these powers were already there. He didn’t do that, just gave us access to them. Which likely means there is a low likelihood that she finds medical interventions to turn back the clock and deactivate them.” He steepled his hands in front of his face. “Obviously she wants to be certain, but….”

Charles knew his plan was idealistic and Moira had already argued against it. But he felt like he had to give his fellow Genosha victims another option. He knew better than most that you can’t wallow in victimhood forever. “But, I think the real answer is in learning to control our powers, whatever they are. And then in using them to be a part of creating a better world.”

---

Rogue shifted a little in her seat and smiled faintly, “Honestly, Ah don’t really know what my goals would be - though ah do get your point. We need to have a direction to go in, surviving is good and all but it can’t be everything, right?” she said carefully.

“Oh.” she paused, “Well, that makes sense. Ah don’t know much about science, in general or in specific, but would that mean we might have manifested them eventually anyway? Like, if they were dormant in us, something else could have triggered them?” Rogue knew more than she let on - she’d learned a lot under Sinister’s care, after all.
“Control.” she savored the word, turned it over like it was something precious. “Control would be lovely. Ah…. if we can’t get rid of these, controlling them would be a good idea. Ah’m sure some will be easier than others to control - and ah can dream about control.” she sighed softly, “Ah’m not sure how someone could control this.” she gestured at her skin.

---

“I believe that’s exactly what it means,” Charles nodded. “And our friend Sinister just helped them along. But of the people we have met, every power is different, which means this is an incredibly complex set of genotypes to account for.” He thought about Sinister and the mind he couldn’t access, even when everyone else on Genosha had been an open book. When he had been forced to probe his captors and live in the pain of the victims of torture in the next experimentation chamber. There was only one mind that was completely closed.

Charles shook his head, pulling himself out of the intrusive memories, and made an instinctive decision to not elaborate on his goals. This young woman might be too skittish yet to be imagining heroics.

“The thing about control,” he said instead, “is that it begins with intent. Right now the gloves are the tool you’re using to control your powers, because your intent is to avoid constant unintentional harm. Might you be able to find internal tools with practice? Hopefully. But you are already in control if you’re actively choosing your own destiny.”

---

“Ah… so, that’s like how genetics works normally, right? We’ve all got a varying mix of things and just the right combo makes something happen - like green eyes or brown?” she wasn’t sure, but she thought she grasped the context. And without giving away anything about herself in the process. She learned so much working with Sinister that it was hard to keep it all under wraps.

And she? She had been in the man’s head. Once. And only once. And it had not been a fun experience. She did not want to ever want to go over that again in her life. He was cruel and her punishment had been swift, and vicious.

Her brow furrowed. “Really?” she cocked her head sideways a bit, “That.. that would be wonderful, because, ah’ll be real - ah cannot imagine this all year round. Winter? Good excuse to be covered but in summer? Ah’m gonna be looked at weirder than ah already am. Ah… ah would love to not have to be dressed head to toe.” she smiled faintly.

---

“Well yes, but eye color is much more static. It’s more like say…. musical talent? Someone could have the genetic predisposition to be….” Charles unconsciously fell right into professor mode, trying to come up with an example he knew his students would connect with. “...John Legend, but without exposure to music, they might never even know it. And without lessons and practice, they wouldn’t ever reach their full potential.”

He smiled back at Rogue. “I know you’ve been given a more difficult burden than some, but we all have burdens, and we all have choices. I would be happy to give some consideration to how we assist you in practicing with your powers in a way that is safe for you and for others.” Charles wondered if the technology Captain Quill was procuring for him could be set to give Rogue a virtual experience of her powers.

---

Rogue leaned back in her seat, "Oh." She said after a moment, "oh okay. That makes sense. Kind of." She rolled that over in her head a bit, she had a lot to think about now. The longer she was away from sinister, the more confused she got overall.

She smiled a bit, "That would be kind of you. Ah am not sure how things will work, but ah will be grateful for the help." She smiled a bit, "ah should go. Ah need to take my meds. Things are starting to ache again." She didn't but she did need to prepare her next check in.

---

“Of course,” Charles said with a friendly smile as she got up to leave. “Take care of yourself, Rogue. I will come up with some ideas for training.”